Description
Oral presentation/open paper, conference presentation abstract at the 50th congress of the European Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies:Flashforward imagery in students with speech anxiety: Phenomenology and associations with anxiety and avoidance
The core cognitive concern in speech anxiety is similar to social anxiety disorder (SAD): being scrutinized and judged negatively, and related processes may play a role in maintenance. Negative imagery of anticipated social catastrophe or “flashforward” (FF) imagery may be especially important in the maintenance of SAD and speech anxiety. Generating or experiencing prospective imagery during anticipatory processing of impending social situations and situations itself, depicting the expectation of negative or feared outcome, might in particular increase anxiety and avoidance and thus maintain social fears. In the current presentation we will show a study that focused on examining FF imagery in students with speech anxiety (i.e., imagery of feared future catastrophe related to speech anxiety). The main objective of the study was to provide insight in the phenomenological characteristics and nature of FF imagery in speech anxiety. The secondary objective was to evaluate the relationship between imagery characteristics and social fears and avoidance. Preliminary results show that the FF images participants generated were largely experienced recurrently in speech situations and were accompanied by negative emotions. The selected FF imagery characteristics appeared to be partly related heightened social fears; image distress and the feeling that something bad will happen, for example, showed positive relationships with speech anxiety and avoidance. Thus, FF imagery may be an important focus to understand and change social fears, both in the context of clinical practice and research.
| Period | 4-Sept-2020 |
|---|---|
| Event title | 50th congress of the European Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies |
| Event type | Conference |
| Location | Athens (virtual), GreeceShow on map |
| Degree of Recognition | International |