The Effects of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction on Negative Self-Representations in Social Anxiety Disorder—A Randomized Wait-List Controlled Trial

Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) reduced the tendency to remember negative adjectives as being related to oneself, compared to a wait-list control group, among people with social anxiety disorder. After twelve weeks, participants who received MBSR remembered fewer self-related negative adjectives and more other-related negative adjectives than those on the wait list. The difference in memory for self- versus other-related negative words decreased in the MBSR group, and this shift toward equilibrium predicted reductions in social anxiety symptoms. The findings suggest MBSR may alter self-representations and self-other processing in social anxiety.

Study at a glance

Abstract

This study examines the impact of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) vs. wait list (WL) on the self-reference effect involving negative adjectives in individuals with social anxiety disorder (SAD). Eighty-five participants with SAD were randomly assigned to 12 weeks of MBSR or WL and completed an incidental SRE task that assessed treatment-related negative self-representations. Self-related negative adjectives were worse remembered in MBSR than in WL, and other-related negative adjectives were better remembered in MBSR than in WL. No differences emerged between the levels of self- and other-related processing for adjectives in MBSR. Moreover, the MBSR-related decreases in the difference in recognition memory performance between self and other conditions, that is, the treatment-related equilibrium, could predict the MBSR-related decreases in social anxiety symptoms. The selfless functioning and self-other control that can provide reasonable interpretations for these findings were discussed.