In social situations, people can experience social rejection. Based on these sorts of feedback, people update their self-evaluations. This feedback-based social learning processes can be biased....Show moreIn social situations, people can experience social rejection. Based on these sorts of feedback, people update their self-evaluations. This feedback-based social learning processes can be biased. Rejection sensitivity (RS) is a cognitive system where people already expect rejection and overreact to it. RS is associated with socio-emotional disorders, such as depression or anxiety. More knowledge about RS in biased social learning could help us approach these socio-emotional disorders more targeted. In a reinforcement-learning environment, participants (n = 151, mean age = 20.44) were asked to predict acceptance or rejection from their peers, based on personal statements on their own social-media profile. These peers were actually not real, but set on giving acceptance in amounts of 85%, 70%, 30% and 15%. The current study researched RS in negative social learning processes to see if it could be linked with increased negative social learning. The link between RS and recalled peer acceptance, and RS and expectations of peer acceptance before the task was also examined. The results show that there is no significant correlation between both RS and negative social learning, and RS and recalling peer acceptance. A significant negative correlation was found between RS and expected peer acceptance. More research is needed to support these findings. Suggested are studies that examine how fast people adjust their expectations to be accepted on trial-to-trial basis.Show less
Social relationships are vitally important to such an extent that social rejection is processed by the brain as a threat to survival. Studies found a pronounced cardiac slowing as a response to...Show moreSocial relationships are vitally important to such an extent that social rejection is processed by the brain as a threat to survival. Studies found a pronounced cardiac slowing as a response to social rejection potentially messaging feelings of hurt. The most pronounced cardiac slowing was found when social rejection feedback came as a surprise. Attachment styles seem to influence the way people respond to social threat. Since people who score high on attachment related anxiety and avoidance are deemed to be more sensitive to social rejection, this study examined the relationship between attachment related anxiety and avoidance and the cardiac response to unexpected social rejection. Sixty-one undergraduate students (mean age = 20.50 years) participated in the SELF-Profile paradigm, which consists of an evaluation task in which participants expressed their expectancies about being liked or disliked by other peers. Subsequently, they received actual feedback messaging acceptance or rejection. The cardiac response was recorded by using interbeat interval measurement (IBI), comparing expected and unexpected acceptance and rejection with each other among attachment related anxiety and avoidance. As predicted, unexpected rejection provoked the most pronounced cardiac slowing compared to the other four conditions. Against expectations a significant negative relationship was found between attachment related anxiety and cardiac slowing to unexpected social rejection, indicating no cardiac slowing or even cardiac speeding. Although the cardiac responses with respect to unexpected rejection confirm existing studies, the negative relationship found rather contradicts existing studies and gives rise to the need for further research. Keywords: Attachment, attachment related anxiety and avoidance, social evaluative feedback, unexpected social rejection, cardiac response, cardiac slowingShow less
Learning from social feedback is an important skill for humans because it can influence mental health and establishing healthy relationships. People who score high on attachment-related avoidance...Show moreLearning from social feedback is an important skill for humans because it can influence mental health and establishing healthy relationships. People who score high on attachment-related avoidance and/or attachment-related anxiety may experience a biased form of social feedback learning. In this study the effects of attachment-related anxiety and attachment-related avoidance on positive and negative social feedback learning were examined. 165 undergraduate students with an age between 18 and 25 participated in the SELF-Profile task, that was used to measure social feedback learning (mean age = 20.50). In this task participants received social evaluative feedback from four peers who each gave a different predetermined percentage of positive feedback (Peer 1: 85%, Peer 2: 70%, Peer 3: 30% and Peer 4: 15%). Attachment was measured with the ECR-R. A repeated measures ANOVA was used to test whether there was a social learning effect during the SELF-Profile task. Subsequently Pearson correlations were used to examine the relations between attachment and social feedback learning. Results showed a significant social learning effect. No significant Pearson correlations were found, which means that we found no relationships between attachment and social feedback learning. Follow-up studies could focus on also including a clinical sample for a broader range of scores on attachment. Subsequently follow up studies could use a trial-to-trial approach for a more precise measure of social feedback learning.Show less
Peer victimization can lead to depression, social anxiety, and suicide. Online peer victimization is an upcoming phenomenon. In this study, the relationship between the experience of online and...Show morePeer victimization can lead to depression, social anxiety, and suicide. Online peer victimization is an upcoming phenomenon. In this study, the relationship between the experience of online and offline peer victimization and learning from negative social feedback was investigated. It was expected that online and offline peer victimization would predict better negative social learning. This could be a possible pathway between peer victimization and depression and social anxiety. The Multidimensional Offline and Online Peer Victimization Scale (MOOPV) was used to measure the experience of online and offline peer victimization during the past six months. The Self profile task was used to measure negative social learning. Regression analyses were performed with 149 students aged between 18 and 29 (mean age = 20.41), but no significant effects were found. Therefore, it is possible that peer victimization is not a predictor of negative social learning. An alternative explanation for the fact that no effect was measured could be the few participants in this sample who have experienced offline or online peer victimization during the last six months before the study. Furthermore, the simplified way in which negative social learning was measured may have caused no effect was found. Exploratively, a weak negative correlation was found between whether someone had experienced offline peer victimization and how someone feels about themselves. In all cases, more research is needed on the path of online and offline peer victimization to depression and social anxiety to develop more effective treatment approaches.Show less
Previous studies show contradictory results on the underlying correlations between perfectionism, social anxiety disorder and the negative expectancy bias. This study investigated whether...Show morePrevious studies show contradictory results on the underlying correlations between perfectionism, social anxiety disorder and the negative expectancy bias. This study investigated whether maladaptive perfectionism is a mediating factor in the relation between social anxiety and the negative expectancy bias. We examined whether the healthy sample showed a positive or negative expectancy bias prior and during a task. Additionally, it was expected that individuals who scored higher on being socially anxious, showed a lower percentage expected acceptance. We predicted that social anxiety and maladaptive perfectionism are positively correlated and, in contrast to this, that maladaptive perfectionism is negatively correlated with the percentage expected acceptance. Moreover, a mediation was presumed, in which the relation between social anxiety and expected acceptance is mediated by maladaptive perfectionism. 149 bachelor students (mean age = 20.40 years) participated in this study and completed the SELF-Profile paradigm. This is a fabricated task in which participants are encouraged to believe that they are being evaluated by peers. The participants are asked to register their expectancies on whether they are liked or disliked by these peer strangers. Every evaluation followed feedback on if this prediction was true or not. Social anxiety was measured by using the LSAS questionnaire and (mal)adaptive perfectionism was measured by using the APS-R questionnaire. Contrary to our expectations, we found that there was no significant mediation. The mediation analysis, analyzed with Process macro, showed no mediation of maladaptive perfectionism in the relation between social anxiety and the negative expectancy bias before (Effect = -.027; 95% CI [-0.07, -0.00]) and during (Effect = .006; 95% CI [-0.016, 0.034]) the task. Not all additional hypotheses were met. We can conclude that this study did not show the expected mediation. Future research can focus on other possible mediating factors since influences of other variables are not ruled out within this study.Show less
Self-feeling can be influenced by doing a particular (social) task, like giving a speech, low or high social anxiety, low and high self-esteem or fear of negative,- positive evaluation. This study...Show moreSelf-feeling can be influenced by doing a particular (social) task, like giving a speech, low or high social anxiety, low and high self-esteem or fear of negative,- positive evaluation. This study examined how the relation of a feedback mismatch between the participant and the judge after a social task (giving a speech), effects the self-feeling of the participant. In addition we examined if there is a direct effect of anxiety related measurements and self-esteem to self-feeling and if these measurements also moderate the relation between the feedback mismatch on self-feeling. Twenty participants (mean age is 20.60 years, 18 women) were tested in a self-speech paradigm, while EEG and ECG was measured. After giving the speech, participants rate their own performance and finally the participants received ratings from a judge. A multilevel analysis was employed to look for effects on self-feeling. Results provided significant evidence for the relation of feedback mismatch on self-feeling. Also direct significant effects for social anxiety (LSAS), self-esteem (RSES), fear of negative evaluation (BFNES) on self-feeling are found. Significant evidence was also found for moderating effects of social anxiety (LSAS) and fear of positive evaluation (FPES) on the relation of feedback mismatch on self-feeling. Together these findings confirm that feedback mismatch does effect self- feeling and that anxiety related measures (LSAS and FPES) show significant effect on the relation of feedback mismatch on self-feeling. The findings of this study demonstrate that long-term endurance of high scores on social anxiety, low(er) self-esteem and fear of negative evaluation can make people more vulnerable for developing social anxiety disorder (SAD) and further deteriorate social anxiety, self-esteem and self-feeling overall if not treated.Show less
