Continual training of attentional bias in social anxiety.
Using the dot-probe paradigm, it has been shown that high social anxiety is associated with an attentional bias toward negative information. In the present study, individuals with high social anxiety were divided into two groups randomly. One group was the attentional bias training group (Group T), and the other was the control group (Group C). For Group T, 7 days' continuous training of attentional bias was conducted using the dot-probe paradigm to make socially anxious individuals focus more on positive face pictures. The results showed that the training was effective in changing attentional bias in Group T. Scores of the Social Interaction Anxiety Scale (SIAS) in Group T were reduced compared to Group C, while the scores of Social Phobia Scale (SPS) and scores of Negative Evaluation Scale (FNE) showed no difference between the two groups, which suggested a limited reduction of social anxiety.
Department of Psychology, Peking University, Beijing 100871, PR China.
Songwei
S
Li
Jieqing
J
Tan
Mingyi
M
Qian
Xinghua
X
Liu
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*; D001288:Attention; D015928:Cognitive Behavioral Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D005149:Facial Expression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009341:Negativism; D010698:Phobic Disorders / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D011930:Reaction Time; D012938:Social Perception