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Social Anxiety and Mental Imagery Processes
Maria Guarnera1, Stefania Lucia Buccheri1, Sabrin Castellano2
1Kore University of Enna, Faculty of Human and Social Sciences, Cittadella Universitaria, 94100 Enna EN, Italy.
Clinical Neuropsychiatry
|December 15, 2021
Summary
Socially anxious individuals show deficits in mental imagery tasks, particularly in imagined paths and clock tests. These specific imagery impairments significantly predict social anxiety levels.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Clinical Psychology
Background:
- Mental imagery plays a role in various psychological disorders.
- Distressing imagery from past events is linked to social phobia maintenance in cognitive models.
Purpose of the Study:
- To identify specific mental imagery processes differentiating socially anxious individuals from controls.
- To determine the role of these processes in social phobia.
Main Methods:
- A cohort of 62 university students (ages 18-23) participated.
- The Mental Imagery Test (MIT) assessed imagery skills (generation, manipulation).
- Participants were categorized as socially anxious or non-anxious controls.
Main Results:
- Socially anxious students scored lower on the MIT total score.
- Impairments were most pronounced in imagined paths and clock tests.
- The imagined paths test was the strongest predictor of social anxiety.
Conclusions:
- Social anxiety is associated with specific deficits in mental imagery.
- The type of imagery component influences the impact on social anxiety.
Keywords:
image generationimage inspectionimage maintenanceimage transformationmental imagerysocial phobiaMore Related Videos
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