Exploring the latent structure of two cognitive components of social anxiety: taxometric analyses of fears of negative and positive evaluation.
BACKGROUND
Recent evidence suggests that social anxiety disorder is best characterized as having a dimensional latent structure.


METHODS
In this study, we examined the latent structure of two cognitive components of social anxiety, fear of negative evaluation (FNE) and fear of positive evaluation (FPE), in a large undergraduate sample. Two taxometric procedures (MAMBAC, Mean Above Minus Below a Cut and MAXEIG, MAXimum EIGenvalue) were performed with indicator sets drawn from self-report measures of FNE and FPE.


CONCLUSIONS
Taxometric analyses, as well as comparison analyses utilizing simulated dimensional and taxonic datasets, yielded converging evidence that both FNE and FPE have a dimensional latent structure.
Weeks
Justin W
JW
Adult Anxiety Clinic of Temple, Department of Psychology, Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19122-6085, USA.
Norton
Peter J
PJ
Heimberg
Richard G
RG
D000293:Adolescent; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000145:classification / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D003198:Computer Simulation; D005239:Fear; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D010555:Personality Inventory / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D010698:Phobic Disorders / Q000145:classification / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D011594:Psychometrics; D012928:Social Desirability; D012931:Social Environment; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology; D055815:Young Adult