Publication Date
2021
Document Type
Dissertation/Thesis
First Advisor
Valentiner, David P.
Degree Name
M.A. (Master of Arts)
Legacy Department
Department of Psychology
Abstract
Social anxiety severely limits an individual’s ability to develop and maintain relationships and often stifles an individual’s ambition and growth in both occupational and academic settings. Post-event processing occurs when an individual engages in a detailed, repetitive, and negative review of a previous social interaction and often results in feelings of guilt, shame, and embarrassment for how the individual appeared to others in the social interaction. Shyness mindset is the degree to which an individual believes their own shyness is capable of change. A fixed shyness mindset is the belief that shyness is unmalleable and cannot be changed. Previous research has suggested post-event processing plays a key role in the development and maintenance of social anxiety. Previous research has also demonstrated a relationship between a high fixed shyness mindset and the maintenance of social anxiety symptoms. This study explored the relationship between social anxiety and shyness mindset by assessing post-event processing as a potential mediator of the relationship between the two constructs. Participants were recruited from a large midwestern university and assigned to either engage in an intervention designed to reduce fixed shyness mindset beliefs or to engage in a control activity. Although we found evidence that the shyness mindset intervention significantly decreases shyness mindset beliefs in the short term, the intervention did not significantly affect social anxiety and post-event processing at a one-month follow-up. Additionally, we did not find evidence of post-event processing acting as a mediator for our main variables. The theoretical and clinical implications of these findings are discussed along with future research directions and study limitations.
Recommended Citation
Szollos, Sebastian, "The Mediating Role of Post-Event Processing in The Relationship Between Shyness Mindset and Social interaction Anxiety" (2021). Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations. 7714.
https://huskiecommons.lib.niu.edu/allgraduate-thesesdissertations/7714
Extent
96 pages
Language
eng
Publisher
Northern Illinois University
Rights Statement
In Copyright
Rights Statement 2
NIU theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from Huskie Commons for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without the written permission of the authors.
Media Type
Text
