Research master thesis | Psychology (research) (MSc)
under embargo until 2024-12-22
2024-12-22T00:00:00Z
Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is a disorder characterized by impairments in interpersonal functioning such as experiencing difficulties in forming and maintaining relationships. These impairments...Show moreSocial anxiety disorder (SAD) is a disorder characterized by impairments in interpersonal functioning such as experiencing difficulties in forming and maintaining relationships. These impairments have negative intrapersonal consequences for individuals with SAD on different levels such as the physiological, behavioral, and psychological level. A newer perspective on SAD has suggested that it also negatively impacts the interaction partner (i.e. interpersonal consequences of the disorder). According to this perspective, certain verbal and nonverbal behaviors and thought or feeling content of the healthy interaction partner are affected while interacting with an individual who have SAD. The current study investigated the intra- and interpersonal consequences of SAD on the physiological, behavioral, and psychological level during initial interactions. Participants played a dyadic trust game (23 same-gender dyads) while their electrodermal activity (EDA) was continuously measured and filled in self-report measures during and after the game. The dyads consisted either of one participant scoring high on social anxiety (SA) and one low on SA (i.e. SA dyads) or two participants scoring low on SA (i.e. control dyads). EDA was used as the measure on the physiological level, participants’ trust ratings were the measure on the behavioral level, and the discrepancy between self and partner reports on positive/negative personal attributes to explore cognitive biases was the measure on the psychological level. We expected to observe higher EDA synchrony, lower trust ratings, and higher discrepancy between self and partner reports in SA dyads compared to control dyads. Results showed no difference between dyads on all levels indicating that we were not able to observe the predicted effect of finding intra- and interpersonal consequences of SAD in SA dyads. The most important implication of the current study is that, it included three different levels of SAD, in contrast to earlier studies that mainly focused on one level. This provides a useful example for how future studies might be designed and conducted.Show less
Mimicry of behavior is a well-known phenomenon, thought to be important for social interaction. Some studies suggest that socially anxious individuals differ from the normal population in their...Show moreMimicry of behavior is a well-known phenomenon, thought to be important for social interaction. Some studies suggest that socially anxious individuals differ from the normal population in their mimicking behavior. This difference might be a sign of a mechanism involved in social anxiety. Previous research suggests a difference between autonomic and motor mimicry. Autonomic mimicry is related to the autonomic nervous system which is largely free of conscious influence, while motor mimicry is related to the motor areas and the mirror neuron system. In this paper the focus therefore lies on autonomic pupil dilation mimicry, ruling out conscious influence on mimicry behavior. This study aims to replicate previous findings that found a difference for socially anxious peoples mimicking behavior. The direction of the difference in mimicking behavior will be addressed in the exploratory part of this study in the case of significant results. Performed was a simple regression analysis between the independent anxiety score variable obtained using the LSAS-SR and the dependent mimicry score. The results were ambiguous to a certain extent. The first analysis, including a wider range of data, was significant. It suggests an influence of social anxiety on pupil dilation mimicry, with a higher anxiety score leading to decrease in mimicry, suggesting a possible mechanism related to mimicry differences in social anxiety. However the effect size was not very high. Subsequent analysis excluding very noisy data and cases with low signal coverage led to insignificant results, suggesting normal perception and response to pupil dilation mimicry for people with social anxiety.Show less
