College of Behavioral & Social Sciences
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The collections in this community comprise faculty research works, as well as graduate theses and dissertations..
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Item Gendered racial microaggressions and emerging adult Black women's social and general anxiety: Distress intolerance and stress as mediators(Wiley, 2022-11-22) Burke, Lindsey A.; Chijioke, Sandra; Le, Thomas P.There is robust evidence that gendered racial microaggressions affect Black women's mental health. However, few studies have examined how this form of discrimination affects Black women's social anxiety in addition to their general anxiety, as well as the underlying mechanisms related to gendered racial microaggressions and anxiety. Objective The purpose of this study was to examine the associations between gendered racial microaggressions stress (GRMS) and gendered racial microaggressions frequency (GRMF), and Black women's social anxiety and general anxiety symptoms. We also examined the mediating roles of distress intolerance and stress in these associations. Method One hundred and sixty-three Black women, between the ages of 18 and 25 years old, completed a cross-sectional survey. Regression analyses were used to examine the associations between gendered racial microaggressions and social anxiety and general anxiety, and mediation analyses examined the indirect effect of gendered racial microaggressions on the outcome variables through distress intolerance and stress. Results GRMS was associated with greater social and general anxiety through the mechanisms of distress intolerance and stress. GRMF was associated with reduced social anxiety and was not associated with general anxiety. Conclusions Intervention efforts should be aimed to prevent the experience of gendered racial microaggressions to prevent subsequent stress and mental health outcomes for Black women.Item EXPLORING THE ROLES OF SOCIAL ANXIETY, TRAUMA, AND URBANICITY IN THE RELATION BETWEEN POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE SYMPTOMS IN PSYCHOSIS(2018) Garcia, Cristina Phoenix; Blanchard, Jack J; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Background: Research shows that positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia are separate but related factors. However, it is unclear which specific symptoms may drive this relation or whether there are moderating factors. Moreover, it is unknown whether the relation between positive and negative symptoms is specific to schizophrenia or exists for individuals with psychosis regardless of diagnosis. Research is needed that looks specifically at individual symptoms within positive and negative symptom domains in a sample of mixed diagnoses. The current study examines whether paranoia, a positive symptom, and deficits in motivation and pleasure, a negative symptom, are correlated with one another in a transdiagnostic sample of individuals with psychosis. Literature suggests that paranoia and deficits in motivation and pleasure are both interpersonal in nature. This shared interpersonal characteristic suggests that these symptoms may be linked through social stressors. Method: Participants were 38 people with psychosis and six people without a psychiatric diagnosis. They completed the Clinical Assessment Interview for Negative Symptoms (CAINS), including the Motivation and Pleasure (MAP) subscale; the Green et al. Paranoid Thought Scales (GPTS), including Social Reference (SR) and Persecution (P); the Social Interaction Anxiety Scale (SIAS); the Self-Beliefs Related to Social Anxiety scale (SBSA), including Unconditional Beliefs (UB); the Trauma History Questionnaire (THQ); and the Neighborhood Health Questionnaire (NHQ), including Activities with Neighbors (AN). Results: Inconsistent with hypotheses, neither GPTS nor its subscales was significantly correlated with CAINS MAP. GPTS was significantly correlated with SIAS, SBSA, and THQ totals; in exploratory analyses, the GPTS SR was significantly correlated with SBSA UB. CAINS MAP was significantly correlated with NHQ AN. Conclusions: This study revealed novel associations between paranoia and social anxiety cognitions and between motivation and pleasure deficits and neighborhood socialization. We explore reasons for null results (e.g., limitations with the transdiagnostic approach; low symptomatology in the sample). Future directions include examination of other positive and negative symptoms; investigation into facets of social anxiety and their overlap with paranoia; and assessment of urbanicity/neighborhood health and its relation to paranoia.Item Profiles of Social Anxiety Symptoms and Impulsivity in College Students(2014) Lipton, Melanie; De Los Reyes, Andres; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Prior work points to a subtype of Social Anxiety (SA) characterized by disinhibition or high externalizing behaviors (e.g., substance use and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) symptoms). This study extended prior work by replicating subtypes of SA and impulsivity and examining differences among these subtypes in their expression of externalizing behavior. Three hundred seventy-five undergraduates completed an online study including measures of SA, substance use, ADHD symptoms and impulsivity. Latent class analyses revealed three classes of individuals who were: (a) low SA and low impulsivity, (b) high SA and low impulsivity, and (c) high SA and high impulsivity. Individuals high in both SA and impulsivity exhibited greater likelihoods of exhibiting externalizing behavior concerns, relative to the two other classes, with the largest differences on ADHD symptoms. These findings indicate that identifying differences among SA subtypes in externalizing behavior concerns depends on the externalizing domain.Item SOCIAL SKILLS DEFICIT VERSUS PERFORMANCE INHIBITION IN SOCIALLY ANXIOUS INDIVIDUALS(2005-11-07) Stipelman, Brooke Allison; Beidel, Deborah C; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This study attempted to address the performance inhibition hypothesis by assessing nonverbal social performance in socially anxious individuals during a task where verbal content was standardized, thereby decreasing the overall performance requirements, thus theoretically decreasing their social distress. Fifty-nine subjects were identified as high or low socially anxious and participated in two behavioral role-play tasks. Both role-plays included a standard heterosocial conversation task; however during the second task subjects were provided their verbal content through a bug-in-the-ear wireless transmitter. Results showed no significant within or between-group differences on measures of nonverbal social skill. However, a global rating of social skill revealed a significant group difference. These results do not support the performance inhibition hypothesis and support the notion that isolated behaviors aren't enough to distinguish socially anxious and non-socially anxious individuals from one another. Rather, it's the unique combination of all elements of social skill that allows for this differentiation.Item IMPAIRMENT IN FACIAL AFFECT RECOGNITION: DEFICIT OR ANXIETY?(2005-08-11) Paulson, Autumn Melody; Beidel, Deborah C.; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Although individuals with social phobia are generally considered to exhibit social skills deficits, the existence of a potential deficit in the area of facial affect recognition remains largely unexplored. The current study investigated if individuals with high social anxiety are less able to accurately determine facial affect as compared with individuals with low social anxiety. Furthermore, this study examined whether or not this impairment is an actual deficit or results from an increased level of anxiety. Fifty-nine subjects completed an affect-labeling task at a baseline level of anxiety and again following a 5 minute speech designed to elicit anxiety. Results indicated that socially anxious and non-socially anxious individuals did not differ in accuracy of facial affect identification either at a baseline level or after engaging in a moderately stressful public performance. Based on these results, facial affect recognition does not appear to represent a skills deficit in socially anxious individuals.Item DOES NEGATIVE SELF-IMAGERY PLAY A CAUSAL ROLE IN SOCIAL PHOBIA AMONG ADOLESCENTS?(2005-04-20) Alfano, Candice Ann; Beidel, Deborah C; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The current study was designed to examine whether negative self-imagery is a significant factor in the development of social phobia among adolescents. Although some adult models of social phobia posit that negative self-imagery serves to increase anxiety and decrease performance within social contexts, few studies have directly examined this relationship and no study has examined self-imagery among socially-phobic adolescents. For the current study, negative self-imagery was manipulated among a group of non-anxious adolescents (IMAG) during two social tasks. Levels of anxiety, specific thoughts, expected and self-rated performance, and observer-rated performance and social skill were compared to both socially-phobic and control adolescents. Results revealed few differences in terms of observer-rated performance and specific social skill between the IMAG and control groups of adolescents, although the socially-phobic group was consistently rated to exhibit poorer performances and decreased social skill. The IMAG group reported marginally significant increases in their anxiety levels during both social tasks. Interestingly, these adolescents reported similar (increased) rates of anxiety during an additional social interaction task where they were instructed to use positive self-imagery. The IMAG group also reported decreases in performance compared to the control group. This finding appears to be explained primarily based on the adolescents' belief that they were unable to hide their anxiety rather than a decrease in social skill (such as reported by socially-phobic youth). Further, the IMAG group reported an overall fewer number of cognitions than both groups during the social interaction task, potentially indicating a significant decrease in cognitive resources based on the use of self-imagery. Overall findings from this investigation do not support the hypothesis that negative self-imagery plays a causal role in the development of social phobia among adolescents. Rather, results indicate that excessive self-focused attention within social contexts, together with normal developmental increases in self-consciousness during the adolescent years may pose a specific risk for development of the syndrome. These findings provide a developmental understanding of the factors involved in the onset of social phobia, as well as those symptoms that may be germane to the maintenance of the disorder over time.Item Is Test Anxiety A Form Of Specific Social Phobia?(2005-05-26) Hall Brown, Tyish S; Turner, Samuel M; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Test anxiety is characterized by a fear of negative evaluation, specifically in academic domains. This evaluative fear is often driven by social concerns that are consistent with those that are found in individuals with social phobia. The current study was designed to determine if test anxiety is a type of specific social phobia. 57 subjects completed a battery of self-report measures, underwent a semi-structured interview, and participated in a behavioral assessment task. Results showed that test anxious individuals were similar to socially phobic individuals in personality characteristics, in subjective ratings of anxiety as well as in the prevalence of feared situations. However, despite these similarities test anxious individuals did not show significant functional impairment during the behavioral assessment task as evaluated through level of performance, number of negative cognitions, and psychophysiological reactivity. Based on these results, test anxiety cannot be considered a type of specific social phobia.