Training implicit social anxiety associations: an experimental intervention

Abstract

The current study investigates an experimental anxiety reduction intervention among a highly socially anxious sample (N=108; n=36 per Condition; 80 women). Using a conditioning paradigm, our goal was to modify implicit social anxiety associations to directly test the premise from cognitive models that biased cognitive processing may be causally related to anxious responding. Participants were trained to preferentially process non-threatening information through repeated pairings of self-relevant stimuli and faces indicating positive social feedback. As expected, participants in this positive training condition (relative to our two control conditions) displayed less negative implicit associations following training, and were more likely to complete an impromptu speech (though they did not report less anxiety during the speech). These findings offer partial support for cognitive models and indicate that implicit associations are not only correlated with social anxiety, they may be causally related to anxiety reduction as well.

Figure 1

Pictures depicting 1a) the computerized Implicit Association Test (IAT) procedure, and 1b) the paper-pencil IAT procedure. In the computerized IAT, participants high (versus low) in social anxiety symptoms would be expected to classify stimuli relatively more quickly in this classification trial, compared to a classification trial in which “Self” is paired with “Liked.” In this example, the participant would press the right computer key in order to correctly categorize the stimuli “Me” into the category label “Self.” Similarly, in the paper-pencil IAT, participants high (versus low) in social anxiety symptoms would be expected to categorize stimuli relatively more quickly in this classification block.

Figure 2

Picture depicting the Implicit Association Training task. As depicted in the grids, in the Positive SP condition, photographs of the self giving a speech (e.g., picture 3) are paired with positive expressions (e.g., picture 6), while photographs of a stranger reading a book (e.g., picture 2) are paired with neutral/critical expressions (e.g., pictures 4–5). In the Neutral SP condition, self- and other-relevant photographs are paired with a random selection of expressions (e.g., from 4–6). In the No SP condition, photographs of flowers, animals, and mushrooms (e.g., picture 1) are paired with a random selection of facial expressions (e.g., from 4–6).

Figure 3

Training group means (and SE bars) in emotional vulnerability tied to the social anxiety stressor (public speaking task). All measures were converted to z-scores for ease of presentation. However, it is important to note that the scales use different metrics so are not directly comparable. Higher scores indicate greater avoidance (Time spent speaking as a continuous measure), greater anxiety, and more negative perceptions of their speech performance.