Interpretation Bias in Social Phobia Disorder

Cognitive theories of emotional disorders posit that data processing biases play a crucial role in the maintenance and possibly the development of mood and anxiety disorders.Researches have identified four cognitive biases in anxious individuals: attention, memory, judgment, and interpretation biases. Examination of data processing biases in social phobicindividuals have demonstrated that they also show these four cognitive biases. We examined the hypothesis that compared to non-patient controls (NPC) and individual with other anxiety disorders (OAD), individuals with generalized social phobia (GSP) would tend to interpret ambiguous social scenarios negatively when provided with various alternativeinterpretations. Participants were presented with 22 ambiguous scenarios each followed by three possible interpretations: positive, negative and neutral. Fifteen scenarios were based on social events and the rest were non-social ones. Participants were asked to rank order the three interpretations according to the likehood that each would come to their mind and also to a "typical persons" mind in similar situations. So, the results revealed that GSPs significantly (P<0.01) tended to choose negative interpretation of social, self-relevant and social self-relevant events more than two control groups. The results of the present study support this hypothesis than a specific negative interpretation bias may beinvolved in the maintenance of social phobia.