Ballespí Sergi, Vives Jaume, Nonweiler Jacqueline, Perez-Domingo Ariadna, Barrantes-Vidal Neus
Department of Clinical and Health Psychology, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.
Department of Psychobiology and Methodology of Health Sciences, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.
Front Psychol. 2021 Nov 1;12:721584. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.721584. eCollection 2021.
Mentalizing, or social cognition, refers to the brain's higher order capacity that allows humans to be aware of one's own and others' mental states (e.g., emotions, feelings, intentions). While cognition in social anxiety has been broadly analyzed, there is a paucity of research regarding the role of cognition. Moreover, mentalizing or social cognition research is traditionally focused on the understanding of others' mental states, rather than self-mentalizing. Finally, most studies analyze the role of social cognition in the development or maintenance of social anxiety, yet no study to date has analyzed whether social cognition moderates functional impairment associated with it. This study analyzes whether self- and other-mentalizing moderate the relationship between social anxiety and impairment in social and self-functioning. A sample of 262 adolescents from the non-clinical population was assessed on measures of social anxiety, self- and other- mentalization, indicators of social functioning (social competence and sociometric status), and indicators of self-functioning (depression and self-esteem). Multiple linear regressions were conducted to test possible moderation effects of self-mentalizing and other-mentalizing on the relationships between social anxiety and social and self-functioning. Results revealed that other-mentalizing does not moderate social- nor self-functioning, while self-mentalizing moderates the impairment of all of them. While impairment in social functioning is buffered by one dimension of self-mentalizing (emotional clarity; = 0.003, = 0.043 and = 0.016, = 0.008 for social competence and sociometric status, respectively), impairment in self-functioning is strengthened by the other dimension (attention to emotions; = -0.007, = 0.008 and = 0.009, = 0.047 for self-esteem and depression, respectively). Probing the moderation at the 16th, 50th, and 84th percentiles revealed that the negative imbalance between dimensions (i.e., high attention and low clarity) tended to exacerbate impairment most on all indicators, while the positive imbalance (i.e., low attention and high clarity) was usually the most buffering condition. This supports that "low-flying" or implicit mentalizing provides more resilience than explicit mentalizing (i.e., high attention and high clarity). Findings suggest that the work on emotional self-awareness should be stressed in the intervention of the social anxiety spectrum conditions in order to improve prevention, functioning, and ultimately, treatments, of people impaired by symptoms of social anxiety.
心理化，即社会认知，指大脑的高级功能，它使人类能够意识到自己和他人的心理状态（如情绪、情感、意图）。虽然对社交焦虑中的认知进行了广泛分析，但关于认知的作用的研究却很匮乏。此外，心理化或社会认知研究传统上侧重于对他人心理状态的理解，而非自我心理化。最后，大多数研究分析了社会认知在社交焦虑发展或维持中的作用，但迄今为止，尚无研究分析社会认知是否会调节与之相关的功能损害。本研究分析了自我心理化和他人心理化是否会调节社交焦虑与社交及自我功能损害之间的关系。对262名来自非临床人群的青少年样本进行了社交焦虑、自我和他人心理化、社交功能指标（社交能力和社会测量地位）以及自我功能指标（抑郁和自尊）的评估。进行了多元线性回归，以测试自我心理化和他人心理化对社交焦虑与社交及自我功能之间关系的可能调节作用。结果显示，他人心理化不会调节社交功能和自我功能，而自我心理化会调节所有这些功能的损害。虽然社交功能的损害通过自我心理化的一个维度（情绪清晰度；社交能力和社会测量地位的β分别为0.003、0.043和0.016、0.008）得到缓冲，但自我功能的损害则因另一个维度（对情绪的关注；自尊和抑郁的β分别为-0.007、0.008和0.009、0.047）而加剧。在第16、50和84百分位数处探究调节作用发现，维度之间的负向失衡（即高关注和低清晰度）往往会在所有指标上最严重地加剧损害，而正向失衡（即低关注和高清晰度）通常是最具缓冲作用的情况。这支持了“低水平”或隐性心理化比显性心理化（即高关注和高清晰度）提供了更强的恢复力。研究结果表明，在社交焦虑谱系障碍的干预中应强调情绪自我意识方面的工作，以改善受社交焦虑症状影响的人群的预防、功能，最终改善治疗效果。
