1. Reactivity to Social Stress in Subclinical Social Anxiety: Emotional Experience, Cognitive Appraisals, Behavior, and Physiology
- Author
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Andrei C. Miu, Romana Vulturar, Liviu G. Crişan, and Mircea Miclea
- Subjects
Social inhibition ,Trier Social Stress Test ,lcsh:RC435-571 ,Physiology ,cortisol ,Developmental psychology ,03 medical and health sciences ,0302 clinical medicine ,lcsh:Psychiatry ,cognitive biases ,medicine ,Trier social stress test ,Reactivity (psychology) ,Original Research ,Psychiatry ,Social stress ,Social anxiety ,Cognition ,Cognitive bias ,030227 psychiatry ,Psychiatry and Mental health ,speech anxiety behavior ,Anxiety ,social anxiety ,medicine.symptom ,Psychology ,030217 neurology & neurosurgery ,Clinical psychology - Abstract
Recent research indicates that subclinical social anxiety is associated with dysfunctions at multiple psychological and biological levels, in a manner that seems reminiscent of social anxiety disorder (SAD). This study aimed to describe multidimensional responses to laboratory-induced social stress in an analog sample selected for social anxiety symptoms. State anxiety, cognitive biases related to negative social evaluation, speech anxiety behaviors, and cortisol reactivity were assessed in the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST). Results showed that social anxiety symptoms were associated with increased state anxiety, biased appraisals related to the probability and cost of negative social evaluations, behavioral changes in facial expression that were consistent with speech anxiety, and lower cortisol reactivity. In addition, multiple interrelations between responses in the TSST were found, with positive associations between subjective experience, cognitive appraisals, and observable behavior, as well as negative associations between each of the former two types of response and cortisol reactivity. These results show that in response to social stressors, subclinical social anxiety is associated with significant changes in emotional experience, cognitive appraisals, behaviors, and physiology that could parallel those previously found in SAD samples.
- Published
- 2016
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