Author ORCID Identifier
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1490-8768
Defense Date
2024
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy
Department
Psychology
First Advisor
Jennifer Joy-Gaba
Second Advisor
Jared Keeley
Third Advisor
Michael Southam-Gerow
Fourth Advisor
Eric Benotsch
Fifth Advisor
Christina Sheerin
Abstract
Cognitive research suggests that many anxiety disorders, including social anxiety disorder, are associated with an increased attentional bias toward potentially threat-related stimuli. However, inconsistent findings suggest the effect of anxiety on attentional bias to threat is not direct and that other factors, including emotion, perceptual load, and time on-task, impact the relationship between social anxiety and attentional biases to facial stimuli. In the present study, 157 undergraduate students completed a computerized letter search task identifying one of two target letters (N or X) from a circular arrangement of different letters (high load) or dots (low load). In 20% of trials, an emotional (angry, happy, or fearful) or neutral distractor face would appear in the center of the screen. Participants’ reaction times were used to compare attentional biases towards the different facial stimuli, with slower reaction times indicating greater attentional capture by distractor faces. Multilevel modeling (MLM) was used to assess trial-by-trial changes in how attentional capture by distractor faces during a letter search task is affected by social anxiety (as measured by SPAI-23 scores), emotion type (angry, fearful, happy, or neutral), perceptual load (high or low), and time on-task. It was hypothesized that attentional biases, as measured by reaction times, would be dependent on the interactions between all of these factors. Specifically, it was predicted that participants with high social anxiety would show an increased attentional bias towards angry and fearful faces. Instead, the present study found that participants with high social anxiety showed less attentional bias towards angry and fearful faces as compared to participants with low social anxiety, suggesting that social anxiety promotes increased avoidance of threat-related social stimuli. Implications for the treatment of social anxiety disorder are discussed.
Is Part Of
VCU University Archives
Is Part Of
VCU Theses and Dissertations
Date of Submission
7-28-2024