Abstract

This study investigated whether the attentional breadth of social anxiety tendency in inducted positive mood changes when self-related information is presented. A total of 72 participants were included in the study; selected and grouped based on their scores on the Social Avoidance and Distress Scale (SADS). While 37 participants with scores of 2standard deviation or more constituted the experimental group, 35 participants with scores of 2standard deviation or less constituted the control group. The participants were randomly assigned to either a positive or neutral mood induction condition. After the mood induction procedure was completed, using autobiographical memory, participants devised by Bosmans, Braet, Koster and De Readt(2009) was implemented to confirm the change in participants’ attentional breadth. Therefore, a three-way ANOVA was performed using the self-related information recognition accuracy and attentional breadth index (ANI) calculated in the attention breadth task as dependent variables. As a result of the analysis, regarding the control group, self-related information recognition accuracy and ANI decreased while attentional breadth expanded according to the positive mood condition in the control group. However, in the social anxiety group, self-related information recognition accuracy and ANI condition changed significantly according to the mood induction. The breadth of attention did not expand, even when positive emotions were induced. Finally, the limitations of this study and suggestions for future studies were discussed.