Social anxiety and perceptions of likeability by peers in children

The current study aimed to investigate the discrepancy between self-reported and peer-reported likeability among children, and the relation with social anxiety, depression, and social support. In total, 532 children between 7 and 12 years completed questionnaires about social anxiety symptoms, depressive symptoms, and social support, estimated their own likeability, and indicated how much they liked their classmates. Children with higher levels of social anxiety or depression overestimated their likeability less or even underestimated their likeability. Social anxiety symptoms, but not depressive symptoms, were significant predictors of the discrepancy. Social support was positively related to likeability and negatively related to social anxiety, but did not moderate the association between social anxiety symptoms and perception accuracy of likeability. These results are in line with cognitive theories of childhood social anxiety, and they stress the importance of using multi-informant measures when studying the relation between social anxiety and social functioning in children

The conceptual overlap between cognition and conditioning in clinical psychology

Given the fact that contemporary theories of conditioning regularly utilise information processing concepts such as memory and expectancies, classifying clinical theories as either cognitive or conditioned appears to be outdated. Yet, this dichotomy is still upheld in many clinical writings. Such a false dichotomy seems to serve more of a political function than a theoretical one and thus is likely to interfere with a complete understanding of psychopathology. While the terms conditioning and cognition are often used to imply unconscious learning on the one hand versus conscious, rational learning on the other, this usage is not consistent. A more empirically useful way to describe pathological behavior may be in terms of the amount of attentional resources utilised

Panic disorder

While panic disorder-like phenomena have been recognized for many years, specific criteria for a diagnosis of panic disorder have been defined only relatively recently. Since this time research into the nature, understanding, and treatment of panic disorder has been extensive. This paper reviews the current status of knowledge on this disorder, covering such areas as diagnosis, clinical features, aetiological and maintaining factors, and treatment techniques

Detection of somatic sensations in panic disorder

Twenty-four panic disorder patients and 25 nonclinical subjects underwent double-breath inhalations of 5, 10, and 20% carbon dioxide (CO2) or room air. All subjects were blind to inhalation content and were required to guess if the inhalation contained CO2. There was no significant difference between groups in the accuracy with which they were able to detect CO2 at any concentration. Similarly, the number of somatic symptoms reported to each inhalation did not differ between groups. The findings question suggestions that individuals with panic disorder are more accurate at detecting changes in physiology than other individuals