The Relationship Between Negative Self-imagery and Social Anxiety in a Clinically Diagnosed Sample

The Effect of Negative Physical Self on Social Anxiety in College Students: The Bidirectional Chain Mediation Roles of Fear of Negative Evaluation and Regulatory Emotional Self-Efficacy

Purpose

The detrimental effects of social anxiety on college students require urgent mitigation. To explore the influencing factors and underlying mechanisms of social anxiety among college students, this study aims to examine the relationship between negative physical self and social anxiety, and the mediating effects of fear of negative evaluation and regulatory emotional self-efficacy.

Methods

The Negative Physical Self Scale, Brief Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale, Regulatory Emotional Self-Efficacy Scale, and Interaction Anxiousness Scale were administered to 924 Chinese college students. SPSS 26.0 was used for analysis, and the Bootstrap method was used to test the significance level of the mediating effect.

Results

Negative physical self was significantly and positively related to social anxiety in college students. Fear of negative evaluation and regulatory negative emotional self-efficacy played independent mediating roles between negative physical self and social anxiety. Fear of negative evaluation and regulatory negative emotional self-efficacy showed a bidirectional chain mediating effect between negative physical self and social anxiety.

Conclusion

This study elucidates the mechanistic pathways between negative physical self and social anxiety. The relationship between negative physical self and social anxiety is influenced by the mediating effects of fear of negative evaluation, regulatory negative emotional self-efficacy, and the bidirectional chain mediating effect of fear of negative evaluation and regulatory negative emotional self-efficacy. This finding provides a reference for policy makers and educators to develop interventions for social anxiety in college students.

The effect of imagery rescripting on prospective mental imagery of a feared social situation

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

Negative mental imagery appears to play a role in anxiety disorders and can involve aversive memories or anticipated future threats. Modulating aversive memories through imagery rescripting generally reduces negative memory appraisals and associated anxiety. This pre-registered two-day analog study investigated whether imagery rescripting of aversive memories also reduces negative imagery of future threats.

METHODS

On Day 1, socially anxious individuals (N = 52) were randomly assigned to imagery rescripting of an aversive memory or progressive relaxation (control condition). Before each intervention, they were asked to imagine a feared social situation that may happen in their future and evaluate this situation. They also rated the aversive memory before and after the intervention phase. The feared future situation was again evaluated at follow-up on Day 2.

RESULTS

Unexpectedly, no group differences were found on the main outcome measures. That is, negative memory appraisals reduced after both interventions. Likewise, in both groups, negative details decreased, and positive details increased in prospective mental imagery, and anxiety and avoidance towards the imagined event decreased. On the exploratory measures, the imagery rescripting group showed increased positive appraisals of memory and future threat, and decreased negative future-threat appraisals, compared to the progressive relaxation group.

LIMITATIONS

No passive control group was included, so potential time or placebo effects cannot be precluded.

CONCLUSIONS

The interventions had similar effects on the main outcomes and influenced mental imagery of future threats. Some differences were found on the exploratory measures that warrant further investigation with a passive control condition.

Characterising Negative Mental Imagery in Adolescent Social Anxiety

Background

Understanding the role of self-imagery in the development of social anxiety in adolescence holds promise for improving intervention. Cross-sectional studies indicate that imagery characteristics are associated with social anxiety symptoms, however, prospective studies are lacking. The current study examined concurrent and prospective associations between two image characteristics, namely observer-perspective and vividness, with social anxiety symptoms in a community adolescent sample (N = 616; 53% girls; aged 11–15 years). In addition, we examined common themes in the negative social anxiety-related images.

Methods

Negative self-imagery and social anxiety symptoms were assessed using questionnaires at baseline and at 4–6-month follow-up. A series of multiple linear regression analyses were performed to see if each image characteristic predicts concurrent and prospective social anxiety symptoms. Topic modelling was performed to infer key topics from verbal data.

Results

Observer-perspective and vividness significantly predicted concurrent social anxiety symptoms beyond the influence of age and gender. Observer-perspective significantly predicted prospective levels of social anxiety symptoms beyond the influence of age, gender, and baseline social anxiety and depression symptoms. Negative self-images clustered into two themes: the fear of appearing anxious and the fear of being judged or viewed as unacceptable.

Conclusions

Specific characteristics and contents of negative self-images may be particularly relevant to the development of adolescent social anxiety.

Mental Imagery in the Science and Practice of Cognitive Behaviour Therapy: Past, Present, and Future Perspectives

Mental imagery has a long history in the science and practice of cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT), stemming from both behavioural and cognitive traditions. The past decade or so has seen a marked increase in both scientific and clinical interest in mental imagery, from basic questions about the processes underpinning mental imagery and its roles in everyday healthy functioning, to clinical questions about how dysfunctions in mental imagery can cause distress and impairment, and how mental imagery can be used within CBT to effect therapeutic change. This article reflects on the current state of mental imagery in the science and practice of CBT, in the context of past developments and with a view to future challenges and opportunities. An ongoing interplay between the various strands of imagery research and the many clinical innovations in this area is recommended in order to realise the full therapeutic potential of mental imagery in CBT.