SOCIAL ANXIETY AND SELECTIVE MEMORY FOR AFFECTIVE INFORMATION ABOUT THE SELF

Abstract

High and low socially anxious women were given identical feedback about their personality traits after a brief social interaction with a male confederate. The male confederate was trained to respond positively (success) to half of the subjects in each group during the interaction and negatively (failure) to the other half. Results of a subsequent recognition memory test for the feedback supported one of the main hypotheses and indicated that high socially anxious subjects had more accurate memory for negative information about themselves than did low socially anxious subjects. Success and failure experiences had no effects on memory. The possible contribution of such selective memory to the mediation and maintenance of social anxiety is discussed.