Related Experiment Videos
Self-schemas in social phobia and panic disorder
J K van Niekerk1, A T Möller, C Nortje
1Department of Psychology, University of Stellenbosch, South Africa.
Psychological Reports
|July 17, 1999
Summary
This study investigated hypervigilance in social phobia and panic disorder. Results did not support the hypothesis that individuals with panic disorder are hypersensitive to physical threats or that those with social phobia are overly concerned with social threats.
Area of Science:
- Psychology
- Clinical Psychology
- Cognitive Psychology
Background:
- Beck's cognitive theory suggests anxiety disorders involve hypervigilance to threat-related cues.
- Social phobia is theorized to involve hypervigilance to social threats.
- Panic disorder is theorized to involve hypervigilance to physical threats.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate hypervigilance to threat cues in social phobia and panic disorder.
- To test predictions from Beck's cognitive theory of anxiety disorders.
- To examine self-schema sensitivity to social and physical threat information.
Main Methods:
- A modified Stroop color-naming task was employed.
- Color-naming latencies were measured for individuals with social phobia (n=13) and panic disorder (n=15).
- Threat-related words (social and physical) were compared against neutral control words.
Main Results:
- The study did not find evidence supporting the hypothesis for panic disorder.
- The hypothesis regarding social phobia and social threat hypervigilance was not supported.
- No significant hypersensitivity to physical threat cues was observed in panic disorder patients.
Conclusions:
- Findings do not support the proposed cognitive mechanisms for social phobia and panic disorder.
- The self-schemas of individuals with panic disorder do not appear hypersensitive to physical threat information.
- Social phobia patients do not demonstrate an overconcern with social threat information as hypothesized.