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Avoidance of emotional facial expressions in social anxiety: The Approach-Avoidance Task.
Behav Res Ther. 2007 Dec; 45(12):2990-3001.BR

Abstract

The Approach-Avoidance Task (AAT) was employed to indirectly investigate avoidance reactions to stimuli of potential social threat. Forty-three highly socially anxious individuals (HSAs) and 43 non-anxious controls (NACs) reacted to pictures of emotional facial expressions (angry, neutral, or smiling) or to control pictures (puzzles) by pulling a joystick towards themselves (approach) versus pushing it away from themselves (avoidance). HSAs showed stronger avoidance tendencies than NACs for smiling as well as angry faces, whereas no group differences were found for neutral faces and puzzles. In contrast, valence ratings of the emotional facial expressions did not differ between groups. A critical discrepancy between direct and indirect measures was observed for smiling faces: HSAs evaluated them positively, but reacted to them with avoidance.

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Authors+Show Affiliations

Heuer K
Department of General Psychology, Dresden University of Technology, D-01062 Dresden, Germany. heuer@psychologie.tu-dresden.de
Rinck M
No affiliation info available
Becker ES
No affiliation info available

MeSH

AdultAngerAnxiety DisordersCase-Control StudiesEmotionsFacial ExpressionFemaleHumansMaleSmilingSocial BehaviorSocial PerceptionVisual Perception

Pub Type(s)

Journal Article
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Language

eng

PubMed ID

17889827

Citation

Heuer, Kathrin, et al. "Avoidance of Emotional Facial Expressions in Social Anxiety: the Approach-Avoidance Task." Behaviour Research and Therapy, vol. 45, no. 12, 2007, pp. 2990-3001.
Heuer K, Rinck M, Becker ES. Avoidance of emotional facial expressions in social anxiety: The Approach-Avoidance Task. Behav Res Ther. 2007;45(12):2990-3001.
Heuer, K., Rinck, M., & Becker, E. S. (2007). Avoidance of emotional facial expressions in social anxiety: The Approach-Avoidance Task. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 45(12), 2990-3001.
Heuer K, Rinck M, Becker ES. Avoidance of Emotional Facial Expressions in Social Anxiety: the Approach-Avoidance Task. Behav Res Ther. 2007;45(12):2990-3001. PubMed PMID: 17889827.
* Article titles in AMA citation format should be in sentence-case
TY - JOUR T1 - Avoidance of emotional facial expressions in social anxiety: The Approach-Avoidance Task. AU - Heuer,Kathrin, AU - Rinck,Mike, AU - Becker,Eni S, Y1 - 2007/08/19/ PY - 2007/01/18/received PY - 2007/08/02/revised PY - 2007/08/13/accepted PY - 2007/9/25/pubmed PY - 2008/7/30/medline PY - 2007/9/25/entrez SP - 2990 EP - 3001 JF - Behaviour research and therapy JO - Behav Res Ther VL - 45 IS - 12 N2 - The Approach-Avoidance Task (AAT) was employed to indirectly investigate avoidance reactions to stimuli of potential social threat. Forty-three highly socially anxious individuals (HSAs) and 43 non-anxious controls (NACs) reacted to pictures of emotional facial expressions (angry, neutral, or smiling) or to control pictures (puzzles) by pulling a joystick towards themselves (approach) versus pushing it away from themselves (avoidance). HSAs showed stronger avoidance tendencies than NACs for smiling as well as angry faces, whereas no group differences were found for neutral faces and puzzles. In contrast, valence ratings of the emotional facial expressions did not differ between groups. A critical discrepancy between direct and indirect measures was observed for smiling faces: HSAs evaluated them positively, but reacted to them with avoidance. SN - 0005-7967 UR - https://www.unboundmedicine.com/medline/citation/17889827/Avoidance_of_emotional_facial_expressions_in_social_anxiety:_The_Approach_Avoidance_Task_ L2 - https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0005-7967(07)00182-9 DB - PRIME DP - Unbound Medicine ER -