Poster Presentation 6th World Congress on Positive Psychology 2019

All In A Smiling Face: The Attentional Benefits Of Dynamic Attention Training For Low Self-Esteem Individuals (#800)

Rémi Thériault 1 2 , Stéphane Dandeneau 1 , Mark Baldwin 2
  1. Université du Québec à Montréal, Montréal, Québec, Canada
  2. McGill University, Montréal, Québec, Canada

Background.  Here we examined a new, dynamic (video-based) version of a visual search attentional training task that has been shown to reduce attentional bias to rejection information.  Methods.  189 participants either repeatedly identified a person smiling among a grid of videos of people frowning (experimental group) or identified a five-petaled flower among a grid of videos of seven-petaled flowers (control group).  Participants then performed a visual probe task to measure attentional bias to rejection and acceptance, before completing measures of situational self-esteem and mood.  Results.  Regression analyses revealed that the attention training task led participants with lower self-esteem (-1 standard deviation) to exhibit lower attentional bias for rejection (b = -17.25, t(188) = -1.94, p = .053), higher attentional bias for acceptance (b = 24.00, t(188) = 2.82, p = .005), less attentional orientation toward rejection (b = -20.51, t(188) = -2.17, p = .031), greater difficulty disengaging from acceptance (b  = -22.29, t(188) = -2.15, p = .033), and higher levels of situational self-esteem (b = 0.49, t(175) = 2.57, p = .011).  Conclusion.  This new, dynamic attentional training visual search task replicates and extends the static version used in previous research and shows multiple cognitive and self-report benefits.