title: Social anxiety and the interpretation of positive social events.
abstract: We report four independent studies that examined the relationship between social interaction anxiety and the tendency to interpret positive social events in a threat-maintaining manner. Study 1 described the development of a scale that measures negative interpretations of positive social events, the interpretation of positive events scale (IPES). Study 2 cross-validated the structure of the IPES and established that social interaction anxiety explained significant variance in negative interpretations of positive social events beyond negative affect in general. Study 3 demonstrated that negative interpretation of positive events was significantly greater in a clinical sample of patients with generalized social anxiety disorder (GSAD) than a matched group of non-anxious community controls. In addition, within the GSAD group, the IPES was associated with negative social predictions following a positive interaction. Finally, study 4 confirmed that negative interpretations of positive social events mediated the relationship between social interaction anxiety and low positive affect.
authors.affiliation: University of British Columbia, Canada. lalden@psych.ubc.ca
authors.forename: Lynn E
authors.initials: LE
authors.lastname: Alden
authors.forename: Charles T
authors.initials: CT
authors.lastname: Taylor
authors.forename: Tanna M J B
authors.initials: TM
authors.lastname: Mellings
authors.forename: Judith M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Laposa
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D003469:Culture; D003863:Depression / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D007600:Judgment; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015588:Observer Variation; D010469:Perceptual Distortion; D010555:Personality Inventory / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D010698:Phobic Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012938:Social Perception