Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Cognitive Processes And Moderators Of Willingness In Individuals With Social Anxiety Disorder And Non-Anxious Controls In Response To A Social Performance Task, Lauren P. Wadsworth

Graduate Masters Theses

The present study investigated differences between individuals with social anxiety disorder (SAD) and non-anxious controls (NAC) on measures of thought processes and anxiety responses surrounding an anxiety-provoking situation. Participants gave a spontaneous speech to an audience and reported their anxiety throughout. Measures of trait decentering and anxiety, situational anxiety, negative thoughts and believability, and willingness to repeat the task were administered. Compared to NAC, individuals with SAD reported a higher prevalence of negative thoughts, found the thoughts more believable, reported lower levels of trait decentering, and reported less willingness to repeat an anxiety-provoking task. Collapsing the groups, we found an …