Department of Psychology and Centre for Mental Health Research, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada.
J Behav Ther Exp Psychiatry. 2013 Dec;44(4):426-32. doi: 10.1016/j.jbtep.2013.05.002. Epub 2013 May 29.
The link between social anxiety (SA) and maladaptive emotion regulation has been clearly established, but little is known about the spontaneous regulation strategies that may be activated during social stress by negative involuntary mental images and whether the nature of such strategies might distinguish individuals with high vs. low trait SA.
Participants with high (n = 33) or low (n = 33) trait SA performed an evaluative speech and reported whether they experienced an involuntary negative mental image during the task. They also rated their negative affect (NA) and positive affect (PA) and the extent to which they viewed their image as being controllable and malleable. Finally, they described the types of strategies they spontaneously used to try to control or change their image intrusions. Reported strategies were then subjected to a content analysis and categorized by blinded coders.
Among high SA participants, image controllability was both diminished overall and positively correlated with PA. Whereas 90% of low SA individuals reported that they spontaneously self-regulated by altering the content or perceptual features of their images, only about half of the high SA participants used this strategy, with the other 50% reporting that they either suppressed their images or succumbed passively to them in whatever form they took.
Although these initial findings require replication in future experimental studies on clinical samples, they also help to enrich our understanding of the strategies that are commonly used by high and low SA individuals to manage their image intrusions during in-vivo stress and suggest potential avenues for future research on the role of imagery in adaptive and maladaptive emotion regulation.
社交焦虑（SA）与适应不良的情绪调节之间的联系已得到明确证实，但对于在社会压力下可能被负面的无意识心理意象激活的自发调节策略知之甚少，也不知道这些策略的性质是否可以区分高特质 SA 和低特质 SA 的个体。
高特质 SA 组（n=33）和低特质 SA 组（n=33）的参与者进行了评价性演讲，并报告他们在任务中是否经历了无意识的负面心理意象。他们还对自己的负性情绪（NA）和正性情绪（PA）进行了评估，并评估了他们认为自己的形象是可控的还是可塑的程度。最后，他们描述了他们自发使用的试图控制或改变形象入侵的策略类型。然后对报告的策略进行内容分析，并由盲法编码员进行分类。
在高 SA 参与者中，整体上图像可控性降低，与 PA 呈正相关。而 90%的低 SA 个体报告说，他们通过改变自己图像的内容或感知特征来自发地自我调节，而只有大约一半的高 SA 参与者使用这种策略，其余 50%的参与者报告说，他们要么抑制自己的图像，要么被动地接受自己的图像，无论其形式如何。
尽管这些初步发现需要在未来对临床样本的实验研究中进行复制，但它们也有助于丰富我们对高和低 SA 个体在体内应激期间管理图像入侵时常用策略的理解，并为意象在适应性和适应性情绪调节中的作用的未来研究提供潜在途径。
