Keywords

social phobia, social anxiety, neuropsychology, neurocognitive functioning

Abstract

The purpose of the current study was to clarify the neurocognitive mechanisms underlying social phobia. Previous research has identified some specific group differences in neurocognitive functioning between individuals diagnosed with social phobia and nonpsychiatric controls, but has failed to administer a comprehensive neuropsychological battery to a social phobia patient group, resulting in a piecemeal understanding of the neurocognitive functioning of this population and an incomplete picture of the neuropsychological profile inherent to this group. The present research utilized a broader collection of neuropsychological tests to assess nine cognitive domains: Verbal Learning, Verbal Delayed Memory, Visual Immediate Memory, Visual Delayed Memory, Visual-Spatial Processing, Verbal Working Memory, Visual Working Memory, Executive Functioning, and Attention. A mixed analysis of variance (ANOVA) did not reveal a significant group by cognitive domain interaction, nor a significant main effect of group. As this was the first study to examine multiple cognitive domains in a single sample of individuals with generalized social phobia, exploratory univariate analyses were performed to examine group differences for the specific cognitive domains. This revealed significant group differences specific to the Visual Working Memory domain, with the social phobia group scoring significantly lower than the nonpsychiatric control group. Implications of these findings and directions for future research are discussed.

Notes

If this is your thesis or dissertation, and want to learn how to access it or for more information about readership statistics, contact us at STARS@ucf.edu

Graduation Date

2009

Advisor

Bedwell, Jeffrey

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)

College

College of Sciences

Department

Psychology

Degree Program

Psychology

Format

application/pdf

Identifier

CFE0002859

URL

http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/etd/CFE0002859

Language

English

Release Date

February 2010

Length of Campus-only Access

None

Access Status

Masters Thesis (Open Access)

Download

Included in

Psychology Commons

Share

COinS