Social Anxiety and Positive Emotions: A Prospective Examination of a Self-Regulatory Model With Tendencies to Suppress or Express Emotions as a Moderating Variable

doi:10.1016/j.beth.2007.02.003

Behavior Therapy

Volume 39, Issue 1, March 2008, Pages 1-12

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beth.2007.02.003 Get rights and content

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to examine social anxiety as a predictor of positive emotions using a short-term prospective design. We examined whether the effects of social anxiety on positive emotions are moderated by tendencies to openly express or supress emotions. Over the course of a 3-month interval, people with excessive social anxiety endorsed stable, low levels of positive emotions. In addition, people with low social anxiety who frequently display their emotions openly, whether negative or positive, reported the greatest increases in positive emotions. Similar results were found when using a measure of emotion suppression (low social anxiety and less tendency to rely on these types of regulatory acts led to the greatest positive emotions). These social anxiety main and interactive effects could not be attributed to depressive symptoms. Our findings suggest that relations between social anxiety and positive emotional experiences over time are best understood in the context of meaningful individual differences such as affect regulatory strategies.

Section snippets

The Current Study

This was the first study to use a short-term prospective design to examine the effects of social anxiety and emotion regulation variables on positive emotions. We hypothesized that tendencies to suppress emotions would moderate any prospective relations between social anxiety and positive emotions. People with excessive social anxiety who suppress or hide their emotions were expected to experience the greatest erosion in positive emotional experiences over time. Alternatively, social anxiety

Participants

Participants were undergraduate students enrolled in psychology courses at a large, public, Mid-Atlantic university. Students received research credit for their participation and were required to complete an initial survey and 3-month follow-up survey to receive full course credit.

Participants in the current examination were individuals who completed both waves of data (initial survey and 3-month follow-up). At Time 1 (T1), a total of 148 individuals participated. At Time 2 (T2), 145 of the

Trait social anxiety

The 19-item Social Interaction Anxiety Scale (SIAS; Mattick & Clarke, 1998) assesses tendencies to be fearful and avoidant of social situations based on concerns related to possible negative evaluation and rejection. Responses are provided using a 5-point Likert scale, rated from 0 (not at all) to 4 (extremely). The SIAS demonstrates internal consistency (α = .88–.94) and stability across a 4-week period of time (r = .92; Mattick & Clarke, 1998) and reliably differentiates between individuals

Preliminary analyses

Means, standard deviations, and alpha coefficients for all scales at T1 and T2 are reported in Table 1. All scales had acceptable internal consistency. Participants' average social anxiety scores at T1 (M = 23.31; SD = 13.83) were similar to other large nonclinical samples (Heimberg et al., 1992, Mattick and Clarke, 1998) and scores at least one standard deviation above the mean were similar to clinical samples (E. Brown et al., 1997).

We examined the level of independence between emotion

Discussion

There is now good evidence that social anxiety is associated with diminished positive experiences (Kashdan, 2007, Watson et al., 1988). The current study was the first to examine the longitudinal relation between social anxiety and positive emotions. We found support for a stable, moderately large inverse relation between social anxiety and positive emotions over a 12-week period. Further, consistent with our moderation model, less socially anxious adults who tend to openly express rather than

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Citation Excerpt :
The current study aimed to (1) determine the associations between CT severity and within-task positive and negative ES in a clinical sample of adults with anxiety and/or depression, (2) contingently examine the association between within-task ES and social affiliation, and (3) contingently assess the effects of CT severity on participants’ and confederates’ desire for future affiliation through ES during the task. The sample included 77 individuals between the ages of 18 and 55 meeting diagnostic criteria for a depressive or anxiety disorder who were enrolled in one of two studies: (1) an observational study that selected for participants with (1) elevated social anxiety on the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale (LSAS; Liebowitz, 1987) as indicated by a total score of > 50 (n = 17) and (2) a clinical trial that selected for participants with clinically elevated symptoms of anxiety and/or depression, defined as scoring 10 or higher on the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9; Kroenke et al., 2001) and/or scoring 8 or higher on the Overall Anxiety Severity and Impairment Scale (OASIS; Norman et al., 2006; n = 60). Participants were recruited through clinical referrals as well as posted announcements in community and online settings (e.g., ResearchMatch.org).
Experiencing childhood trauma (CT) can create barriers for developing relationships and is a risk factor for anxiety and depression. Expressive suppression (ES; i.e., reducing expression associated with experiencing emotions) might explain the link between CT and relationship formation difficulties. We examined the association between (1) CT and ES during a dyadic paradigm intended to facilitate connectedness between unacquainted partners and (2) ES and desire for future interaction (DFI). Individuals with an anxiety or depressive disorder diagnosis (N = 77) interacted with a trained confederate; partners answered a series of increasingly intimate questions about themselves. Participant ES for positive and negative emotions, and participant and confederate DFI were collected during the task. Participants completed global anxiety, depression, and CT measures. CT correlated with positive (r = .35, p = .002), but not negative, ES (r = .13, p = .273). In a multiple linear regression model, CT predicted positive ES beyond symptom variables and gender, β = .318, t = 2.59, p = .012. Positive ES correlated with participant (r = −.38, p = .001) and confederate DFI (r = −.40, p<.01); and predicted participant DFI beyond symptom variables and ethnicity, β = −.358, t = −3.18, p = .002, and confederate DFI, β = −.390, t = −3.51, p = .001, beyond symptom variables. Mediation analyses suggested positive ES accounted for the relationship between greater CT severity and less desire for future interaction from participants, 95%CI [−0.26, −0.02], and confederates, [−0.38, −0.01]. Positive ES may be an important factor in the reduced capacity to form new social relationships for individuals with a history of CT, anxiety, and depression.
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People differ in their self-reported propensities to experience positive affect (PA). Even those prone to internalizing symptoms show varied proclivities to PA; social anxiety (SA), for instance, unlike other types of anxiety, shows a strong negative association with PA that cannot be explained by diminished reward sensitivity. Heightened reliance on suppression of emotional displays (expressive suppression; ES) may be an alternate contributor to attenuated PA among people with elevated SA, relative to people with other types of anxiety. A first step toward testing this hypothesis is clarifying the ES-PA association and examining whether it varies as a function of anxiety type (social anxiety vs. other types of anxiety).
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^☆

This research was supported by National Institute of Mental Health grant MH-73937 to Todd B. Kashdan. Portions of this article were presented at the 2005 Annual Convention of the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies.

We express our gratitude to Jeffrey Volkmann and other members of our research laboratory in the data collection stage.

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Social Anxiety and Positive Emotions: A Prospective Examination of a Self-Regulatory Model With Tendencies to Suppress or Express Emotions as a Moderating Variable☆

Abstract

Section snippets

The Current Study

Participants

Trait social anxiety

Preliminary analyses

Discussion

Clinical Psychology Review

Behavior Therapy

Behaviour Research and Therapy

Behaviour Research and Therapy

Behaviour Research and Therapy

Personality and Individual Differences

Behaviour Research and Therapy

Behavior Therapy

Clinical Psychology Review

Journal of Anxiety Disorders

Behaviour Research and Therapy

Behaviour Research and Therapy

Behaviour Research and Therapy

Multiple regression: Testing and interpreting interactions

Couples shared participation in novel and arousing activities and experienced relationship quality

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

The need to belong: Desire for interpersonal attachments as a fundamental human motivation

Psychological Bulletin

Anxiety and social exclusion

Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology

Beck Depression Inventory manual

Validation of the Social Interaction Anxiety Scale and the Social Phobia Scale across the anxiety disorders

Psychological Assessment

Structural relationships among dimensions of the DSM-IV anxiety and mood disorders and dimensions of negative affect, positive affect, and autonomic arousal

Journal of Abnormal Psychology

Why are depression and anxiety correlated? A test of the tripartite model

Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology

Emotional behavior in long-term marriage

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

Common and specific dimensions of self-reported anxiety and depression: Implications for the cognitive and tripartite models

Journal of Abnormal Psychology

A cognitive model of social phobia

Tripartite model of anxiety and depression: Psychometric evidence and taxonomic implications

Journal of Abnormal Psychology

Asymmetric brain function, affective style, and psychopathology: The role of early experience and plasticity

Development and Psychopathology

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for anxiety disorders: A practitioner's treatment guide using mindfulness, acceptance, and values based behavior change strategies

Mood and judgment: The affect infusion model (AIM)

Psychological Bulletin

Positive emotions broaden the scope of attention and thought-action repertoires

Cognition and Emotion

The undoing effect of positive emotions

Motivation and Emotion