Psychological research into post-event processing in social anxiety disorder.

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15K20910
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Clinical psychology; Social psychology
• Research Institution: University of Miyazaki
• Principal Investigator: Yoshinaga Naoki 宮崎大学, テニュアトラック推進機構, 講師 (80633635)
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: 社交不安 / 反すう / 認知行動療法

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Post-event processing (PEP) is a repetitive negative thinking process following social events. We performed qualitative interview study to know: whether individuals with social anxiety disorder (SAD) actually derive the benefits from post-event processing (PEP) that they expect; if this is not the case, how their positive beliefs are maintained; and if they are aware of the counterproductive effects of PEP, why they still perform PEP. The results suggest that: SADs rarely obtain the benefits from PEP that they expect; their positive metacognitive beliefs are maintained by solutions they sometimes find during PEP; and SADs choose to perform PEP while feeling conflicted; while PEP ironically maintains and exacerbates negative self-beliefs/images, it is the only safe/useful way to improve their social performance. These findings support and expand on the theories of PEP.

Free Research Field

臨床心理学、精神看護学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

社交不安症を抱える人の中で、反すうを行う人は、行わない人と比べて、認知行動療法の効果が十分に得られないことがこれまで指摘されてきました。この研究の結果は、反すうが維持されるメカニズムを明らかにした研究であり、今後、反すうを軽減するための新たな介入法の開発などに繋がることが期待されます。