Forming beliefs about the self by means of self-related learning in social anxiety disorder

Forming beliefs about the self is an important factor for social behavior regulation. Typically, a social situation is a very rich source of social feedback and self-related information. Therefore, forming beliefs about oneself strongly depends on the social context. However, little is known about how exposure to a public context shapes individuals’ self-image, and which cognitive and affective factors contribute to learning information about oneself. In the first part of the current application, I will therefore investigate how self-related information is processed and will disentangle the role of three important aspects that impact how we form self-related beliefs: First, I will investigate (biased) prediction error processing specifically for self-related information compared to other-related information. Second, the role of affective arousal and embarrassment when forming self-related beliefs will be assessed. Third, the specific impact of the social context, i.e. being in a public context, on learning about the self will be illuminated. Social anxiety disorder (SAD) has been pinpointed as an important factor modulating social functioning. Individuals suffering from SAD typically maintain low self-esteem and negative views of the self. Thus, in the second part of my application, I will extend the findings on self-related learning in a social context in order to explain how negative self-views might be learned and maintained in SAD. In so doing, I will gain novel insights into specific maladaptive behavioral and neural response mechanisms in SAD and provide indications for the development of new treatment strategies for SAD in the future.