Social feedback can influence how we feel about ourselves, and previous studies have shown that adults preferentially incorporate positive social feedback into their perception of themselves. Such...Show moreSocial feedback can influence how we feel about ourselves, and previous studies have shown that adults preferentially incorporate positive social feedback into their perception of themselves. Such an optimism bias might contribute to good mental health and could help to explain mood and anxiety disorders. Although adolescence is a period of increased risk for psychopathology, only little is known about how adolescents update their self-feelings when receiving social feedback. This study investigated how adults and adolescents adjust their self-feelings after social feedback (i.e., affective updating) using the SELF-speech paradigm. In addition, we recorded EEG during the task to measure theta (4-8 Hz) reactivity to feedback. Theta activity has previously been associated with negative feedback. Under the assumption, that adolescents would be more sensitive to negative social feedback, we expected to see stronger EEG theta activity in adolescents. During the SELF-speech task, seventy-two adolescents (12-17 years old) and 175 adults (18-25 years old) unexpectedly had to perform a short speech in front of three judges. After the speech participants evaluated themselves on 80 items and were presented feedback from three judges on these same items on a trial-to-trial basis. Following the judge’s feedback participants indicated how they felt about themselves. Using an adapted form of the Rescorla-Wagner model, we could observe age differences in affective updating. The results indicate a persistent positivity bias throughout development with an increase in learning from negative feedback during adulthood. The EEG results indicate no differences for valence our age in theta activity. However, we observed a trend towards a developmental decrease in theta reactivity to feedback regardless of valence. Together, these findings suggest that while the positivity bias prevails from adolescents to adulthood, it seems to weaken towards adulthood. Further, possible age differences in theta reactivity to feedback cannot be explained by valence.Show less
Concepts such as self-esteem and the perception of self are significant for a multitude of reasons, one of them being one’s satisfaction in life. This makes research into affective updating...Show moreConcepts such as self-esteem and the perception of self are significant for a multitude of reasons, one of them being one’s satisfaction in life. This makes research into affective updating important. One form of affective updating can be described as updating feelings about yourself based on feedback that has been received from others. To gain a better understanding of affective updating, the main focus of this study was to investigate the influence of intolerance of uncertainty (IU) and attachment style on the updating of self-relating feelings. Intolerance of uncertainty can be defined as a bias that demonstrates how people see vague situations as threats. While attachment style is characterized as a framework of behaviours, emotions and expectations we exhibit in close relationships. Three hypotheses were tested using data collected from a larger study. To test the hypotheses, a speech task, in which three judges would be watching, and two questionnaires (ECR-R and IUS) were used. The speech task was used to measure how social feedback changes one’s self-perception. The total sample size contained 144 participants with ages ranging from 18 to 29. Results of this study indicate that there is no significant association between IU and affective updating, nor that attachment style predicts affective updating in this context. However, adults with more anxiety regarding attachment were found to have a higher amount of IU. This finding should be taken into account for future treatment regarding people with high attachment anxiety, as it could prevent further development of high IU and SAD.Show less
The formation of attachment styles and internal working models of relationships is crucial in development, as it influences social connectedness during the life course. Attachment theory proposes...Show moreThe formation of attachment styles and internal working models of relationships is crucial in development, as it influences social connectedness during the life course. Attachment theory proposes that people differ in their reactions to relational threats based on attachment orientation. Whereas avoidant attachment is associated with minor discomfort following social rejection, anxiously attached individuals display heightened emotional reactivity. To test whether individual differences also manifest in distinct neural activity and biased adaptations of one's self-view following social feedback, 95 participants (mean age = 20.2 years) performed a speech task with subsequent self-evaluation and feedback provision. After receiving feedback from a panel of judges, participants were asked to indicate how they felt about themselves. During the procedure, EEG was used to measure neural activity. Feedback-related midfrontal theta (4-8 Hz) oscillations were assessed with the assumption of increased theta power for anxiously but not avoidantly attached individuals following unexpected negative feedback. Results suggested the absence of attachment-related differences in theta power during social feedback processing. Additionally, computational modeling was used to examine how feedback from the judges influenced participants' feeling state over time, based on attachment orientation. Results indicated that neither predominantly anxiously participants nor those who were primarily avoidantly attached were influenced more strongly by positive or negative feedback. Together, this study offers a starting point to study neural underpinnings of the attachment system and learning biases during social feedback processing, thereby providing a crucial contribution to the attachment literature.Show less
