The Effect of Post-Event Processing on Mood, Self-Beliefs, and Interpretive Biases

Abstract

Cognitive models of social phobia (e.g., Clark & Wells, 1995; Hoffman, 2007) propose that post-event processing (PEP), the act of engaging in a negatively-biased analysis of a prior social situation, contributes to the maintenance of this disorder. The current study examined the effects of engaging in a cognitive-based, abstract-evaluative form of PEP (AE-PEP) on affect and cognition in and high and low socially anxious individuals. In addition, a novel ambiguous social-interaction task was used to maximise ecological relevance. Participants engaged in either AE-PEP or distraction following a discussion group interaction. The results demonstrated that compared to distraction, high socially anxious participants that engaged in AE-PEP reported more negative affect, greater endorsement of negative self-beliefs, and greater interpretative biases. Significant effects of AE-PEP over distraction were not observed in low socially anxious individuals. The results provide support for cognitive models of social phobia, indicating that PEP is a key maintaining factor.