Rumination and Distraction Periods Immediately Following a Speech Task: Effect on Postevent Processing in Social Anxiety

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate social anxiety and the effect of rumination and distraction periods immediately following a speech task on subsequent postevent processing. A secondary aim was to examine the content of postevent rumination. Participants (N = 114 students) completed measures of social anxiety and depression, delivered a 3-minute speech, and were randomly assigned to complete (1) a rumination form about the speech (guided negative rumination condition) or (2) an anagram form (distraction condition). One week later participants completed measures of postevent processing related to the speech task. It was hypothesized that social anxiety would interact with condition in predicting levels of postevent processing. This hypothesis was supported in the prediction of positive thoughts such that at high levels of social anxiety the distraction condition led to more positive thoughts compared with the guided negative rumination condition, whereas at low levels of social anxiety conditions were similar with respect to positive thoughts. Irrespective of condition, both social anxiety and depression predicted greater postevent rumination and negative thoughts 1 week later. With respect to the content of postevent rumination, socially anxious individuals reported being more concerned about some aspects of the presentation (e.g. poor posture), whereas other concerns were equally noted regardless of social anxiety level (e.g. poor content). The present results highlight the potential clinical utility of distracting from social anxiety to allow for greater access to positive thoughts postevent.

Keywords:

• social anxiety
• social phobia
• rumination
• distraction
• postevent processing

Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge financial support received from Wilfrid Laurier University as a short-term research grant and a standard research grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada awarded to Nancy L. Kocovski. The authors would like to thank Susan Battista and Heather Hunter for their research assistance.