Socially anxious and control participants engaged in a social interaction with a confederate and then wrote about themselves or the other person (i.e., self-focused post-event processing [SF-PEP] vs. other-focused post-event processing [OF-PEP]) and completed several questionnaires. One week later, participants completed measures concerning their evaluation of their performance in the social interaction and the degree to which they engaged in post-event processing (PEP) during the week. Socially anxious individuals evaluated their performance in the social interaction more poorly than control participants, both immediately after and 1 week later. Socially anxious individuals assigned to the SF-PEP condition displayed fewer positive feelings about their performance compared to the socially anxious individuals in the OF-PEP condition as well as controls in either condition. Also, the trait tendency to engage in PEP moderated the effect of social anxiety on participants' evaluation of their performance in the interaction, such that high socially anxious individuals with high trait PEP scores evaluated themselves in the interaction more negatively at the later assessment. These results suggest that PEP and other self-evaluative processes may perpetuate the cycle of social anxiety.
Social anxiety disorder is characterized by a fear of negative evaluation by others in social and/or performance situations in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV-TR; American Psychiatric Association [APA], 2000). When confronted with these situations, socially anxious individuals often experience great anxiety and distress. In addition, they may try to avoid anxiety-provoking social situations, often resulting in feelings of loneliness and isolation.
To better understand socially anxious individuals, cognitive–behavioral models of social anxiety/social anxiety disorder have been developed (Clark and Wells, 1995, Heimberg et al., 2010, Hofmann, 2007 and Rapee and Heimberg, 1997). These models rely on cognitive constructs, such as interpretation, attention, and memory, to help explain socially anxious individuals' behavior. They assert that when individuals with social anxiety are confronted with new social situations, they tend to interpret them in a manner unduly threatening to the self. Typically these interpretations are associated with increased anxiety, physiological arousal, and self-focused attention, which may also result in impaired performance. In addition, these models suggest that socially anxious individuals selectively remember and brood about negative self-relevant aspects of social events. Theoretically, this internal review of the social event, also known as post-event processing (PEP), contributes to an increase in socially anxious individuals' anticipatory anxiety and strengthens their desire to avoid future social interactions. At the present time, there is considerable evidence for biased interpretations and heightened self-focus in social anxiety; however, evidence supporting the memory bias implied in social anxiety is less well developed (Brozovich & Heimberg, 2008). Below, we review research in these areas conducted with individuals with social anxiety disorder as well as nonclinical samples with elevated levels of social anxiety.
