Psychology Department, Temple University, USA.
J Anxiety Disord. 2013 Jan;27(1):56-67. doi: 10.1016/j.janxdis.2012.10.002. Epub 2012 Nov 5.
The goal of the present studies was to examine whether attentional control, a self-regulatory attentional mechanism, mediates the effect of social anxiety on positive affect. We tested this mediation in two studies using undergraduate students selected to represent a broad range of severity of social anxiety. Self-report assessments of social anxiety, attentional control, and positive affect were collected in a cross-sectional design (Study 1) and in a longitudinal design with three assessment points (Study 2). Results of both studies supported the hypothesized mediational model. Specifically, social anxiety was inversely related to attentional control, which itself positively predicted positive affect. This mediation remained significant even when statistically controlling for the effects of depression. Additionally, the hypothesized model provided superior model fit to theoretically-grounded equivalent models in both studies. Implications of these findings for understanding diminished positive affect in social anxiety are discussed.
本研究旨在考察注意控制(一种自我调节的注意机制)是否在社交焦虑对积极情绪的影响中起中介作用。我们在两项研究中检验了这种中介作用,研究对象是选择来代表社交焦虑严重程度广泛范围的本科生。在横断面设计(研究 1)和具有三个评估点的纵向设计(研究 2)中,收集了社交焦虑、注意控制和积极情绪的自我报告评估。两项研究的结果均支持假设的中介模型。具体来说,社交焦虑与注意控制呈负相关,而注意控制本身又与积极情绪呈正相关。即使在统计上控制了抑郁的影响,这种中介作用仍然显著。此外,在两项研究中,假设模型对基于理论的等效模型提供了更好的模型拟合。讨论了这些发现对理解社交焦虑中积极情绪减弱的意义。