A study on the characteristics of attentional bias in anxiety disorders and its correlation with cognitive styles and personality traits
LIN Zijiang1, CHEN Li2, WANG Changlyu1, YANG Chuang1, XIE Linshan3,ZHANG Jiaying2.
1.Department of Psychiatry, the First Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University,Wenzhou 325015, China; 2.Department of Psychology, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou 325035, China;3.Department of Psychiatry, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou 325035, China
LIN Zijiang,CHEN Li,WANG Changlyu, et al. A study on the characteristics of attentional bias in anxiety disorders and its correlation with cognitive styles and personality traits[J]. JOURNAL OF WEZHOU MEDICAL UNIVERSITY, 2020, 50(10): 810-814.
Abstract：Objective: To investigate the characteristics of the negative attentional bias in patients with anxiety disorder and explore the correlation among attention bias, cognitive styles and personality traits. Methods:Attentional bias, cognitive styles and the personality traits were assessed by the dot-probe paradigm and the psychology scales in 36 anxiety disorder patients and 36 normal people. Scores from the dot-probe paradigm and the psychology scales were compared between the anxiety disorder patients and the normal people in the attention bias, cognitive styles and personality traits. The scores from the dot-probe paradigm were also used to examine the differences in the attention bias of the men versus women, the social anxiety disorder versus the generalized anxiety disorder. The correlation among attention bias, cognitive styles and personality traits was analyzed.Results: There was significant difference in the negative attentional bias scores, the facilitated attention scores
between the anxiety and the control groups (P<0.05), but no significant difference in the accuracy scores or the disengaging attention scores between them (P>0.05). There was significant difference in the scores of automatic hinking, dysfunctional attitude and Eysenck personality Questionnaire’s N dimension between the anxiety andthe control groups (P<0.05). There was significant difference in disengaging attention scores between the male nd female (P<0.05). There was no significant difference in the negative attentional bias scores, the facilitated ttention scores, the disengaging attentional bias, the accuracy scores between the social anxiety disorder and eneralized anxiety disorder (P>0.05). There was significant correlation between the dysfunctional attitude cores, the negative attentional bias scores (r=0.383, P<0.05) and the facilitated attention scores (r=0.204,P<0.05). There was no significant correlation among the negative attentional bias scores, the facilitated attention cores, the automatic thinking and the N dimension scores of Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (P>0.05). There as no significant correlation among the accuracy scores, the disengaging attention scores, the automatic thinking uestionnaire scores, the dysfunctional attitude scores, and the Eysenck N dimension scores (P>0.05). Conclusion:Patients with anxiety disorder have attentional bias to negative stimulus, manifested by attention alert to negative timulus. The negative attentional bias has gender difference, which is related to cognitive styles.
