Ruminative coping and post-event processing in social anxiety

Abstract

Cognitive models of social anxiety implicate various factors in the initiation and maintenance of socially anxious states, including anticipatory processing, self-focused attention and post-event processing. The present study focused on post-event processing, which is a post-mortem analysis following a social event that is described as ruminative in nature and serves to maintain social anxiety. Participants (N=112; 64 women, 48 men) were presented with vignettes that involved making mistakes in public and were instructed to record their thoughts to allow for the examination of the content of post-event processing. Ruminative coping and distraction were assessed via self-report. Results indicated that participants high in social anxiety (n=55) were more likely to ruminate and less likely to distract when faced with socially anxious stressors compared to those low in social anxiety (n=57). Further, as hypothesized, participants high in social anxiety recorded more negative thoughts and more upward counterfactual thoughts (‘if only’ type thoughts on how things could have been better; associated with negative affect) compared to those low in social anxiety. These results are discussed in terms of cognitive models of social anxiety.

Introduction

Cognitive models of social anxiety include various factors that are involved in the initiation and maintenance of socially anxious states (Clark & Wells, 1995; Wells, 1997). Individuals who are socially anxious have a tendency to engage in anticipatory processing. That is, they focus on what might happen in a future social event, typically consisting of negative predictions. Such individuals have a tendency to be self-focused during threatening, anxiety-provoking situations (Hartman, 1983). Following a social situation, socially anxious individuals engage in post-event processing (Wells, 1997).

The present study focused on this last aspect of the cognitive model, post-event processing and, a related construct, rumination. Similar to anticipatory processing, post-event processing is conceptualized as the period of reflection on actual or perceived inadequacies, mistakes, imperfections, and the like and is ruminative in nature. Rumination has been shown to be maladaptive in terms of depression, while cognitive and behavioural distraction responses have been shown to be a protective factor against the prolongation of depressive symptoms (Response Styles Theory; Nolen-Hoeksema, 1991). Recently, this work has been extended into the anxiety domain with similar results (Nolen-Hoeksema, 2000). For instance, in a laboratory study, it was found that distraction serves to decrease state anxiety, whereas rumination serves to prolong state anxiety (Blagden & Craske, 1996). However, the relationship between social anxiety and each of rumination and distraction, has not been examined.

Post-event processing has recently been examined in five empirical studies using undergraduate student samples (Edwards, Rapee, & Franklin, 2003; Field & Morgan, in press; Lundh & Sperling, 2002; Mellings, & Alden, 2000, Niedenthal, Tangney, & Gavanski, 1994; Rachman, Gruter-Andrew, & Shafran, 2000). Rachman et al. (2000) interviewed 44 students, following a semi-structured format, and from the information obtained, created a 13-item Post-event Processing (PEP) questionnaire. The instructions for the questionnaire are such that participants are asked to recall an event during the past few months in which they experienced social anxiety and then respond to the items focusing on the chosen event. Subsequently, Rachman et al. (2000) administered the PEP questionnaire to a larger sample of undergraduate students (N=130) and found that participants did engage in post-event processing and that post-event processing was correlated with social anxiety.

Mellings and Alden (2000) used an experimental methodology to investigate post-event processing (among other cognitive processes) for a social interaction that was part of the study. Participants (N=116) who were high or low in social anxiety interacted with a confederate for a period of 10 min in a laboratory. Participants returned the following day and completed various measures, including a measure of rumination, which consisted of five items, rated on a 7-point Likert scale. They found that socially anxious participants reported more post-event processing for the interaction that had occurred the previous day, compared to participants who were low in social anxiety. Similarly, Edwards et al. (2003) assessed post-event processing in high and low socially anxious students following a task, an impromptu speech task in this case. They found that participants in the high social anxiety group engaged in greater levels of rumination compared to the low social anxiety group.

Another area of research interest in the area of post-event processing has been the relationship between post-event processing and memory. Mellings and Alden (2000) found that post-event processing contributed to subsequent recall of negative self-relevant information. However, Edwards et al. (2003) did not find a significant relationship between negative rumination and negative recall bias. Field and Morgan (in press) investigated the relationship between post-event processing and autobiographical memories. They had undergraduate participants describe a recent social situation. Some participants were subsequently asked to focus on the negative aspects, others focused on the positive aspects, and others were given a distraction task. Following the post-event processing period, participants were asked to recall memories. Participants high in social anxiety recalled memories that were more negative and shameful compared to those low in social anxiety, regardless of the post-event processing period they were assigned to. However, those in the negative post-event processing condition reported memories that were more calming than those in the other post-event processing conditions. Field and Morgan suggested that negative post-event processing may therefore have an adaptive quality for those who are high in social anxiety.

The final study in the area of post-event processing and social anxiety in non-clinical participants was carried out by Lundh and Sperling (2002). They used a diary method for the assessment of post-event processing and found greater post-event processing of events that contained negative evaluation among participants who were high in social anxiety. It was specifically social events that were negative-evaluational in nature (rather than all socially distressing events) for which the relationship between post-event processing and social anxiety was found. Further, greater post-event processing on 1 day was predictive of greater post-event processing on a second assessment day.

To summarize the studies carried out with undergraduate participants, post-event processing has been shown to occur following socially distressing events, and is correlated with the severity of anxiety reported in social situations (Edwards et al., 2003; Lundh & Sperling, 2002; Rachman et al., 2000). Finally, post-event processing may lead to the differential encoding and consolidation of negative self-relevant information (Mellings & Alden, 2000).

One study on post-event processing used a clinical sample. Abbott and Rapee (2004) investigated post-event processing following an impromptu speech task, similar to Edwards et al. (2003). Compared to a control group, Abbott and Rapee found that the clinical group engaged in more negative rumination. Further, the control groups’ positivity increased following 1 week; the clinical sample maintained a negative view of their performance. Additionally, following treatment, the clinical sample reported less negative rumination.

The actual content of thoughts during the post-event period has not been examined. However, there has been research on thoughts related to social interactions (e.g., Cacioppo & Petty, 1981). Attentional focus during social interactions has been examined, and it was found that a decrease in self-focused attention following cognitive behavioural treatment for social anxiety was correlated with a decrease in social anxiety (Woody, Chambless, & Glass, 1997). Other research has examined the valence of thoughts. It has been shown that socially anxious individuals report a higher frequency of negative thoughts compared to positive thoughts in the anticipatory processing period compared to non-anxious students (Cacioppo, Glass, & Merluzzi, 1979). Further, patients with social phobia have been shown to have a higher frequency of negative thoughts during social interactions compared to normal controls (Glass & Furlong, 1990). Additionally, Stopa and Clark (1993) found that patients with social phobia were more likely to report having had negative self-evaluative thoughts during an interaction compared to generally anxious participants and normal controls. Finally, patients with social phobia have been shown to have fewer negative self-focused thoughts following treatment compared to pre-treatment (Hofmann, 2000). Thus, previous social anxiety research points to an importance of the valence of thoughts (e.g., positive, negative, neutral) in the post-event period. It is also likely to be the case that negative thoughts are over-represented in the post-event processing period. However, of equal or greater interest was the structure of thoughts, which led to the counterfactual thinking literature.

Research in social psychology has addressed counterfactual thinking and its relationship to affect (e.g., Roese, 1997; Roese & Olson, 1995). Counterfactual thoughts are thoughts of ‘what might have been’ after an event has taken place. There are two main types: (1) upward counterfactuals are thoughts of how the situation may have been better (‘if only’), and (2) downward counterfactuals are thoughts of how the situation may have been worse (‘at least’). Upward counterfactuals have been shown to be used more often following a controllable situation and following perceived failure (Roese & Olson, 1995). Additionally, upward counterfactuals are associated with negative affect and downward counterfactuals are associated with positive affect (Roese, 1994).

One possibility for the content of thoughts that is characteristic of post-event processing is counterfactual thinking. Past research has not investigated the relationship between counterfactual thinking and social anxiety. A focus of the present research is to ascertain whether people who are high in social anxiety are, in fact, engaging in upward counterfactual thinking during the post-event processing period.

Roese (1997) discussed the possibility that a form of counterfactual thinking may contribute to various forms of distress if it reflects a general breakdown of inhibitory processes. Specifically, it was observed that “…counterfactual thinking that is not shut down normally but spins repeatedly into unhealthy ruminations may occur in some individuals, but this likely represents a breakdown in a normally functional process of checks and balances, or activation and inhibition” (p. 144). The relationship between counterfactual thinking and distress in the form of social anxiety has not yet been examined empirically, though upward counterfactual thoughts have been linked with a number of negative affective states, including guilt and shame (see Mandel, 2003). A link between counterfactual thinking and social anxiety is also suggested by research showing that people with low social self-esteem engage in counterfactual thinking in failure situations (Roese & Olson, 1993).