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Background: Social anxiety disorder (SAnD) is a highly prevalent condition, characterised by an intense fear of social or performance situations where individuals worry about being negatively evaluated by others. An up to date systematic review of the effectiveness of cognitive behavioural therapies for SAnD is required to guide practice. Objectives: To assess the efficacy and acceptability of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) compared with treatment as usual/waiting list (TAU/WL) for individuals with SAnD. Search methods: We searched the Cochrane Depression, Anxiety and Neurosis Group (CCDAN) Controlled Trials Register and conducted supplementary searches of MEDLINE, PsycInfo, EMBASE, and international trial registers (ICTRP; ClinicalTrials.gov) in October 2011 and CINAHL in October 2012. We also searched reference lists of retrieved articles, and contacted trial authors for information on ongoing/completed trials. Selection criteria: Randomised and quasi-randomised controlled trials undertaken in out-patient settings, involving adults aged 18-75 years with a primary diagnosis of SAnD, assigned either to CBT or TAU/WL. Data collection and analysis Data on patients, interventions and outcomes were extracted by two review authors independently, and the Risk of bias in each study was assessed. The primary outcomes were social anxiety reduction (based on relative risk (RR) of clinical response and mean difference in symptom reduction), and treatment acceptability (based on RR of attrition). Results: Thirteen studies (715 participants) were included in the review, of which 11 studies (599 participants) contributed data to meta-analyses. Based on four studies, CBT was more effective than TAU/WL in achieving clinical response at post-treatment (RR 3.60, 95% CI 1.35 to 9.57), and on eleven studies (599 participants) it was more effective than TAU/WL in reducing symptoms of social anxiety. No significant difference was found between CBT and TAU/WL for attrition. No significant difference was demonstrated for social anxiety at follow-up and no studies examined follow-up data for clinical response or attrition. Authors' conclusions: The available evidence suggests that cognitive behavioural therapy might be effective in reducing anxiety symptoms for the short-term treatment of SAnD. However, the body of evidence comparing CBT with TAU/WL is small and heterogeneous.

Background: In the past decades, there was a worldwide increase in people playing video games. Researchers have started to conduct studies and identified positive and negative associations with video gaming. Comparable studies have been done.   Aim: The aim is to analyse, if there is an association between the average hours an adult participant has played computer games per day and depression or social phobia.   Methods: Data from 4,936 adults who voluntarily participated in an online survey which was posted in the forum ‘www.reddit.com’ has been analysed. The survey included two verified Scales (CES-D and SPIN). Multiple linear regression was applied to test for significance respectively for each sex and after adjusting for other variables.   Results: More than 56% of the participants were above the suggested cut-off scores of the CES-D Scale and more than 44% of the SPIN Scale. Positive associations were found between ‘Computer Gaming Hours’ and the outcomes ‘Depression’ and ‘Social Phobia’ in the total population. After stratifying for gender, no associations were found in all groups in the variable ‘Gender’ towards the outcome ‘Depression’. However, a positive association was found towards the outcome ‘Social Phobia’ for ‘males’ and ‘females’.   Conclusions: The findings are not generalizable. Researcher need to investigate the differences between the results of this study compared to other studies, as well as the high prevalence of depression and social phobia among the participants. Additionally, more studies need to investigate, if having a depression or social phobia can lead to increased video gaming hours.

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Social anxiety disorder is the third most common mental disorder with the lifetime prevalence rate of 13.3% in the US population. Typically, it causes significant impairment in a wide range of functioning and follows a chronic, unremitting course if untreated. Over the past two decades, there has been a dramatic increase in clinical research aimed at examining underlying mechanisms maintaining social anxiety. One line of research has investigated attentional biases in social anxiety, using various cognitive experiment paradigms, including the emotional Stroop and the modified dotprobe tasks. However, overall findings are equivocal about the nature of attentional biases in social anxiety and several methodological problems limit the interpretability of the data. The present study examined attentional biases associated with social anxiety using a new research paradigm in the field of anxiety disorders: the inattentional blindness paradigm. This paradigm presents a social cue in the absence of the subjects’ expectation while they are engaged in a cognitively demanding task, thereby enabling the more purely attentional aspect of information processing to be examined reducing the influence of potential response biases or effortful strategies. Two independent experiments were conducted using nonclinical student samples consisting of individuals high in social anxiety (HSAs) versus individuals low in social anxiety (LSAs) based on the static and sustained inattentional blindness tasks. Overall, results revealed that HSAs were more likely to detect or identify a socially-threatening cue, relative to LSAs; whereas LSAs were more likely to detect or identify a non-threatening social cue, relative to HSAs. These findings were observed only in the presence of a bogus-speech manipulation. These data suggest the promising utility of the inattentional blindness paradigm in investigating attentional biases in social anxiety and perhaps other psychopathological conditions. Theoretical and clinical implications are discussed. / text

Loving-kindness meditation (LKM) has the potential to improve intrapersonal and interpersonal functioning. This unique quality of LKM makes it a desirable candidate for buffering the stress of being social evaluated or socially excluded. Using the Trier Social Stress Test and the Cyberball social exclusion paradigm, the present study investigated the effectiveness of a brief LKM session in buffering against social evaluative and social exclusion stress. Three specific questions were addressed: In what domains can LKM exert positive effects? For whom does it work? And, how does it work? One hundred and thirteen participants (N = 113, 49 men) were randomly assigned to either a 10-minute LKM session or a 10-minute visualization control session. Findings showed that even just 10 minutes of LKM had an immediate relaxing effect as evidenced by increased respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), an index of parasympathetic cardiac control, and decreased respiration rate. In addition, the brief LKM intervention led to greater implicit positivity towards the self relative to the control intervention (p = .052). The brief LKM intervention also protected against some of the negative physiological and psychological effects of social stress. The majority of these effects are moderated by trait social anxiety and pre-meditation mood states (or pre-meditation mood state alone). Contrary to expectation, trait social anxiety alone did not moderate any of the LKM effects. Importantly, receiving a brief session of LKM while not being in a positive mood or being in a negative mood led to iatrogenic physiological and psychological effects. Providing an explanation for one of LKM's effects, findings showed that change in RSA during LKM fully mediated the LKM Intervention x Positive Affect interaction effect on change in post-social-stress RSA. In conclusion, findings of the present study have extended our understanding of LKM and have specific implications for future research and practice.

Denna tvärsnittsstudie syftade till att undersöka samförekomst av smärtrelaterad rädsla och social ångest i ett kliniskt sample med kronisk smärtproblematik. Syftet var också att beskriva och kontrastera samvariation av transdiagnostiska faktorer i eventuella subgrupper. Datan bestod av enkätsvar från 196 deltagare i Social ångest smärta-projektet som leds av Örebro universitet och Akademiska sjukhuset i Uppsala. En klusteranalys fick fram fyra subgrupper bland deltagarna. En subgrupp utmärkte sig för hög komorbiditet. Denna grupp visade höga nivåer av tänkbara transdiagnostiska faktorer som ångestkänslighet och negativ affekt, samt hög smärtkatastrofiering. Det diskuterades kring dessa faktorers roll som sårbarhets- och vidmakthållandeprocesser, utifrån aktuella teoretiska modeller. Studiens kliniska implikationer belyser behovet av hänsyn till dessa faktorers roll vid behandling och framtida forskning. / This cross-sectional study aimed to explore co-occurrence of pain-related fear and social anxiety in a clinical sample with chronic pain. The purpose was also to describe and contrast co-variation of transdiagnostic factors in potential subgroups. The data consisted of 196 answered questionnaires from the Social anxiety pain-project led by Örebro University and the Uppsala University Hospital. A cluster analysis produced four subgroups among the participants. One subgroup was salient for its high comorbidity. This group showed high levels of potential transdiagnostic factors such as anxiety sensitivity and negative affect, as well as high pain catastrophizing. These factors are discussed in terms of their role as vulnerability and maintaining factors, in the light of current theoretical models. The clinical implications of this study suggest taking the role of these factors into account in aspects of treatment and future research.

Within this thesis I explore what can be achieved when culture is critically assessed through a series of theories that mobilise a spatial imaginary. I place the concepts of atmosphere, connection, site and encounter, and theories of emergence via terms such as movement, practice and embodiment, into tension with a single case study: Goth. Goth is a music based grouping, emerging from Punk, New Romantic, Indie and Glam Rock style and music cultures in the late 1970s, with a significant near-global presence in the popular culture industries and links to several salient media controversies; including the Columbine High School massacre, the murder of Sophie Lancaster, and fears over self-harm and suicide. I specifically draw on the vocabularies from within non-representational geographies of performance, relational materiality, affect and social anxiety to re-work understandings of this collectivity. I question what is involved in the material practices of Goth, explore how the practice and experience of Goth is articulated through specific sites, examine how Goth participates in the production and circulation of cultures of anxiety or (un)popularity; and reconsider the concept of ‘subculture’. To do so, I employ a range of methodologies, from guided walks to photo-diaries, within multi-site field research throughout the UK, Tokyo and New York City. I conclude that Goth and culture more generally can be theorised in a number of ways: it emerges as a performed series of embodied acts; it is co-produced in complex relations with non-humans; it can be thought of as a series of modulating affective atmospheres; it coalesces as a collectivity and circulates through events; and it is co-produced through sites and media events. None of these dominates over or diminishes the other; rather they are co-constitutive and interdependent.

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Aim: In recent years, research has concluded that social anxiety plays a key role in quality of life. The overall aim of this research was to evaluate social anxiety in adolescents with respect to determining how social anxiety affects quality of life. Method: This study was a cross-sectional study. A pilot study was conducted to cross-culturally adapt all scales by the recommended translated and back-translated method. The correlations of socio-demographic parameters with the SAS-A scores were examined. Data from a sample of 564 students (273 boys 48.4%, 291 girls 51.6%) were analysed. Adolescents from Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom were screened and compared. Confirmatory factor analysis was utilised to build the proposed model based on prior research and theoretical findings. Finding: No significant sex difference in the SAS-A total score, fear of negative evaluation and social avoidance were found. Comparing the boys and girls on SPIN scores, Fear, Avoidance and Authority Problems, the results showed that boys reported higher in SPIN total, fear and avoidance (except authority problem subscale score) than did girls. SAS-A scores were higher in those with a low socio-economic level. Moreover, social anxiety symptoms among Saudi adolescents were more severe in boys. Results showed that adolescents without social anxiety scored higher on quality of life and its subscales than adolescents with social anxiety as measured by ASA-A. No significant difference was found in psychical health. Adolescents without social anxiety scored higher on quality of life and its subscales than adolescents with social anxiety as measured by SIAS. Adolescents without social anxiety scored on Positive Individualism more than adolescents with social anxiety. No significant difference was found in Positive Relatedness. In the cross-cultural study, the results showed no significant difference on SIAS scores for Saudi adolescents and British adolescents. However, a marginally significant differences was found on BAI scores, where Saudi adolescents reported higher level of anxiety than British adolescents. The British sample reported higher on the fear of negative evaluation than the Saudi sample. Structural equation modelling (SEM) was utilised to test hypotheses on the links between scores on the study scales. The findings indicate that the overall fit of the SAS-A model was acceptable. Direct effects between the study variables and significant positive correlation between cognitive factors and social anxiety were found. Mediation effects of SAS-A and SPIN were investigated by reporting direct effects, indirect effects and total effects. Results indicte that social anxiety significantly mediated the relationships between subjective anxiety, positive individualism, and cognitive and environmental health. Conclusion: It is therefore imperative that socially anxious students be provided with appropriate consultations and treatment so that they can improve their quality of life through integrating better with social institutions. If untreated, the impairment caused by social phobia could lead to poor academic and professional outcomes, as well as poor psychosocial outcomes.