University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
Behav Res Ther. 2010 Mar;48(3):226-37. doi: 10.1016/j.brat.2009.11.005. Epub 2009 Nov 18.
Two experiments were conducted to examine the link between safety behaviors and social judgments in social anxiety disorder (SAD). Safety behaviors were manipulated in the context of a controlled laboratory-based social interaction, and subsequent effects of the manipulation on the social judgments of socially anxious participants (N = 50, Study 1) and individuals meeting diagnostic criteria for generalized SAD (N = 80, Study 2) were examined. Participants were randomly assigned to either a safety behavior reduction plus exposure condition (SB + EXP) or a graduated exposure (EXP) control condition, and then took part in a conversation with a trained experimental confederate. Results revealed across both studies that participants in the SB + EXP group were less negative and more accurate in judgments of their performance following safety behavior reduction relative to EXP participants. Study 2 also demonstrated that participants in the SB + EXP group displayed lower judgments about the likelihood of negative outcomes in a subsequent social event compared to controls. Moreover, reduction in safety behaviors mediated change in participant self-judgments and future social predictions. The current findings are consistent with cognitive theories of anxiety, and support the causal role of safety behaviors in the persistence of negative social judgments in SAD.
两项实验旨在探究社交焦虑障碍（SAD）中安全行为与社会判断之间的关系。在一项基于实验室的受控社交互动情境中，对安全行为进行了操纵，随后观察了这种操纵对社交焦虑参与者（N=50，研究 1）和符合广泛性 SAD 诊断标准的个体（N=80，研究 2）的社会判断的后续影响。参与者被随机分配到安全行为减少加暴露条件（SB + EXP）或逐步暴露（EXP）对照组，然后与经过培训的实验同谋进行对话。结果表明，在两项研究中，与 EXP 组参与者相比，SB + EXP 组参与者在减少安全行为后对自己表现的判断更为负面和准确。研究 2 还表明，与对照组相比，SB + EXP 组参与者对后续社交事件中负面结果的可能性的判断较低。此外，安全行为的减少中介了参与者自我判断和未来社交预测的变化。这些发现与焦虑的认知理论一致，并支持安全行为在 SAD 中消极社会判断持续存在中的因果作用。
