Trait social anxiety, self-focused attention, and negative judgmental and interpretive bias in social and non-social situations

Abstract

This study was conducted to examine the relationship between self-focused attention and negative judgmental and interpretive biases in social anxiety. In Study 1, a questionnaire was administered to 194 university students, and 53 high and 48 low socially anxious students were selected in an investigation of the relationship. Results showed that only in social situations and under self-focused attention, high socially anxious students had more negative judgmental bias than low students. In Study 2, the relationship between self-focused attention and interpretational biases in social and non-social situations that were evaluatively ambiguous was examined with the students who participated in Study 1. Results indicated that the high interpreted social situations as more negative than the low only under self-focused conditions. These results revealed that in social situations the high showed negative judgmental and interpretational biases only under self-focused attention.View full abstract