Universität zu Köln

Stevens, Stephan, Peters, Andreas, Abraham, Anna ORCID: 0000-0003-4954-8205 and Hermann, Christiane (2014). Enhanced avoidance behavior in social anxiety: Evidence from a probabilistic learning task. J. Behav. Ther. Exp. Psychiatry, 45 (1). S. 39 - 46. OXFORD: PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD. ISSN 1873-7943

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Abstract

Background and objectives: Social phobia is characterized by avoidance of feared social situations. Although avoidance is a central feature of social anxiety, few studies have examined avoidance learning. Methods: We used a probabilistic instrumental learning paradigm where participants had to learn by trial and error which response led to the disappearance of a neutral or angry face. 20 high socially anxious and 20 non-socially anxious individuals with an average level of social anxiety learned to avoid an angry or a neutral face by choosing one of two cues. Each of the cues led to the disappearance of the face either with high or low reinforcement probability. Results: Groups learned to choose the more effective cue across trials and did not differ with regard to self-report valence, arousal for the faces or the a posteriori estimated reinforcement probability for both cues. High socially anxious individuals as compared to the controls chose the high probability cue significantly more often and were slower particularly when the neutral face could be avoided. Notably, HSA engaged in more avoidance responding to the neutral as compared to the angry face early on during the experiment. Limitations: Due to the experimental design, the observed avoidance behavior most likely reflects the motivation for avoidance rather than contingency learning per se. Conclusions: In social anxiety, neutral faces might be processed as ambiguous social cues and strongly motivate avoidance behavior. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID ORCID Put Code Stevens, Stephan UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED Peters, Andreas UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED Abraham, Anna UNSPECIFIED orcid.org/0000-0003-4954-8205 UNSPECIFIED Hermann, Christiane UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED
URN:	urn:nbn:de:hbz:38-445623
DOI:	10.1016/j.jbtep.2013.07.007
Journal or Publication Title:	J. Behav. Ther. Exp. Psychiatry
Volume:	45
Number:	1
Page Range:	S. 39 - 46
Date:	2014
Publisher:	PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
Place of Publication:	OXFORD
ISSN:	1873-7943
Language:	English
Faculty:	Unspecified
Divisions:	Unspecified
Subjects:	no entry
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Keywords Language EMOTIONAL FACIAL EXPRESSIONS; AMYGDALA ACTIVATION; FACES; EXPECTANCY; STIMULI; ALCOHOL; PHOBIA; BIAS Multiple languages Psychology, Clinical; Psychiatry Multiple languages
URI:	http://kups.ub.uni-koeln.de/id/eprint/44562