Cognitive Processing Bias Of Individuals With Social Anxiety And Its Intervention

Social anxiety refers to that in the interpersonal context,when individuals are exposed to strangers or in public,they feel nervous and anxious,and fear that their behavior would be wrong,embarrassing or being evaluated,thus individuals with social anxiety exhibit symptoms of social anxiety.Social anxiety is one of the most common psychological problems among college students.Social anxiety can hinder individuals from establishing good interpersonal relationships with others and negatively affect individuals' mental health.Cognitive processing bias is the cognitive process in which individuals selectively process information,such as selective attention,memory/recall,and interpretation of meaning.Studies have shown that cognitive processing bias can cause individuals with social anxiety to selectively pay attention to,recall negative information in interpersonal situations,and have a negative bias of interpretation,thus cognitive processing bias can make individuals with social anxiety maintain or increase the emotional experience of tension or fear.Therefore,it is necessary to further clarify the characteristics of cognitive processing bias of individuals with social anxiety and carry out targeted interventions.The exception question technique in solution-focused brief therapy can make positive changes in the individual's cognition and emotion,and can help them improve their confidence in solving problems.There were many intervention studies on social anxiety in the past,but there is no experimental intervention study with using the exception question technique on the cognitive processing bias of individuals with social anxiety.For this reason,from the three aspects of cognitive processing bias : attentional bias,memory bias and interpretive bias,firstly,this study verifies the characteristics of cognitive processing bias of socially anxious individuals,and then uses the exception question technique to conduct experimental interventions on cognitive processing bias of college students with social anxiety,to explore the specific and immediate utility of the exception question technique.In this study,800 college students from a university in Henan Province were surveyed,and 136 subjects were selected for experimental research.Study 1 investigated the characteristics of cognitive processing bias(attentional bias,memory bias and interpretive bias)of college students with social anxiety were.Study 2 conducted experimental interventions on three aspects of cognitive processing bias of college(1)Compared with normal individuals,individuals with social anxiety had significantly longer reaction time of negative words than that of positive words,and they had significantly bigger recollection quantity of negative words than that of positive words,and they had significantly more negative interpretations of ambiguous social events than positive interpretations;there were significantly positive correlations among individuals' attentional bias,memory bias and interpretive bias.(2)The reaction time of the exception question group to the positive words was significantly longer than the negative words,and the recollection quantity of the exception question group to the positive words was significantly bigger than the negative words,and the exception question group had more positive interpretations of ambiguous social events than negative ones,but the difference between the two did not reach the significant level.Therefore,individuals with social anxiety have a negative cognitive processing bias,and the exception question technique can exert a certainly positive and immediate effect on the cognitive processing bias of college students with social anxiety.