Year: 2022
Type: preprint
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Cognitive-behavioral theories of emotional disorders assert that emotional responding comprises concordant responses (e.g., co-occurring subjective distress and physiological arousal), but this is often not observed in practice. We investigated whether concordance would be greater when social threat is higher. A sample of 46 socially anxious participants engaged in experiences that varied based on degree of social interaction and evaluative threat. Affect, cognitions, behaviors, and physiological responses were assessed repeatedly. A network modeling approach was used to examine associations among emotion response components that are typically associated with trait social anxiety. After estimating contemporaneous partial-𝜏 networks for each experience, we estimated optimal modularity as a measure of community structure. Permutation testing was used to investigate hypotheses tied to concordance. Concordance was defined as a lack of community structure as measured by a non-significant modularity statistic, indicating a unidimensional anxiety response. Contrary to hypotheses, concordance was not observed in any of the experiences involving social-evaluative threat but was observed in the non-social control network. Additionally, no significant differences in concordance emerged when comparing explicit evaluation vs. non-explicit evaluation or social vs. non-social networks. Findings align with the literature suggesting that concordance is not a necessary or common feature of emotional episodes, and the findings challenge theoretical understandings of social anxiety. Future work examining individual differences in concordance and interactions among emotion response components across different timescales will be helpful, along with replication in larger, more diverse samples.
Authors: Emma Rose Toner, Max A Larrazabal, Lihua Cai, Teague R Henry, Jennifer MacCormack, Mehdi Boukhechba, Laura Barnes, Bethany Teachman
Institution: University of Virginia
Language: English
Subfield: Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W4306399314