The utilization of eyetracking to understand attention switching the utilization of eyetracking to understand attention switching in socially anxious and depressed individuals in socially anxious and depressed individuals

    Research output: ThesisDoctoral Thesis

    Abstract

    Individuals with social anxiety disorder (SAD) and major depressive disorder (MDD) have demonstrated differences in attention bias processing, leading to a differential processing of the world around them. As such, there is a pressing need to further understand these hypothesized attentional biases to lend deliveries. The present study utilized a novel eye to improved therapeutic tracking paradigm to understand attentional biases in individuals with disorder specific symptomology of SAD and MDD. A sample of 103 undergraduates completed measures of social anxiety, depression and a novel eye-tracking paradigm. Results showed that a combination of elevated SAD and MDD symptoms lends to a slower disengagement time from negative stimuli compared to healthy control participants, regardless of negatively valenced stimuli (sad or disgust face). Contrary to expectation, individuals with elevated MDD symptoms did not demonstrate an overall difference in disengagement practices when compared to control participants
    Original languageAmerican English
    QualificationPh.D.
    Awarding Institution
    • Psychology
    Supervisors/Advisors
    • Yaroslavsky, Ilya, Advisor, External person
    StatePublished - May 2017

    Keywords

    • depression
    • social anxiety
    • eyetracking
    • attentional bias

    Disciplines

    • Psychology
    • Clinical Psychology

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