An Examination of Peer Feedback Influence in Socially Anxious Students: Does positive feedback from peer influence positive and negative affect in high anxious students?

The current study aimed to investigate the influence of positive feedback from peers on positive and negative affect in highly socially anxious students. High social anxiety is related to low positive affect and high negative affect. Positive affect is considered as a global and unidimensional factor that refers to valence and not to a specific positive emotion, that makes life enjoyable and also contributes in the increase of psychological flexibility and social bonds development. In the present study, 40 university students were asked to perform a speech task and received positive or neutral feedback from two individuals of the same age immediately after the speech. In order to see whether there are changes in positive affect and negative affect, each affect was measured at two time points, session one and session two with a 1-week interval. Results showed that participants who received positive feedback interpreted the feedback more positively than participants who received...Show moreThe current study aimed to investigate the influence of positive feedback from peers on positive and negative affect in highly socially anxious students. High social anxiety is related to low positive affect and high negative affect. Positive affect is considered as a global and unidimensional factor that refers to valence and not to a specific positive emotion, that makes life enjoyable and also contributes in the increase of psychological flexibility and social bonds development. In the present study, 40 university students were asked to perform a speech task and received positive or neutral feedback from two individuals of the same age immediately after the speech. In order to see whether there are changes in positive affect and negative affect, each affect was measured at two time points, session one and session two with a 1-week interval. Results showed that participants who received positive feedback interpreted the feedback more positively than participants who received neutral feedback. There was no significant difference between positive and neutral feedback conditions on the positive affect and negative affect levels. Furthermore, positive affect seemed to decrease from the first to second session regardless of the feedback received, and negative affect was relatively stable. These findings are in contrast to previous findings regarding social anxiety and social feedback with positive valence in social situations. Our results suggest that people with social anxiety do attend to positive social situations but that this does not necessarily influence the way they feel to be more positive.Show less

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An Examination of Peer Feedback Influence in Socially Anxious Students: Does positive feedback from peer influence positive and negative affect in high anxious students?