Background: Past research suggests that socially anxious individuals display a tendency to interpret ambiguous and clearly valenced information in a threatening way. Interpretation training programs, in which individuals are trained to endorse benign rather than negative interpretations of ambiguous social scenarios, have proven effective for reducing anxiety-related cognitive biases. However, it is not clear whether the same paradigms are effective in modifying interpretation biases for clearly valenced social information. Method: In this experiment, a group of unselected children (aged 10–13 years) was trained to endorse the more positive of two possible interpretations of mildly negative and positive social events. Results: Data revealed that this group (n = 77) showed a decrease in catastrophic interpretations and an increase in neutral interpretations of mildly negative events compared to children in a no-training control group (n = 76). Furthermore, participants in the training condition showed an increase in positive interpretations and a trend for a decrease in discounting interpretations of positive events. However, training did not affect emotional ratings of mildly negative and positive events or trait social anxiety. Conclusions: Notwithstanding certain limitations of this pilot study, we believe that the results are promising with regard to modifying interpretative biases for clearly valenced vignettes, and that further study regarding the effects of training on mood is warranted.

Background: Social anxiety is a common problem among people who are recovering from psychosis. At present there is no evidence based psychological treatment targeting social anxiety in this population. Cognitive Bias Modification for Interpretation (CBM-I) has been shown to be effective in reducing social anxiety in people who do not have a history of psychosis. Aims: To assess the feasibility and acceptability of the CBM-I methodology for use in a clinical setting with people who are experiencing social anxiety following an episode of psychosis. Method: Eight participants with social anxiety were recruited from an early intervention service. A single session of computerized CBM-I was conducted, with mood and cognitive interpretation bias being assessed before and after the session. Results: All participants reported an improvement in mood immediately following the CBM-I session (n = 8). For those participants who had a negative interpretation bias, none became more negative following the CBM-I session, with three out of six participants showing a beneficial change. Conclusion: These results suggest that CBM-I is acceptable for use with people who are experiencing social anxiety following a psychotic episode. Further research looking at how CBM-I could be made more interactive and producing more applicable scenarios for use in a clinical setting is recommended.

Background: Biases in the interpretation of ambiguous material are central to cognitive models of anxiety; however, understanding of the association between interpretation and anxiety in childhood is limited. To address this, a prospective investigation of the stability and specificity of anxious cognitions and anxiety and the relationship between these factors was conducted. Method: Sixty-five children (10–11 years) from a community sample completed measures of self-reported anxiety, depression, and conduct problems, and responded to ambiguous stories at three time points over one-year. Results: Individual differences in biases in interpretation of ambiguity (specifically “anticipated distress” and “threat interpretation”) were stable over time. Furthermore, anticipated distress and threat interpretation were specifically associated with anxiety symptoms. Distress anticipation predicted change in anxiety symptoms over time. In contrast, anxiety scores predicted change in threat interpretation over time. Conclusions: The results suggest that different cognitive constructs may show different longitudinal links with anxiety. These preliminary findings extend research and theory on anxious cognitions and their link with anxiety in children, and suggest that these cognitive processes may be valuable targets for assessment and intervention.

Background: It has been suggested that socially anxious individuals often engage in a wide range of safety behaviours in social situations that are intended to reduce the risk of social failure and humiliation. Method: This study explored the interpretations that people make for behaviours considered to be safety seeking. High and low socially anxious individuals completed one version of a questionnaire that assessed how the safety behaviours that they may exhibit are interpreted by others, and then completed a second version of the same questionnaire that assessed how they typically interpret safety behaviours in other people. Participants rated the extent to which each of eight interpretations was viewed as a likely interpretation of the behaviour. Results: Individuals high in social anxiety were more likely than low socially anxious participants to think that being arrogant, suffering from a psychological problem, or experiencing a normal level of anxiety, nervousness or fear are likely explanations for safety behaviours, regardless of who exhibits them. Additionally, high socially anxious participants were more likely than those low in social anxiety to think that others interpreted these behaviours as being indicative of intense anxiety or other negative emotional condition. Conclusions: The results suggested that socially anxious people are, at least, aware of the negative effects of certain behaviours characterized as safety seeking.