Deciding whether other individuals are trustworthy or likeable belong to the most important decisions in social interactions. It is important for an individual to decide whether to approach or avoid another person. In recent years literature on trustworthiness evaluation of face stimuli is growing with studies focussing on deficits in social evaluation (e.g. Adolphs et al., 1998; Baas et al., 2...

The present study examined the predictive validity of the Social Anxiety Scale for Children-Revised (SASC-R) by investigating associations between children's social anxiety symptoms and their cognitive and behavioral reactions in response to an in vivo peer evaluation manipulation. Participants (N=115) ages 10-13, played a computer game based on the television show Survivor and were randomized ...

Ambivalence is a state of inconsistency that is often experienced as affectively aversive. In this functional magnetic resonance imaging study, we investigated the role of cognitive and social-affective processes in the experience of ambivalence and coping with its negative consequences. We examined participants' brain activity during the dichotomous evaluation (pro vs contra) of pretested ambi...

The Brief Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale (BFNE; M. R. Leary, 1983a) is often used to assess fear of negative evaluation, the core feature of social anxiety disorder. However, few studies have examined its psychometric properties in large samples of socially anxious patients. Although the BFNE yields a single total score, confirmatory factor analysis indicated a 2-factor solution to be more a...

In two studies (N = 416; N = 118) examining responses from undergraduates, we developed the Social Exercise and Anxiety Measure (SEAM) and tested its factorial, convergent, and divergent validity. Our results demonstrate that the SEAM exhibits an excellent three factor structure consisting of the following subscales: Social Exercise Self-efficacy, Gym Avoidance, and Exercise Importance. In both...

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...

We review studies that investigate negative social cognitions of socially anxious youth in relation to two specific domains: interpretation of ambiguous social situations and self-evaluation of social performance, including social skills and nervous behaviors. In this review, we address the question whether socially anxious youth's negative perceptions are distortions of reality or reflect a ke...

Negative self-images are a maintaining factor in social phobia. A retrospective study (Hackmann, A., Clark, D.M., McManus, F. (2000). Recurrent images and early memories in social phobia. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 38, 601-610) suggested that the images may be linked to early memories of unpleasant social experiences. This preliminary study assessed the therapeutic impact of rescripting su...