Social Anxiety and the Generation of Positivity During Dyadic Interaction: Curiosity and Authenticity Are the Keys to Success

Neurocognitive Model of Schema-Congruent and -Incongruent Learning in Clinical Disorders: Application to Social Anxiety and Beyond

Negative schemas lie at the core of many common and debilitating mental disorders. Thus, intervention scientists and clinicians have long recognized the importance of designing effective interventions that target schema change. Here, we suggest that the optimal development and administration of such interventions can benefit from a framework outlining how schema change occurs in the brain. Guided by basic neuroscientific findings, we provide a memory-based neurocognitive framework for conceptualizing how schemas emerge and change over time and how they can be modified during psychological treatment of clinical disorders. We highlight the critical roles of the hippocampus, ventromedial prefrontal cortex, amygdala, and posterior neocortex in directing schema-congruent and -incongruent learning (SCIL) in the interactive neural network that comprises the autobiographical memory system. We then use this framework, which we call the SCIL model, to derive new insights about the optimal design features of clinical interventions that aim to strengthen or weaken schema-based knowledge through the core processes of episodic mental simulation and prediction error. Finally, we examine clinical applications of the SCIL model to schema-change interventions in psychotherapy and provide cognitive-behavior therapy for social anxiety disorder as an illustrative example.

Social anxiety inhibits needs repair following exclusion in both relational and non-relational reward contexts: The mediating role of positive affect

The pain of social exclusion can motivate people to capitalize on opportunities to reconnect with others and repair their self-esteem and feelings of belongingness. This effect is often diminished for those with high social anxiety (HSA). Prior research suggests this may be due to their diminished capacity for recognizing and emotionally responding to relational reward cues. We investigated whether non-relational success experiences in the aftermath of exclusion may be an alternative means of repairing threatened self-esteem and belongingness in HSA individuals. In a preregistered, online study, we threatened belongingness and self-esteem in 422 participants by excluding them in a Cyberball game and then assigned them to one of three conditions: Relational Repair, Non-Relational Repair, or a No-Repair control condition. Results showed that both repair contexts facilitated needs repair relative to the no-repair control condition, and mediation analyses suggested this effect was driven by increased positive affect (PA). HSA individuals were less likely to restore needs regardless of condition and this effect appeared to be driven by low PA. Findings emphasize the critical role of PA for restoring threatened needs in the aftermath of exclusion and suggest that HSA inhibits needs repair processes across both relational and non-relational reward contexts.

Are people with social anxiety disorder happier alone?

Quality contact with other people serves as a reliable mood enhancement strategy. We wondered if the emotional benefits of socializing are present even for those with a psychological disorder defined by social distress and avoidance: social anxiety disorder (SAD). We conducted two ecological momentary assessment (EMA) studies and analyzed 7243 total surveys. In both studies, community adults diagnosed with SAD and healthy controls received five surveys each day for 2 weeks. Consistent with research on positivity deficits in SAD, between-person analyses in both studies suggest that, on average, participants with SAD reported lower positive and higher negative affect in social and non-social situations than healthy controls. Within-person analyses, however, revealed that in both studies participants with SAD and healthy controls reported higher positive affect when with others than when alone; no differences were found for negative affect for those with SAD. The difference in positive affect between social and nonsocial situations was smaller for participants with SAD in Study 1, suggesting that people with SAD may experience diminished reward responding when socializing. Our results suggest that even those with a mental illness defined by interpersonal distress can and do derive positive emotions from social interactions.