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How BIS/BAS and psycho-behavioral variables distinguish between social withdrawal subtypes during emerging adulthood
Abstract
Informed by past theory and research on social withdrawal, the aims of this study were to investigate whether three subtypes of social withdrawal (shyness, avoidance, unsociability) are related with BIS and BAS, as hypothesized by leading theories. Also of interest was whether these three withdrawal subtypes are related uniquely to different theoretically-indicated outcomes during emerging adulthood, a developmental period that has received very little empirical attention in this area of research. Participants were 295 (Mage = 19.31 years) emerging adults who completed self-report measures assessing different motivations for social withdrawal, aggression, anxiety sensitivity, creativity, social anhedonia, and BIS/BAS. Structural equation modeling revealed findings that challenge theoretical models that assume that specific and varying combinations of BIS and BAS underlie different withdrawal subtypes. The models also revealed new evidence of specific and non-specific associations, including the first evidence of a potential benefit (creativity) associated with unsociability.
... On the contrary, shyness was negatively associated with isolation and lack of emotional support while controlling for other social withdrawal motivations, maladaptive personality, and interpersonal sensitivity. These findings are in line with those of previous studies highlighting associations between peer isolation (Ding et al., 2019;Etkin et al., 2016;Indias García & De Paúl Ochotorena, 2016;Kim et al., 2008), unsociability Ding et al., 2019;Indias García & De Paúl Ochotorena, 2016;Kim et al., 2008;Nelson, 2013), avoidance (Bowker et al., 2017;Braathu et al., 2022;Clifford et al., 2022;Ding et al., 2019;Indias García & De Paúl Ochotorena, 2016;Nelson, 2013), and poor social support and symptoms of psychopathology. Importantly, and different from previous studies (Bowker et al., 2017;Ding et al., 2019;Etkin et al., 2016), we found that shyness was negatively associated with both isolation and lack of emotional support after considering the role of other social withdrawal motivations, maladaptive personality functioning, and interpersonal sensitivity. ...
... These findings are in line with those of previous studies highlighting associations between peer isolation (Ding et al., 2019;Etkin et al., 2016;Indias García & De Paúl Ochotorena, 2016;Kim et al., 2008), unsociability Ding et al., 2019;Indias García & De Paúl Ochotorena, 2016;Kim et al., 2008;Nelson, 2013), avoidance (Bowker et al., 2017;Braathu et al., 2022;Clifford et al., 2022;Ding et al., 2019;Indias García & De Paúl Ochotorena, 2016;Nelson, 2013), and poor social support and symptoms of psychopathology. Importantly, and different from previous studies (Bowker et al., 2017;Ding et al., 2019;Etkin et al., 2016), we found that shyness was negatively associated with both isolation and lack of emotional support after considering the role of other social withdrawal motivations, maladaptive personality functioning, and interpersonal sensitivity. In other words, higher shyness scores corresponded to greater emotional support and lower isolation. ...
... Second, a convenience sample participated in the study limiting the findings' generalisability to other age groups (e.g., adults) and populations (e.g., at high-risk and clinical samples). Third, a limitation of this and prior studies regards the differential validity of unsociability and avoidance, to some extent called into question (Bowker et al., 2017). No difference was demonstrated between shy, unsociable, sociable, and avoidant children (according to a measure of behavioural avoidance and inhibition systems) on social avoidance/distress in meeting new situations and unfamiliar people, and generalised social avoidance/distress (Coplan et al., 2006). ...
### Free eprints: https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/TKYMKYG2AYEUKHT7Q6XW/full?target=10.2989/17280583.2023.2291180 ###
Objective: This study aimed to examine the association between social withdrawal motivations (peer isolation, shyness, unsociability, low mood, and avoidance) and symptoms of hikikomori using both variable- and person-oriented analyses.
Method: Adolescents (N = 212) participated in this cross-sectional study. Data were collected using the Social Withdrawal Motivations Scale and the Avoidance subscale of the Child Social Preference Scale-Revised, the 25-item Hikikomori Questionnaire, the Personality Inventory for the DSM-5 Brief Form, and the Interpersonal sensitivity subscale of the Brief Symptom Inventory.
Results: Path analysis revealed that peer isolation, shyness, unsociability, and avoidance were associated with symptoms of hikikomori while covarying for age, sex, maladaptive personality, and interpersonal sensitivity. Cluster analysis based on social withdrawal motivations identified four subtypes of adolescents. The group with high social withdrawal motivations showed the highest level of overall personality dysfunction and interpersonal sensitivity. Additionally, the group with high social withdrawal motivations and the group with high avoidance demonstrated higher symptoms of hikikomori compared to the other two groups, after accounting for the effects of the covariates.
Conclusions: The findings highlight that the evaluation of co-occurrent social withdrawal motivations may improve the ability to identify those adolescents most in need of support.
... In this regard, socially avoidant individuals would experience such high social anxiety, discomfort, and fear of social judgments that their desire to approach others would progressively decrease until complete extinction. Previous studies have also reported links between social avoidance and social anhedonia (i.e., the lack of pleasure from social interactions [8,32]). For example, Bowker et al. [32] found that although both shyness and social avoidance were related to social anhedonia in a sample of emerging adults in the U.S., the association between social avoidance and social anhedonia was stronger than the link between shyness and social anhedonia. ...
... Previous studies have also reported links between social avoidance and social anhedonia (i.e., the lack of pleasure from social interactions [8,32]). For example, Bowker et al. [32] found that although both shyness and social avoidance were related to social anhedonia in a sample of emerging adults in the U.S., the association between social avoidance and social anhedonia was stronger than the link between shyness and social anhedonia. ...
... For example, Nelson et al. [41] found that unsociability among emerging adults was not related to problematic media use, depression, or externalizing problems one year later. Similarly, Bowker et al. [32] reported that unsociability among emerging adults was not related to anhedonia or anxiety sensitivity but was positively associated with creativity. ...
Emerging adults seek solitude because of different underlying motivational and emotional processes. The current short-term longitudinal study aimed to: (1) identify subgroups of socially withdrawn emerging adults characterized by different motivations for solitude (shyness, unsociability, social avoidance) and affect (positive, negative); and (2) compare these subgroups in terms of indices of internalizing difficulties and life-satisfaction. Participants were N = 348 university students (Mage = 21.85 years, SD = 3.84) from Italy, who completed online questionnaires at two-time points separated by three months. Results from a latent profile analysis (LPA) suggested three distinct subgroups characterized by different social withdrawal motivations (i.e., shy, unsociable, and socially avoidant), as well as a non-withdrawn subgroup (characterized by low social withdrawal motivations, low negative affect, and high positive affect). Among the results, the socially avoidant subgroup reported the highest levels of social anxiety, whereas the avoidant and shy subgroups reported the highest loneliness and lowest life satisfaction. The unsociable subgroup appeared to be the most well-adjusted subgroup of socially withdrawn emerging adults and reported similar levels of life satisfaction as the non-withdrawn subgroup. Our findings confirmed the heterogeneity of emerging adults’ experiences of solitude, with different motivations for social withdrawal appearing to confer a differential risk for maladjustment.
... Shyness and avoidance appear to be significant risk factors for well-being in emerging adulthood. Specifically, shyness tends to increase and remain stable throughout this period (e.g., Barzeva et al., 2019) and is associated with internalizing problems such as anxiety, depression, low self-worth, and loneliness (Bowker et al., 2017;Bowker et al., 2022;Braathu et al., 2022;Nelson, 2013;. Shyness is also strongly associated with relationship problems such as low satisfaction and less peer acceptance (Barry et al., 2013;Closson et al., 2019;Luster et al., 2013;Nelson et al., 2008). ...
... SOCIAL WITHDRAWAL, SOLITUDE, AND EXISTENTIAL CONCERNS 9 Compared to shyness and avoidance, unsociability is a more benign form of social withdrawal. Although there have been some links with depressive symptoms (Nelson, 2013), with loneliness , and to a lesser extent, with social anxiety (Closson et al., 2019), unsociability does not appear to be a maladaptive form of withdrawal as it is linked with fewer internalizing and relationship problems (Barry et al., 2013;Braathu et al., 2022;Closson et al., 2019;Nelson, 2013), less aggression, and more creativity (Bowker et al., 2017). ...
... Somewhat similarly, avoidance was positively associated with emptiness and meaninglessness and existential loneliness and negatively associated with authentic living, presence of meaning, and search for meaning. These findings are consistent with existing data showing positive links of avoidant attachment with existential isolation (Helm et al., 2020) and avoidance with internalizing and other adjustment problems in emerging adults (Bowker et al., 2017;Bowker et al., 2022;Braathu et al., 2022;Closson et al., 2019;Nelson, 2013;Nelson et al., 2016). In this study, a negative sense of meaning in life seems to be the most prevalent existential concern among young people who also have high levels of avoidance. ...
This study aimed to investigate the ways subtypes of social withdrawal and dimensions of solitude are related to existential concerns in emerging adulthood. The links between social withdrawal/solitude and existential well-being are a highly neglected research issue. Participants were 774 emerging adults (50.4% males) aged 18–25 (M = 20.07) from Greece. They completed measures on social withdrawal, solitude, authenticity, meaning in life, existential anxiety, and existential loneliness. We used structural equation modeling to analyze the data. Results indicated that shyness, avoidance, and isolation were associated with more existential concerns, whereas unsociability was associated with less existential concerns. The solitude dimensions—enlightenment, freedom, intimacy, and loneliness—were differentially associated with existential concerns, with enlightenment exhibiting the most existential benefits. Findings showed that existential well-being is dependent on emerging adults’ quality of withdrawal experiences and ability to make constructive use of solitude.
... Participants completed a revised version of the Child Social Preference Scale-Revised (CSPR-R; Bowker & Raja, 2011), which is a commonly used measure to assess motivations for withdrawal during adolescence and emerging adulthood (e.g., Bowker et al., 2017). Measure items describe shy, unsociable, and avoidant motivations. ...
... Participants indicated "how much are you like this?" for each item on a 5-point scale ranging from "Not at all" to "A lot." Past research with the CSPS-R has shown strong correlations among the subscales and low internal consistencies (see Bowker et al., 2017); thus, the items were substantially revised for this study to improve item clarity and distinctiveness. Accordingly, an exploratory factor analysis was conducted with the 24 items of the revised measure (CSPS-R2). ...
... In addition, avoidance was related positively, and unsociability was related negatively, to low arousal negative affect during social interactions. These findings support characterizations that unlike shyness and avoidance, unsociability may be a benign solitude-seeking motivation and perhaps also beneficial with regard to negative affect (Bowker et al., 2017). ...
The present study examines within- and between-person associations between emerging adults’ daily time spent alone and their positive/negative affect during social interactions. We also consider whether motivations for seeking solitude (shyness, unsociability, avoidance) moderate these associations. Participants were 411 emerging adults (ages 18–26 years; 51% female; 52% ethnic minority) who reported on their motivations for solitude and completed daily reports of their time spent alone and positive/negative affect experienced during social interactions for 7 consecutive days. Among the results, multi-level modeling indicated that on days when emerging adults spent more time alone than usual, they experienced increased levels of high and low arousal positive affect when they interacted with others. Interactions between shy and avoidant motivations and change in time spent alone also emerged, with follow-up analyses indicating that for highly and moderately shy and avoidant emerging adults, days with more time spent alone than usual were associated with greater reports of anxious affect during social interactions. Findings suggest that although many emerging adults may find social interactions more enjoyable on days with increased time alone, those who actively seek solitude as an escape from perceived stressful or unpleasant social circumstances may not.
... Accordingly, unsociable individuals tend to spend time in solitude because they lack strong desires to be with others and prefer to be alone, perhaps to engage in constructive activities, such as reading or computer work. Finally, social avoidance is thought to be rooted in both low or weak approach motivations and a strong dislike for social interactions (i.e., strong avoidance motivations; Bowker et al., 2017;Etkin et al., 2016). Of note, social withdrawal and its various subtypes differ from social isolation, which is the result of external factors such as peer exclusion (Spangler & Gazelle, 2009) and ostracism (Ren et al., 2021). ...
... The overarching goal of the current investigation was to examine, for the first time, the unique associations between three motivations for social withdrawal (shyness, unsociability, social avoidance) and indices of psychosocial (mal)adjustment (loneliness, life satisfaction, depressive symptoms) in a sample of emerging adults in Norway. Although not a primary research aim, we first validated the Social Preference Scale-Revised (SPS-R; Bowker & Raja, 2011;Bowker et al., 2017), a self-report adaptation of the most commonly used parent-report measure of social withdrawal motivations (Coplan et al., 2004), for use in a Norwegian context. Of note, the SPS-R was first developed for use with young adolescents (Bowker & Raja, 2011), but then later revised to be developmentally-appropriate for emerging adults . ...
... The SPS-R has been revised from the Child Social Preference Scale (Coplan et al., 2004) which was a parent-report measure, to a 21-item self-report measure for youth and young adults (Bowker & Raja, 2011). Of note, we used the Bowker et al. (2017) version of the measure, which is an adaptation of the Bowker and Raja (2011) scale for young adolescents (10-14 years), so that it would be developmentally appropriate for emerging adults (e.g., words like "play" were replaced with "hang out"; see Bowker et al., 2017). In the Bowker et al. (2017) revision, additional items were also added to better capture unsociable and avoidant social withdrawal motivations. ...
Social withdrawal is the behavioral tendency to remove oneself from social situations - a tendency that often contributes to reductions in individuals' mental health. The current study evaluated the links between different motivations for social withdrawal (shyness, unsociability, social avoidance) and indices of psychosocial adjustment in a Norwegian sample of emerging adults. Participants were N = 194 Norwegian university students who completed self-report measures of life satisfaction, loneliness, and depressive symptoms, as well as withdrawal motivations. Among the results, a newly translated version of the Social Preference Scale-Revised (SPS-R) was validated for use in Norway. Findings showed that shyness was uniquely and positively associated with loneliness and depressive symptoms, as well as lower life satisfaction, whereas social avoidance was positively associated with depressive symptoms. Unsociability was uniquely linked to lower levels of loneliness and depressive symptoms. Findings provide novel information about the psychosocial correlates of social withdrawal motivations during emerging adulthood in the under-explored cultural context of Norway. Understanding nuances in the correlates of different motivations may aid in the development of culturally and developmentally sensitive interventions.
... It appears, however, that only one study to date has directly empirically tested the approach-avoidance motivational conflict model of shyness as described by Asendorpf (1990). Specifically, Bowker et al. (2017) recently examined contemporaneous relations between approach-avoidance motivations and shyness in undergraduates using the Behavioral Inhibition and Activation System (BIS/BAS) scales (Carver & White, 1994) to index approach-avoidance motivational tendencies. Carver and White (1994) developed the BIS/BAS scales as an instrument to subjectively measure the BIS and BAS motivational systems based on Gray's (1981) theory of personality. ...
... The BIS and BAS are thought to reflect basic, fundamental motivations and are operating systems that facilitate avoidance and approach behaviors on different levels in different contexts, including social contexts (Gray, 1981). It is important to point out that, although Asendorpf (1990) did not himself cite Gray's (1981) motivational model of personality, other researchers have linked Asendorpf's groupings to Gray's model (Bowker et al., 2017;Coplan et al., 2006;Kingsbury et al., 2013). Bowker et al. (2017) found that shyness measured contemporaneously was positively correlated with BIS (avoidance), and negatively, not positively, correlated with BAS (approach) in a sample of undergraduates. ...
... It is important to point out that, although Asendorpf (1990) did not himself cite Gray's (1981) motivational model of personality, other researchers have linked Asendorpf's groupings to Gray's model (Bowker et al., 2017;Coplan et al., 2006;Kingsbury et al., 2013). Bowker et al. (2017) found that shyness measured contemporaneously was positively correlated with BIS (avoidance), and negatively, not positively, correlated with BAS (approach) in a sample of undergraduates. While the study by Bowker et al. (2017) explored concurrent associations resulting from individual differences in approach and avoidance motivational tendencies in an emerging adult sample, their study was cross-sectional and restricted to undergraduates. ...
One long-standing theoretical model of shyness proposes that the origins and maintenance of shyness are associated with an approach-avoidance motivational conflict (Asendorpf, 1990), such that shy individuals are motivated to socially engage (high approach motivation) but are too anxious to do so (high avoidance motivation). However, this model has not been empirically tested in predicting the develop-ment of shyness. In two separate longitudinal studies, we used the Carver and White (1994) Behavioral Inhibition and Activation System (BIS/BAS) scales as a proxy of approach-avoidance motivations and growth curve analyses to examine whether individual differences in these hypothesized motivational tendencies were associated with the development of shyness across 3 years from late childhood to adolescence (Study 1, N = 1284; 49.8% female, Mage = 10.72, SDage = 1.73, M level of parental education fell between associate’s degree/diploma and undergraduate degree) and across nearly a decade from emerging adulthood to young adulthood (Study 2, N = 83; 57.8% females, Mage = 23.56 years, SDage = 1.09 years, 92.8% had at least a high school education). Contrary to the approach-avoidance conflict model of shyness, we found that a combination of high BIS/low BAS, not high BIS/high BAS, was associated with relatively higher shyness contemporaneously and across development in both studies. We discuss the processes that might link individual differences in approach-avoidance motivations to the development of shyness in adolescence and young adulthood.
... sizes; Barstead et al., 2018;Bowker & Raja, 2011;Ding et al., 2019;Ojanen, Findley-Van Nostrand, Bowker, & Markovic, 2017;Sang et al., 2018;Zhang & Eggum-Wilkens, 2018a), and for peer-nominations in China (medium effect sizes; Liu et al., 2014;Zhang & Eggum-Wilkens, 2018b). Finally, U.S. college students' self-reported shyness and unsociability positively correlated (medium effect sizes; Bowker et al., 2017;Nelson, 2013). Thus, a positive relation between shyness and unsociability is found in samples spanning various ages, reporters, and countries. ...
... Early adolescents' self-reported avoidance positively correlated with shyness (small and medium effect sizes) and unsociability (medium and large effect sizes) in India and China, respectively (Bowker & Raja, 2011;Ding et al., 2019;Sang et al., 2018). Similarly, U.S. college students' self-reported avoidance positively correlated with shyness (medium effect sizes) and unsociability (small or large effect sizes; Bowker et al., 2017;Nelson, 2013). Although shyness, unsociability, and avoidance have been correlated, factor analyses have supported distinguishability; questionnaire items have been well represented with separate latent factors for each withdrawal subtype (Bowker & Raja, 2011;Coplan et al., 2018;Nelson, 2013). ...
... This may be indicative of irritability, which often accompanies depression in adolescents (Thapar, Collinshaw, Pine, & Thapar, 2012). Avoidance predicts depression, in addition to other indicators of maladjustment such as exclusion, poor relationships, aggressiveness, loneliness, social anhedonia, and suicidal ideation (Bowker & Raja, 2011;Bowker et al., 2017;Coplan et al., 2018;Ding et al., 2019;Nelson, 2013;Sang et al., 2018). Despite correlations among subtypes, avoidance predicts maladaptive outcomes controlling for shyness and unsociability in most of these studies. ...
We investigated the co‐occurrence of and cross‐informant agreement on early adolescents' shyness, unsociability, and avoidance measured by self‐ and peer‐reports for 5th through 8th graders (N = 383; 51% male) in the U.S. Avoidance was significantly and positively associated with shyness and unsociability based on peer‐reports and self‐reports. Furthermore, 45% and 30% of peer‐ and self‐reported withdrawn adolescents had multiple motivations for withdrawal, suggesting prevalent co‐occurrence of withdrawal subtypes. Cross‐informant agreement was moderate for shyness and weak for unsociability and avoidance. We draw attention to the complexity of motivations underlying withdrawal, theorize about subtype co‐occurrence, and discuss challenges and opportunities related to peer‐reported unsociability and avoidance. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
... This research gap has led to a current debate about the extent to which subtypes are associated with different measures of (mis)adjustment (see . Moreover, some recent empirical findings challenge Asendorpf's approach-avoidance conceptualization (Bowker et al., 2017;Hassan et al., 2021), proclaiming that "modifications … may be needed" (Bowker et al., 2017, p. 286). In their recent review, point out that one of the main problems of the model is to properly assess SAP and SAV as its two key dimensions. ...
... One of the most commonly used measures to examine the subtypes of the 2 × 2 model is the Child Social Preference Scale (CSPS; Coplan et al., 2004). This scale was originally developed as a parent-report measure to assess conflicted shyness (later also termed "shyness") and social disinterest (later also termed "unsociability") in children, but has also been revised as a self-report measure for different age groups (Social Preference Scale, SPS-R; adapted for youth and young adults, Bowker & Raja, 2011; adapted for young adolescents and emerging adults, Bowker et al., 2017; adapted for young adults, Nelson, 2013). These revised self-report versions include two additional subscales originally developed by Bowker and Raja (2011) to assess individual levels of social avoidance and social isolation. ...
The 2 × 2 model of shyness and sociability is a widely accepted theoretical framework, but to date has not been examined using both adequate measures and appropriate statistical approaches. Therefore, we first review existing literature on the model, outline limitations of previous approaches, and present methodological suggestions on how to adequately test it. Second, by means of an example study with 206 adolescents, we provide support for a revised measure assessing social approach and social avoidance motivation as the two main dimensions of the model. Moreover, when testing the model with hierarchical regression analyses, we could partially replicate previous findings, but also found conflicting results. For instance, when compared to the avoidant-shy subtype (AS; i.e., the combination of low approach and high avoidance), the sociable subtype (SO; i. e., high approach and low avoidance) turned out to be more adaptive in all outcomes (i.e., positive and negative affect, emotional problems, peer problems, conduct problems, oral participation) except for prosocial behavior and nonverbal attentiveness. Furthermore, the comparison of SO to the conflicted-shy subtype (CS; i.e., both high approach and avoidance) and unsociable subtype (UN; i.e., both low approach and avoidance) illustrates that which subtype is more adaptive depends on the outcome.
... Research has also found that solitude is crucial to creativity (Feist et al., 2017). When in groups for extended periods of time, individuals naturally begin to adopt shared traits (Bowker et al., 2017). While this may be human nature, it does make it difficult to generate new ideas or inspire creativity. ...
... While this may be human nature, it does make it difficult to generate new ideas or inspire creativity. Because of this, time alone can be critical to growth (Bowker et al., 2017) because it allows for self-reflection and new thoughts. Introverts, who are naturally inclined to low stimulation environments and spending more time in solitude, often have original ideas and content unrelated to influence from those around them (Cain, 2013). ...
This literature review explores the role of personality types in the
workplace with a specific focus on the misconceptions surrounding introverted leaders. It includes a summary of the traits and qualities that comprise an effective leader and compares introverts and extroverts in leadership roles. It also addresses how organizations can utilize hiring practices and leadership development processes to be more inclusive of introverts when identifying prospective and emerging leaders. By addressing misconceptions about introverted leaders, organizations can better understand their strengths, talents,
perspectives, and values. Future research ideas are presented, and implications for workplace interventions are discussed.
... Consistently, a recent study suggests that, among Italian primary school children, social avoidance is significantly associated with self-reported depression, particularly in older children (Sette et al., 2022). Previous studies indicated that social avoidance was associated with a host of adjustment difficulties, such as peer problems (e.g., rejection, exclusion, and victimization) and internalizing problems (e.g., loneliness, depression, and social anxiety; Bowker et al., 2017;Coplan et al., 2018;Eggum et al., 2022;Sette et al., 2022). ...
... Social avoidance is considered an extreme form of shyness/social anxiety and represents an early manifestation of depression (Asendorpf, 1990;Schmidt and Fox, 1999). Consistent with this assertion, results from several studies found social avoidance is associated with maladjustment outcomes, such as peer exclusion, loneliness, and depression in Western societies (Bowker et al., 2017;Coplan et al., 2018Coplan et al., , 2021Eggum et al., 2022;Sette et al., 2022). For example, Sette et al. (2022) found that, after controlling for shyness and unsociability, social avoidance was positively associated with loneliness, regardless of children's age or gender, in Italian children. ...
Social avoidance has been found to be related to negative social adjustment, yet evidence of the relationship between social avoidance and social adjustment is very limited in suburban preschoolers in China. Moreover, the underlying mechanisms that help to explain the associations between social avoidance and socio-emotional adjustment remain poorly considered. The goal of the present study was to examine the moderating effect of marital conflict in the link between social avoidance and indices of socio-emotional functioning among young children in mainland China. Participants were N = 256 children aged from 49 to 72 months (125 boys, 131 girls, Mage = 59.06 months, SD = 6.58) attending preschools/kindergartens in suburban areas of Shanghai, People’s Republic of China. Multi-source assessments were employed, with mothers reporting marital conflict as well as rating their children’s social withdrawal (i.e., social avoidance, shyness, unsociability), and teachers assessing indices of children’s socio-emotional functioning at school (i.e., anxious-fearful behavior, peer exclusion, and loneliness). Children were asked about their loneliness. Among the results, social avoidance was positively associated with anxious-fearful behavior, peer exclusion, and loneliness (marginal significance). Moreover, as hypothesized, marital conflict was found to exacerbate the relations between social avoidance and peer exclusion, and loneliness. Results are discussed in terms of the etiology and implications of social avoidance among young children in mainland China.
... Các nghiên cứu về HVTCL của HS THPT đã chỉ ra mối liên hệ giữa HVTCL với các vấn đề về sức khỏe tâm thần (SKTT) của HS như: lo âu, trầm cảm, mất hứng thú xã hội và thậm chí là tâm thần phần liệt (Bowker et al., 2017). Trong khi đó, theo báo cáo của Bộ GD-ĐT và UNICEF Việt Nam vào năm 2023, các vấn đề SKTT đang ngày càng trở nên phổ biến hơn trên toàn thế giới. ...
Currently, self-isolation behavior is becoming more common among high school students. People with this behavior are at risk of social anxiety disorders, prone to depression, anxiety and feelings of discrimination, etc. Based on theoretical research on prevention self-isolating behavior and the current status of self-isolation behavior among high school students, the article proposes 03 groups of measures to prevent and combat self-isolation behavior for high school students, including: (1) screening measures; (2) support and intervention measures and, (3) prevention measures. The results from this study contribute to providing arguments for forming recommendations on how to address challenges related to mental health and psychosocial trauma for high school students, school and family in the current context.
... Some students withdraw from social interactions due to academic pressure, environmental changes, lack of social connections, or personalities [1]. These students often exhibit higher levels of problematic mobile phone use, health issues, etc. [2,3]. Conversely, some students actively choose solitude for emotional regulation, reflection, introspection, and creativity [4]. ...
Solitude behaviors encompass four types: positive solitude, eccentricity, social avoidance, and loneliness. These four types of solitude behaviors are not entirely independent but can co-occur within individuals. Thus, the purpose of this study was to explore latent classes of solitude behaviors, their developmental patterns, and relevant influencing factors among college students. The Solitude Behavior Scale—Short Version was administered to a sample of college students. A total of 417 Chinese students completed a three-time longitudinal paper questionnaire. The data analysis was performed using Mplus 8.0 and SPSS 26.0. Harman’s single-factor test, latent class analysis (LCA), and latent transition analysis (LTA) were employed for subsequent analysis. The results revealed three classes: low solitude, moderate solitude, and high solitude, which exhibited temporal changes. Social avoidance and loneliness could facilitate transitions between high solitude and moderate solitude. Females and first-grade students exhibited higher transition probabilities than males and students not in the first grade. The incidence of moderate solitude in the not-first-grade group was significantly higher than that in the first-grade group. Finally, this study offers new insights into the dynamics of solitude behaviors and their association with gender and age.
... Those who are socially withdrawn have been found to demonstrate aggression . Aggression is not only linked to withdrawal (Anooshian, 2005) but has also been identified as a theoretically indicated correlate (Bowker et al., 2017). Stressful environments, such as hostile online platforms, can lead to withdrawal as a sign of fatigue and burnout (Potempa et al., 1986). ...
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to examine how the constructs of false self, preference for online social interaction (POSI), compulsive internet use (CIU), and online disinhibition affect social withdrawal in a social media context. The mediating effects of moral disengagement and cyber aggression are also tested.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected using an online survey ( n = 533) from consumers in Japan. This study used structural equation modeling and PROCESS to examine the proposed relationships.
Findings
The study revealed that false self positively affects moral disengagement while online disinhibition positively affects cyber aggression and moral disengagement. Preference for online social interaction and compulsive internet use both positively impacts social withdrawal. Cyber aggression and moral disengagement were established mediators between false self/ Preference for online social interaction/ compulsive internet use/ online disinhibition and social withdrawal.
Research limitations/implications
Although restricted to cyberaggression, owing to the reciprocal relationship between cyber victimization and cyberaggression, cyber victimization can be included for further study. This study expands the understanding of social withdrawal within the context of social media.
Practical implications
Based on the findings, policies and programs that address mental health that build self-esteem, self-confidence and reduce anxiety ought to be undertaken. Managing and formulating guidelines on anonymity should also be taken into consideration.
Originality/value
This research demonstrates the crucial constructs that affect social media users negatively from the aspects of cyberaggression, moral disengagement and social withdrawal. It also establishes the importance of mental health in reducing adverse effects from social media.
... For example, the tension between approach and avoidance motivations means that shyness is often associated with mental distress (Nelson et al., 2008(Nelson et al., , 2015, difficulties with relationships (Nelson, 2013), and a delay in the transition to adult roles (Asendorpf et al., 2008;Kerr et al., 1996). In contrast, unsociability seems to be relatively benign (Coplan et al., 2019;Nelson, 2013) and may even provide some benefits, specifically with regards to creativity (Bowker et al., 2017) and the formation of one's identity (Barry et al., 2013). Finally, avoidance is related to a number of negative outcomes, like internalizing problems, poorer quality relationships (Nelson, 2013), problematic media use (Nelson et al., 2016), and externalizing behaviors (Clifford et al., 2022). ...
During emerging adulthood, identity development may be facilitated through a myriad of social interactions, especially in settings such as college. However, some social withdrawal motivations may impede an individual from engaging with others, and consequently, may stifle identity exploration and commitment. The objective of this study was to examine differences between social withdrawal subtypes on levels of identity development in a variety of domains among college emerging adults. Participants for this study consisted of 792 undergraduate students (547 women, 69% European American). Distinct social withdrawal motivation groups were created (shy, unsocial, avoidant) and then compared using multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA). Results indicated the shy group struggled with identity commitment generally, the avoidant group struggled with identity exploration and commitment in multiple domains, and the unsocial and mixed withdrawn groups showed comparable levels of identity exploration and commitment to the non-withdrawn group both generally and across identity domains.
... In this regard, four theoretical models that seek to explain the silent epidemic of SWA have emerged. First, Bowker, Stotsky, & Etkin (22) have indicated that SWA can be attributed to three primary factors. The rst is shyness, which is the result of fear or anxiety. ...
BACKGROUND: Social withdrawal and avoidance (SWA) have been studied extensively. However, there is a lack of research on the subtypes of SWA in the Global South. The present review aimed to investigate how common SWA is in the Global South.
METHODS: Adhering to the standards of PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) and included all articles that were published or in the press as of August 1, 2022. Once the evaluation of the articles was completed using the Joanna Briggs Institute guidelines, the random–effects model was used to estimate the prevalence of social anxiety disorders using specific diagnostic tools.
RESULTS: The meta-analysis included 29 articles on the only subtype of SWA that yielded the most meaningful results: social anxiety disorders (SADs). Social Phobia Inventory (n= 7669), the Social Interaction Anxiety Scale (n=7352), Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders scale (n= 1178) and the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale (n= 7777) indicated a pooled prevalence rate of 24.79% (95% CI: 20.46% - 29.39%), 24.60% (95% CI 16.65% -33.52%), 17.15% (95% CI: 11.78%–23.29%) and 10.77% (95% CI: 5.31%–17.87%), respectively. The pooled prevalence of SADs assessed using a semi-structured interview yielded a prevalence estimate of 5.84% (n = 3951).
LIMITATION: The lack of studies on other types of SWA.
CONCLUSION: The present critical evaluation in the global south found studies with data on SAD. Future research in the global south would need to work to improve the availability and quality of studies reporting on the SWA spectrum.
... For example, the tension between approach and avoidance motivations means that shyness is often associated with mental distress (Nelson et al., 2008(Nelson et al., , 2015, difficulties with relationships (Nelson, 2013), and a delay in the transition to adult roles (Asendorpf et al., 2008;Kerr et al., 1996). In contrast, unsociability seems to be relatively benign (Coplan et al., 2019;Nelson, 2013) and may even provide some benefits, specifically with regards to creativity (Bowker et al., 2017) and the formation of one's identity (Barry et al., 2013). Finally, avoidance is related to a number of negative outcomes, like internalizing problems, poorer quality relationships (Nelson, 2013), problematic media use (Nelson et al., 2016), and externalizing behaviors (Clifford et al., 2022). ...
Emerging adults were among those especially affected by the distancing measures and instability brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, not all emerging adults were affected equally. Thus, the purpose of this paper was to determine if different types of socially withdrawn emerging adults (shy, unsocial, avoidant, mixed-withdrawn) were affected differently from one another and from non-withdrawn emerging adults. Pandemic impact was measured in terms of changes in mental distress, life satisfaction, and identity development from before the pandemic to during the pandemic. Participants were 1249 emerging adults from project READY, a nationally representative, longitudinal study of young adults in the United States. Results showed that mixed-withdrawn emerging adults decreased in mental distress from before the pandemic to during the pandemic while non-withdrawn emerging adults increased in mental distress. Additionally, there was a decrease in life satisfaction across groups, and no significant change in identity development across time.
... In terms of underlying substrates, it has been postulated that social avoidance is brought on by extreme shyness/social anxiety (Schmidt & Fox, 1999), emerges in response to persistent and pervasive negative peer experiences (Bowker & Raja, 2011), and represents an early manifestation of depression . Of these proposed etiologies, the association between social avoidance and aspects of depression has received the most empirical support to date (Bowker et al., 2017;Coplan et al., 2013;Coplan et al., 2018). For example, Coplan et al. (2018) reported that after controlling for shyness and unsociability, social avoidance was uniquely associated with symptoms of depression (but not social anxiety) in a sample of Canadian preschool children. ...
The goal of the present study was to examine the moderating role of maternal depression in the links between social avoidance and indices of socio-emotional functioning among young children in mainland China. Participants were N = 211 children aged from 4–6 years (112 boys, 99 girls, Mage = 4.90 years, SD = 0.44) recruited from two public kindergartens in Shanghai, People’s Republic of China. Multi-source assessments were employed, with mothers reporting their own symptoms of depression, as well as rating children’s social withdrawal (i.e., social avoidance, shyness, unsociability), and teachers assessing indices of children’s socio-emotional functioning at school (i.e., asocial behaviors, interpersonal skills, peer exclusion, internalizing problems). Among the results, social avoidance was positively associated with asocial behaviors, peer exclusion, and internalizing problems, as well as negatively associated with interpersonal skills. Moreover, as hypothesized, symptoms of maternal depression were found to exacerbate the relations between social avoidance and each of these outcome variables. Results are discussed in terms of the etiology and implications of social avoidance among young children in mainland China.
... Indeed, Allen et al. (2001) found that after increasing left frontal activity through biofeedback training, people reported feeling happier when watching happy movies. This is consistent with the notion that socially avoidant adolescents and emerging adult are displaying early sign of depression, including social anhedonia (Bowker et al., 2017;Coplan & Armer, 2007;Coplan et al., 2015;Nelson et al., 2016). In support of this notion, Ding et al. (2019) demonstrated that depressive symptoms predicted incremental change in social avoidance over time in large sample of children and adolescents. ...
Individuals who are socially avoidant actively remove themselves from opportunities for social interaction and have a strong desire for solitude. Although social avoidance is associated with a host of adjustment difficulties, its neural substrates remain under-explored. To address this gap, we conducted an exploratory study to compare electroencephalography (EEG) frontal alpha asymmetry (FAA) scores during processing emotional facial stimuli in socially avoidant and non-withdrawn comparison individuals. From an original sample of N = 384 undergraduate students, 25 avoidant and 27 comparison individuals were identified. For this subset of participants, EEG modulations and self-reported experience ratings during a picture processing task were assessed. Among the results, the socially avoidant group’s ratings of positive stimuli were significantly lower than the non-withdrawn comparison group. The socially avoidant group also had significantly lower FAA scores in response to positive stimuli than the comparison group. Further, asymmetry scores of the comparison group in the positive conditions were higher than in the negative and neutral conditions. However, there were no significant differences between these three conditions in the socially avoidant group. Our results suggest that socially avoidant individuals may eschew interpersonal relationships because of a relatively greater right hemisphere cortical activity, which may contribute to a withdrawal motivation when confronted with negative emotional stimuli in social contexts.
... Social avoidance is defined as the avoidance of interaction, conversation, or contact with another person for any reason, including actual avoidance behavior and avoidance tendencies (9). Social avoidance is a serious threat to the mental health of patients and a burden to society (10). In addition, patients with breast cancer, especially young patients with breast cancer (11), pay more attention to appearance changes, after the acute survival period (the period of cancer diagnosis and treatment); later, the whole survival period will present a series of social problems, such as career choice, marriage, and social interaction (12). ...
Background
Social avoidance plays an important role in influencing quality of life among patients with breast cancer. Social avoidance behaviors change with treatment periods. However, the trajectory patterns and the predictive factors have not been fully studied.
Objective
This study examined the growth trajectory of social avoidance and its predictors in patients with breast cancer.
Materials and methods
A total of 176 patients with breast cancer in a university hospital in Shaanxi Province, China, were followed up four times over 6 months following surgery, and data from the final 144 patients were analyzed. The growth mixed model (GMM) was used to identify the trajectory categories, and the predictive factors of the trajectory types were analyzed by logistic regression.
Results
The best-fit growth mixture modeling revealed three class models: persistent high social avoidance group (Class 1), social avoidance increased first and then decreased group (Class 2), and no social avoidance group (Class 3), accounting for 13.89, 31.94, and 54.17% of patients, respectively. Single-factor analysis showed that family income per capita, residence, and temperament type were related to the social avoidance trajectory. Logistic regression analysis showed that only temperament type was an independent predictor of the social avoidance trajectory, and patients with melancholia were more likely to have persistent high social avoidance.
Conclusion
Our study proved the heterogeneity of social avoidance behaviors and the influencing effect of temperament type on the development of social avoidance behaviors in Chinese patients with breast cancer. Health professionals should pay more attention to patients who are at higher risk of developing a persistent social avoidance pattern and provide target interventions.
... Second, we contribute to the literature on creativity. While there is evidence of creativity in aloneness or voluntary isolation (Bowker et al., 2017), ours is one of the first studies to find people's creative tendencies when they were forced to work from home by their employers under conditions of forced isolation. This is because individuals spent uninterrupted and quality time on a task of their choice. ...
to impose lockdowns. Thus, organizations forced employees to work from home
(WFH) by leveraging information technology. We explored the impact of WFH on
employees during the lockdown. We conducted in-depth interviews of 24 employees
across manufacturing and technology-enabled sectors in India and analyzed the data
using Gioia’s methodology. Four dimensions emerged from the impact of WFH on
employees: role improvisation, stress, isolation, and self-initiated creativity. While
some themes were common between the two industrial sectors, other themes varied.
For instance, service sector employees reported current work-related stress, whereas
manufacturing sector employees reported future-related stress. Interestingly, we
discovered sparks of creativity among employees during this period either towards
nurturing themselves (technology-enabled sector) or towards solving long-pending
organizational issues (manufacturing sector). Most importantly, these creativity
sparks were self-initiated. The study is novel as it explores the impact of large-scale
WFH enforced during crisis.
Keywords COVID-19 · Work from home · Stress · Creativity · Isolation
... Eliminating the other item regarding spending time alone may also be necessary, but this elimination may be less a product of a cultural shift, and more because a large number of individuals (creative or not) prefer to spend time alone (Houtz, 2003) and preference may be more complex than can be captured in a single item (e.g., consisting of unsociability, avoidance, and shyness components; Bowker, Stotsky, & Etkin, 2017). ...
... Not surprisingly, Asendorpf (1990) speculated that, as compared to shyness and unsociability, social avoidance might confer the greatest risk for the most pervasive socio-emotional difficulties. Consistent with this assertion, results from the handful of empirical variable-centered studies exploring social avoidance suggest that social avoidance is related to a wide range of negative outcomes, particularly with regards to emotional problems (e.g., loneliness) and peer problems (e.g., rejection, exclusion) at various developmental stages (Bowker & Raja, 2011;Bowker, Stotsky, & Etkin, 2017;Coplan et al., 2013;Coplan et al., 2018;Coplan et al., 2021;Nelson, 2013). For example, Coplan et al. (2018) found that, after controlling for shyness and unsociability, social avoidance was associated with peer rejection and exclusion in early childhood. ...
The goal of the present study was to examine the moderating effect of academic achievement in the longitudinal relations between social avoidance and socioemotional adjustment in Chinese children. Participants were N = 578 children (Mage = 11.24 years, SD = 1.33 years) attending public schools in Shanghai, P.R. China. We assessed motivations for social withdrawal, academic achievement, and peer problems via self-reports, peer nominations, and school records. Among the results, social avoidance (positively) and academic achievement (negatively) uniquely and significantly predicted later feelings of loneliness, peer problems, and lower peer acceptance. Moreover, academic achievement significantly moderated the relations between social avoidance and later peer problems (but not loneliness or peer acceptance). The current findings suggest that although social avoidance poses unique developmental risk over time, academic achievement may serve as a protective factor against peer difficulties among Chinese youth. We discuss the results in terms of the implications of social avoidance and academic achievement in Chinese culture.
... We also found BIS to significantly predict shy ness, and previous studies have shown the positive association with shyness (and similar construct, social anxiety) and BIS (Bowker et al., 2017;Levinson et al., 2011) in Western samples. The positive BIS reflects increases in social defense in shy individuals potentially to avoid approaching a particular stimulus in order to avoid punishment and unwanted outcomes in social situations. ...
The number of women entering the field of psychology has steadily increased to nearly 75% over the past decade (APA, 2019). During this time, the number of women in psychology who identify as racial and/or ethnic group member has also increased (APA, 2019). The discipline of psychology prides itself on inclusivity and has worked to increase the retention of members with varying cultural and gender identities (APA n.d.b., & APA, n.d.c.). Shifts in composition, however, have not been reflected among higher ranking professionals within the field (e.g., faculty, supervisors; Office of Program Consultation and Accreditation, 2015). This disparity warranted a qualitative investigation on the experiences, emotions, and reactions to microaggressions for women emerging in psychology (n = 264). Although psychology-related professionals aspire to be more inclusive and maintain an explicit orientation to social change, microaggressions have a large purview from which no field is excluded. Findings from women’s narrative responses revealed 4 types of microaggressions, 11 elicited emotion themes, and 6 types of reactions to microaggressions. Results highlight how women manage their emotions and reactions to microaggressions in institutional environments while considering individual and collective stigma consciousness. Monitoring and documenting the social conditions of this field can increase support and allyship, which facilitates retention for women pursuing and earning doctoral degrees in psychology.
https://www.psichi.org/resource/resmgr/journal_2021/26_4_Almond.pdf
... As convergent thinking tasks such as RAT require introspection and self-reflection, individuals with an "Emotionally Stable Lonely" profile characterized by high introversion were more creative on these tasks. This result is in line with studies suggesting a relationship between introversion and creativity (Bowker et al., 2017;Csikszentmihalyi, 1997;Feist, 1998). According to Feist (1998), the most creative people are those who are introverted and who are comfortable working in solitary (and social isolation) situations in which they can focus attention inward. ...
With the COVID-19 outbreak, the population was suddenly forced to "stay at home". Although research suggests that social isolation affects health and wellbeing, reactions may vary depending on individuals. The current study assessed the relationships between personality variables (preference for solitude and Big Five personality), mental health (anxiety, stress, loneliness), and creativity, and tried to determine whether the identified personality profiles affect individuals' mental health and creativity. French respondents (N = 430) filled in an online questionnaire during the first lockdown in Spring 2020. The results showed that the preference for solitude and personality variables of the Big Five predicted individuals' mental health and creativity. Moreover, a cluster analysis revealed three profiles of individuals: "Affiliation", "Emotionally Stable Lonely" and "Emotionally Unstable Lonely". Results showed that individuals with "Affiliation" and "Emotionally Unstable Lonely" profiles expressed higher stress and anxiety, and the latter performed better on a divergent creative thinking task. By contrast, those with an "Emotionally Stable Lonely" profile expressed a lower level of loneliness, and performed better on a creative insight task. These findings reveal the importance of personality profiles in psychological reactions during lockdowns. With this knowledge, health professionals could develop appropriate interventions to accompany high-risk individuals in situations of social isolation.
Supplementary information:
The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12144-021-01885-3.
... Quant à l'invention collective, depuis Vygotsky (1978) et la « théorie socioconstructiviste », la plupart des études font le lien entre le travail en groupe en général et la créativité ou l'inventivité. Les résultats de ces études sont très contradictoires, certaines d'entre elles montrant que la collaboration pourrait créer des « chambres d'écho » et impacter négativement la créativité ou l'inventivité (Bowker et al., 2017 ;Cocu et al., 2015), d'autres signalant une corrélation positive entre le travail en groupe et la créativité ou l'inventivité (Roque et al., 2016). Le problème est que la majeure partie de la littérature explorant l'impact du travail en groupe sur l'invention n'établit pas de distinction entre les différentes structures de travail au sein d'un groupe, format qui comme nous l'avons vu est un facteur important sur la performance d'un groupe (Duhigg, 2016 ;Engel et al., 2014 ;Olguín et al., 2009 ;Onnela et al., 2014 ). ...
Design groups are often expected to be creative and inventive. The performance of an inventive design group can be measured by three factors: the total number of contributions (ideas), the even distribution of the contribution rate within the group, and the exploration of new ideas. Since digital technologies challenge the uses, form, design and interactions proposed by digital learning artifacts, many digital resources for academic learning are similar to digital facsimiles of print resources. Thus, the supposed potential of digital techniques is not being fully realized and there is a lack of inventiveness in the design of digital versions of learning artifacts. This thesis proposes a design method that promotes collaborative interactions - as opposed to cooperative interactions - that would influence the level of inventiveness in the process of designing digital learning artifacts. The cooperative organization organizes shared design tasks that are distributed among educational players who are experts in their fields, whereas the collaborative organization relies on the confrontation of views, ideas and contributions of all participants in design workshops that bring together groups of educational players with heterogeneous profiles and competencies. To test our hypothesis, we chose the digital textbook as a digital learning artifact, as it is emblematic of educational resources and lends itself both to a simple digitization of printed textbooks and to transpositions that benefit from the new functionalities made possible by the use of digital technology. We proposed an experimental study by forming six cross-category design groups composed of all the actors of the educational system and working online. In this way, we traced and quantified all the online interactions between the participants in each group during the three months of the design process. We found 1) that collaborative interactions in the design process improved the quality of the flow of ideas compared to the cooperative design groups that divided the work; 2) a positive correlation between the collaboration coefficient of each design group and the level of inventiveness of the designed artifact; and 3) a correlation at the individual level between the number of confrontations with a given idea during the design process and the probability of adopting it. We observed that the designed artifact could be a representation of the collective flow of ideas of the entire group, with the group's ideas being translated into the designed artifact. We postulate that this artifact could then have the potential to influence those same designers. Following this study, we tested the proposed design method several times to make it evolve. The new versions of the design method use both collaborative and cooperative design work sessions depending on the nature of the task to be performed in each step of the design process. Finally, given that we are interested in the collaborative and cooperative dynamics in the design method proposed by this research, it is important to note the importance of taking into account the risks of simplification assumed in this thesis regarding methodological choices when interpreting the results.
... However, other studies suggest that preference for solitude may not constitute a risk factor for ostracism. For example, preference for solitude is considered as a benign disposition in emerging adulthood (Bowker et al., 2017;. In support of this notion, researchers have found that preference for solitude is not associated with qualities of interpersonal relationships (Nelson, 2013), loneliness (Burger, 1995;Long et al., 2003), or social isolation (Waskowic & Cramer, 1999). ...
What are the interpersonal consequences of seeking solitude? Leading theories in developmental research have proposed that having a general preference for solitude may incur significant interpersonal costs, but empirical studies are still lacking. In five studies (total N = 1,823), we tested whether target individuals with a higher preference for solitude were at greater risk for ostracism, a common, yet extremely negative, experience. In studies using self-reported experiences (Study 1) and perceptions of others’ experiences (Study 2), individuals with a stronger preference for solitude were more likely to experience ostracism. Moreover, participants were more willing to ostracize targets with a high (vs. low) preference for solitude (Studies 3 and 4). Why do people ostracize solitude-seeking individuals? Participants assumed that interacting with these individuals would be aversive for themselves and the targets (Study 5; preregistered). Together, these studies suggest that seeking time alone has important (and potentially harmful) interpersonal consequences.
... As convergent thinking tasks such as RAT require introspection and selfreflection, individuals with an "Emotionally Stable Lonely" profile characterized by high introversion were more creative on these tasks. This result is in line with studies suggesting a relationship between introversion and creativity (Bowker et al., 2017;Csikszentmihalyi, 1997;Feist, 1998). According to Feist (1998), the most creative people are those who are introverted and who are comfortable working in solitary (and social isolation) situations in which they can focus attention inward. ...
With the COVID-19 outbreak, the population was suddenly forced to “stay at home”. Although research suggests that social isolation affects health and wellbeing, reactions may vary depending on individuals. The current study assessed the relationships between personality variables (preference for solitude and Big Five personality), mental health (anxiety, stress, loneliness), and creativity, and tried to determine whether the identified personality profiles affect individuals’ mental health and creativity. French respondents (N = 430) filled in an online questionnaire during the first lockdown in Spring 2020. The results showed that the preference for solitude and personality variables of the Big Five predicted individuals’ mental health and creativity. Moreover, a cluster analysis revealed three profiles of individuals: “Affiliation”, “Emotionally Stable Lonely” and “Emotionally Unstable Lonely”. Results showed that individuals with “Affiliation” and “Emotionally Unstable Lonely” profiles expressed higher stress and anxiety, and the latter performed better on a divergent creative thinking task. By contrast, those with an “Emotionally Stable Lonely” profile expressed a lower level of loneliness, and performed better on a creative insight task. These findings reveal the importance of personality profiles in psychological reactions during lockdowns. With this knowledge, health professionals could develop appropriate interventions to accompany high-risk individuals in situations of social isolation.
... We also contribute to the literature on creativity. While there is evidence of creativity in aloneness or voluntary isolation (Bowker, Stotsky, & Etkin, 2017), ours is the rst study to nd people's creative tendencies when they were required to work-from-home by their employers under conditions of forced isolation. This is because individuals spent uninterrupted and quality time on a task of their choice. ...
The present pandemic caused by COVID-19 has caused unprecedented turmoil in human lives. Invoking the typology of crises, we classify COVID-19 as an intractable crisis that necessitated nations to impose lockdowns. As national economies and businesses got a severe blow with this closure, organizations encouraged employees to work from home. Drawing upon the employee isolation literature, we aimed to examine the impact of work from home on employees during the lockdown. This investigation would help us learn about the nature and quality of work in the context of the current crisis. Towards this, we conducted in-depth interviews with 24 middle and senior-level managers across manufacturing and technology-enabled service sectors in India and analyzed the data using MAXQDA software. Employees reported an increase in working hours, major changes in their roles, reduced levels of productivity, and increased levels of stress. Besides these findings, we discovered sparks of creativity among employees during this isolation period. These creative steps were either towards nurturing oneself for career growth or towards solving long-pending organizational issues. Interestingly, the creativity was self-initiated. Our findings have key implications for organizations and their leaders who need to revisit work-from-home policies for the future workforce. We highlight our theoretical contributions and outline the scope for future research.
... For example, the majority of undergraduate students' age category belongs to emerging adulthood that commonly associated with the promising and perils of psychosocial aberration (Barlett & Barlett, 2015;Henin & Berman, 2016). As a result, students might be susceptible to antisocial behaviors and psychosocial problems such as stress and depression (Allem & Unger, 2016;Bowker, Stotsky, & Etkin, 2017). Mainly, this stage is critical to begin substance abuse and plan for future consumption, which has an unequivocal influence on their health and academic pursuits (Duijster et al., 2017;Glowacz & Schmits, 2017). ...
Urie Bronfenbrenner's bioecological theory is an important model to illustrate the complexity of reciprocal interactions between growing persons and their multilevel socioecological milieus. In higher education, students' achievement may be similarly affected by manifold bioecological systems. The applications of this holistic theory have been widely considered in higher education across the world, but it seems that a simplistic reductionist approach is popular in higher education of Ethiopian to determine educational outputs. The objective of this article is, therefore, pertaining partial application of Bronfenbrenner's bioecological model to higher education with an intention to surpass students' learning. This theory may offer useful theoretical frameworks and practical implications for practitioners. Thereby, they could demonstrate comprehensive maneuvers to successfully handle multilevel socioecological factors that counteract students' learning. Although it is very challenging to apply bioecological theory in a complete manner, implications of key concepts such as a person, microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, macrosystem, and chronosystem variables have been discussed.
... Eliminating the other item regarding "spending time alone" may also be necessary, but this elimination may be less a product of a cultural shift and more because a large number of individuals (creative or not) prefer to spend time alone (Houtz et al., 2003), and preference may be more complex than can be captured in a single item (e.g., consisting of unsociability, avoidance, and shyness components; Bowker, Stotsky, & Etkin, 2017). Overall, an IRT approach may not only support the identification of creatively gifted individuals, but it may also help theorists determine distinguishing characteristics of a creative personality in general. ...
Identifying creatively gifted students remains a challenging yet important task. Often, teacher rating scales are used to assess students’ creative behaviors; however, the school environment may not always provide opportunities for students to demonstrate creative ability, making it challenging for teachers to observe students’ creative potential. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to (1) explore students’ perceptions of their own creativity, (2) determine the discriminatory validity of the creativity subscale of the Scales for Identifying Gifted Students (SIGS-C), and (3) compare students’ and teachers’ ratings on the SIGS-C. Data were collected from 236 middle and high school students and their teachers in the United States. Significant differences existed between how students perceived their creativity in general and at school (t(217) = 7.946, p < .001), and their SIGS-C scores more closely correlated with their general ratings (r = .64, p < .001) than their school ratings (r = .20, p < .001). SIGS-C items were analyzed using an IRT approach, and two items (breaking gender stereotypes, spending time alone) did not adequately differentiate between levels of creativity on teacher or student rating scales. Finally, teachers’ ratings were minimally but significantly correlated with the students’ ratings (r = .14, p = .046), demonstrating the importance of considering multiple sources of data when identifying creatively gifted students.
... The second mechanism facilitating the development of creativity involves the likelihood that only children spend more time alone as they are growing up, giving them more opportunity to become comfortable with, and maybe even develop a preference for, lower degrees of sociability (Falbo and Polit, 1986). Recently, Bowker et al. (2017) found that one type of social withdrawal, which they called "unsociability," benefitted individuals, by enhancing their creativity. Therefore, the greater likelihood that only children spend time alone as children may afford them more opportunity to develop creativity, and if they retain their unsociability as adults, they may retain their advantages in creativity. ...
Objective: To examine associations among psychological distress, perceptions of life changes, and perceptions of family support among college students during the quarantine period of the pandemic. Background: A supportive family can buffer psychological distress during crises. During the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, many college students abruptly returned to their family home, disrupting a developmental stage typically oriented toward independence and peer connection. While previous research has highlighted the stressors of this period, less is known about the role of perceived family support in shaping students’ mental health outcomes. Method: Data from a cross-sectional sample of 339 college students were collected. Statistical analysis included a hierarchical multiple regression and moderated moderation to investigate the relationship between the life changes college students experienced due to COVID-19 and distress and how family support moderated this relationship while treating gender as a secondary moderator. Results: Perceptions of worsening life conditions due to COVID-19 were associated with higher levels of distress and vice versa. Perceptions of emotional forms of family support moderated this relationship, but only among male participants. Conclusions: This study contributes to our understanding of the mental health implications of the pandemic on college students by identifying emotional family support as a gender-specific protective factor. Implications: Insights from this study may inform mental health interventions that consider family dynamics and gender-specific coping during large-scale crises. These findings may also guide strategies for supporting students facing the long-term psychological impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Most previous work examining relations between social withdrawal and social cognition has focused primarily on empathy‐related behaviors in shy children. However, there are different underlying reasons to withdraw from social interactions, which may be differentially related to aspects of social cognition throughout the lifespan. The present study investigated relations among the different motivations for social withdrawal (i.e., shyness, avoidance, and unsociability) and indices of social cognition, including cognitive (i.e., perspective taking) and affective (i.e., empathic concern and personal distress) empathy, and prosocial behavior during emerging adulthood. Participants included 588 Canadian undergraduate students ( M age = 18.91 years; 80% female), who completed self‐report questionnaires assessing social withdrawal and empathy, and participated in the Dictator Game to assess sharing behavior. A series of multiple linear regressions revealed that the different motivations for social withdrawal were differentially associated with the three components of empathy and prosocial behavior. Shyness was positively associated with empathic concern and personal distress, whereas avoidance was negatively associated with empathic concern, perspective taking, and prosocial behavior. Unsociability was positively associated with perspective taking and negatively associated with personal distress. These findings have implications for our understanding of the different motivations for social withdrawal, and how each motivation influences how individuals connect with, relate to, and understand others.
Objective:
People value solitude for themselves. Yet little is known about how people perceive dispositional preference for solitude in others. Does dispositional preference for solitude represent a protective factor from psychological distress during times of social distancing? And do laypeople have accurate beliefs about the role of preference for solitude?
Method:
To answer these questions, we conducted four studies (three preregistered, Ntotal = 1,418) at the early and a later stage of the COVID-19 pandemic using experimental, longitudinal, and experience sampling designs.
Results:
People expected targets with a higher solitude preference to be more resilient (e.g., less lonely, more satisfied with life) during social distancing, and consequently prioritize them less when allocating supportive resources for maintaining social connections (Studies 1 & 2). Compared to these beliefs, the actual difference between individuals with higher versus lower solitude preference was smaller (Study 2) or even negligible (Study 3). Did people form more calibrated beliefs two years into the pandemic? Study 4 suggested no.
Conclusions:
Together, these studies show that people overestimate the role of preference for solitude in predicting others' psychological experience. As a result, solitude seeking individuals may miss out on supportive resources, leading to higher risks for mental health issues.
The goal of this study was to evaluate the measurement invariance of an adapted assessment of motivations for social withdrawal ( Social Preference Scale–Revised; SPS-R) across cultural contexts and explore associations with loneliness. Participants were a large sample of university students ( N = 4,397; M age = 20.08 years, SD = 2.96; 66% females) from 10 countries (Argentina, Australia, Canada, China, India, Italy, South Korea, Norway, Turkey, and the United States). With this cross-cultural focus, we illustrate the multiple-group factor analysis alignment method, an approach developed to assess measurement invariance when there are several groups. Results indicated approximate measurement invariance across the 10 country groups. Additional analyses indicated that overall, shyness, avoidance, and unsociability are three related, but distinct factors, with some notable country differences evident (e.g., in China, India, and Turkey). Shyness and avoidance were related positively to loneliness in all countries, but the strength of the association between shyness and loneliness differed in Italy and India relative to the other countries. Results also indicated that unsociability was related positively to loneliness in the United States only. Theoretical and assessment implications are discussed.
The academy’s separation of the arts from the sciences constricts researchers’ opportunities to engage with works of art and literature that pause our time-worn processes of data collection and analysis. From the works of Humboldt and Goethe, to more recent writers and artists, literature and art offer us moments to stop and think differently about the ways in which we interact with our environment and others, human and nonhuman. In moments of enchantment, awe or stillness, we might lose ourselves, and imagine other less anthropocentric ways of being in the world and new transdisciplinary forms of collaboration.
While social withdrawal in childhood is typically associated with lower academic functioning, little is known about how motivations for social withdrawal may be connected to academic adjustment in emerging adulthood. The purpose of the present study was to examine associations between social withdrawal motivations (i.e., shyness, avoidance and unsociability) and indices of academic adjustment, including academic achievement (i.e., grade point average [GPA]) and academic motivation (i.e., intrinsic value, self‐efficacy and test anxiety), while accounting for gender and conscientiousness. Participants were 623 emerging adults between the ages of 18 and 25 (Mage = 20.15, SD = 1.67; 79% female) who were currently attending university. Hierarchical regression results showed that shyness was negatively associated with intrinsic value and self‐efficacy. Whereas shyness was positively associated with test anxiety, avoidance was negatively associated with test anxiety. Social withdrawal motivations were not associated with GPA. The findings suggest that some motivations for social withdrawal play a role in university students’ academic motivation, but not their academic achievement.
The digital age has re-shaped the landscape of creative writing. One example of the changes that have taken place is the way in which millions of young people, globally, now write and share stories as online fanfiction. This is an out-of-school leisure pastime that can also help improve language skills (Aragon & Davis, 2019; Black, 2008). English taught as a second language (i.e. L2) in schools can be less authentic, less motivational and engaging than English used in free-time situations (extramural English, Sundqvist, 2009); thus, there is a need to “bridge the gap” between the English taught in the formal setting of school and the English encountered in informal settings (Swedish Schools Inspectorate, 2011). This licentiate thesis focuses on extramural English creative writing and aims to raise understanding about the ways it can motivate and engage. Also, the issue of L2 English is addressed in relation to pupils’ perspectives of their informal learning as well as their insights into creative writing and challenge in the school subject of English. The participants in the study were thirteen teenage pupils of Swedish secondary and upper-secondary schools who write creatively in English in their free time. Their writing included stories, comics, poems and songs, and some of this work was published online. Data was collected using semi-structured interviews, and it was analysed using qualitative content analysis. The findings confirm that writing can be closely related to reading, as participants were motivated by stories they wished to imitate and adapt. Also, the results show how teenage creative writers were able to use networked communication to access a large global readership. There was a strong motivation to write for pleasure – for oneself – and this writing, and enjoyment, could subsequently be shared with others. The free-time writing activity was fun, playful and imaginative, and also aided understanding of the participants’ own experiences and emotions. The state of flow (Csíkszentmihályi, 1990) was an aspect of the pupils’ engagement with creative writing as well. The activity was rewarding as it brought praise, enabled role-play, involved social contacts, and opened the way to new affiliations and friendships. Moreover, the pupils considered that their language learning was enriched through their free-time creative writing. Finally, the participants offered valuable insights into aspects of English as a school subject: there was some creative writing in English lessons, but there was a need for both more creative writing and more challenge.
Background
The fact that depression and anxiety are highly prevalent and often co-occur has been well documented. The present study hypothesized that loneliness and interpersonal trust mediate the relationship between depression and social anxiety, with self-esteem playing a moderating role.
Methods
1,021 college students completed the interpersonal trust scale (ITS), self-rating depression scale (SDS), UCLA loneliness scale, self-esteem scale (SES), and social avoidance and distress (SAD) scale. And descriptive statistical analysis and correlation analysis, structural equation model analysis were conducted.
Results
1) The correlations between depression, loneliness, interpersonal trust, self-esteem and social avoidance were all statistically significant. 2) Loneliness and interpersonal trust mediated the relationship between depression and social avoidance. 3) Self-esteem moderated the relationship between interpersonal trust and social avoidance. Specifically, compared with individuals who had high self-esteem, social avoidance in those with low self-esteem individuals was more susceptible to the effects of interpersonal trust.
Limitations
First, the questionnaire data may be influenced by social approval. Second, most of the participants were college students. Finally, the causal relationship between the variables could not be inferred.
Conclusions
The results indicated that loneliness and interpersonal trust played mediating roles between depression and social avoidance, and the relationship between interpersonal trust and social avoidance was moderated by self-esteem. It provides a new way to explain the mechanism of depression, and a new perspective for the clinical intervention of depression, that is, from the perspective of their self-experience and self-esteem.
Relative to other motivations of social withdrawal (i.e., shyness, unsociability), social avoidance is understudied. Furthermore, the relation between social avoidance and externalizing problems seldom has been investigated despite reasons to expect an association. We examined the association between social avoidance and externalizing problems using a sample of early adolescents in the United States using parents' reports (N = 294; 54.1% boys; M age = 12.43 years). Supporting our hypotheses, structural equation models indicated that social avoidance positively predicted concurrent externalizing problems, controlling for shyness, unsociability, and internalizing problems (including depression and anxiety). Findings highlight that socially avoidant adolescents' behaviors may include avoiding others as well as acting out. Longitudinal work is needed to examine the potential bidirectional relations between social avoidance and externalizing problems.
Although solitude has been portrayed as a potentially constructive domain in adolescence, time alone has been consistently associated with socio‐emotional maladjustment. To address this discrepancy, we explored how adolescents spend their time alone and the links between solitary activities and adjustment outcomes. Adolescents (N = 869, 68% female, Mage = 16.14 ± .50) completed self‐report measures assessing time alone, solitary activities, and indices of adjustment. Latent class analysis revealed three distinct groups based on solitary activities: Passive Media (53.3%), Engaged (i.e., constructive activities; 31.7%), and Thinking (15%). Differences also emerged among these three groups in terms of time alone, negative affect, and loneliness. Implications for the role of solitude in adolescent well‐being are discussed.
Adolescence is a developmental period when spending time alone becomes particularly important. The aim of this study was to explore adolescents’ experiences of solitude, with a focus on the implications of both spending too much time alone—as well as not enough time alone. Participants were N = 869 adolescents (15–19 years of age, M = 16.14, SD = 0.50), who completed a series of self report measures assessing time spent alone, activities while alone, social motivations (shyness, sociability), affect, and the recently introduced construct of aloneliness (i.e., negative feeling that arise from the perception that one is not getting enough time in solitude). Among the results, person-oriented analyses provided evidence of distinct subgroups of socially withdrawn adolescents (e.g., shy-withdrawn, unsociable, socially avoidant) as well as an alonely group (high aloneliness, low time alone). There was also preliminary support for the notion that solitary activity activities that are intrinsically motivated may be particularly effective at satisfying the need for solitude (and thereby reducing feelings of aloneliness). Taken together, these results highlight the importance of considering the implications of getting both too much—as well as not enough solitude for adolescents’ well-being.
This chapter explores both demand and supply aspects of creative work under conditions of acute attention scarcity brought by ubiquitous connectivity and the digital content deluge. The quality agnosticism of social media platforms, designed for addiction, has heightened concerns about the balkanisation and dumbing down of markets for cultural products. Whether virtual communities of connoisseurship, and new ecologies of curation, may attenuate these effects is explored. The chapter then explores challenges for creative work under such conditions of hyper-connectivity, uncertainty-compounding information cascade effects, and content overload. The risks are not only to the commercial success of particular cultural products but also to the creative process itself. Clues as to what constitutes effective creative discretion—judgement about what influences and audience expectations to ignore, conform to, or articulate a response to—are sought in examples of past writers and artists.
An approach-avoidance model of social withdrawal (Asendorpf, 1990) identifies 3 types of social withdrawal including shyness, unsociability, and avoidance. Each appears to be uniquely associated with varying indicators of maladjustment in emerging adulthood (Nelson, 2013) but little, if any, work has been done to see how they might be linked to media use in the third decade of life. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine longitudinally the links between subtypes of social withdrawal, connective media (e.g., e-mail, social networking) and problematic (forms of media such as violent video games that, when used in high amounts, have been found to be linked to indices of maladjustment) media use, and internalizing and externalizing behaviors. The participants in the study (Mage = 20.70, SD = 1.98, range = 18-29 at Time 2) consisted of 204 undergraduate students (58% female) recruited from 2 large public universities in the United States who completed questionnaires at 2 points of time separated by 1 year. Results revealed that avoidant individuals use problematic forms of media more than average, unsociable, and shy individuals. Furthermore, problematic media use predicted more withdrawn behavior at Time 2 and mediated the relation between avoidance and externalizing behaviors over time. Few problems were found for unsociable behavior. The need to differentiate between multiple forms of withdrawal in emerging adulthood and their links with problematic forms of media and subsequent risk factors is discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record
Scholars have distinguished conceptually between multiple forms of social withdrawal among children and adolescents, but this distinction has yet to be investigated fully during emerging adulthood. Therefore, the overarching goal of this study was to employ a person‐oriented approach to examine differences between subtypes of withdrawal on indicators of internalizing issues and relationships in emerging adulthood. The sample for the current study (Mage = 19.60, SD = 1.85, range = 18–29) consisted of 791 undergraduate students (548 women, 243 men). Results revealed that three distinct forms of social withdrawal (shyness, avoidance, unsociable) can be identified in emerging adulthood, with each one uniquely related to indices of maladjustment in regard to internalizing problems and relationship difficulties. In general, both shy and avoidant individuals reported more problems of an internalizing nature and in their relationships. Far fewer problems appear to exist for unsociable individuals.
The Wisconsin Schizotypy Scales—the Perceptual Aberration, Magical Ideation, Physical Anhedonia, and Revised Social Anhedonia Scales—have been used extensively since their development in the 1970s and 1980s. Based on psychometric analyses using item response theory, the present work presents 15-item short forms of each scale. In addition to being briefer, the short forms omit items with high differential item functioning. Based on data from a sample of young adults (n=1144), the short forms have strong internal consistency, and they mirror effects found for the longer scales. They thus appear to be a good option for researchers interested in the brief assessment of schizotypic traits. The items are listed in an Appendix A.
The primary goals of this study were to test a conceptual model linking social approach and avoidance motivations, socially withdrawn behaviors, and peer difficulties in later childhood and to compare the socioemotional functioning of different subtypes of withdrawn children (shy, unsociable, avoidant). Participants were 367 children, aged 9-12 years. Measures included assessments of social motivations (i.e., self-reported shyness and preference for solitude) and social withdrawal (observations of solitary behaviors in the schoolyard and self-reports of solitary activities outside of school), as well as self- and parent-reported peer difficulties and internalizing problems. Among the results, both shyness and preference for solitude were associated with socially withdrawn behaviors, which in turn predicted peer difficulties. However, only shyness (but not preference for solitude) also displayed a direct path to peer difficulties. As well, results from person-oriented analyses indicated that different subtypes of socially withdrawn children displayed decidedly different profiles with regard to indices of internalizing problems. For example, whereas unsociable children did not differ from their nonwithdrawn peers on indices of internalizing problems, socially avoidant (i.e., high in both shyness and unsociability) children reported the most pervasive socioemotional difficulties. Findings are discussed in terms of the implications of different forms of social withdrawal for socioemotional functioning in later childhood. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).
Seven experts on personality measurement here discuss the viability of public-domain personality measures, focusing on the International Personality Item Pool (IPIP) as a prototype. Since its inception in 1996, the use of items and scales from the IPIP has increased dramatically. Items from the IPIP have been translated from English into more than 25 other languages. Currently over 80 publications using IPIP scales are listed at the IPIP Web site (http://ipip.ori.org), and the rate of IPIP-related publications has been increasing rapidly. The growing popularity of the IPIP can be attributed to five factors: (1) It is cost free; (2) its items can be obtained instantaneously via the Internet; (3) it includes over 2000 items, all easily available for inspection; (4) scoring keys for IPIP scales are provided; and (5) its items can be presented in any order, interspersed with other items, reworded, translated into other languages, and administered on the World Wide Web without asking permission of anyone. The unrestricted availability of the IPIP raises concerns about possible misuse by unqualified persons, and the freedom of researchers to use the IPIP in idiosyncratic ways raises the possibility of fragmentation rather than scientific unification in personality research.
Figure 2 was distorted in production. The correct version is presented in the erratum.] Adolescence is a period of radical normative changes and increased risk for substance use, mood disorders, and physical injury. Researchers have proposed that increases in reward sensitivity (i.e., sensitivity of the behavioral approach system [BAS]) and/or increases in reactivity to all emotional stimuli (i.e., reward and threat sensitivities) lead to these phenomena. The present study is the first longitudinal investigation of changes in reward (i.e., BAS) sensitivity in 9- to 23-year-olds across a 2-year follow-up. Support was found for increased reward sensitivity from early to late adolescence, and evidence was found for decline in the early 20s. This decline is combined with a decrease in left nucleus accumbens (Nacc) volume, a key structure for reward processing, from the late teens into the early 20s. Furthermore, we found longitudinal increases in sensitivity to reward to be predicted by individual differences in the Nacc and medial orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) volumes at baseline in this developmental sample. Similarly, increases in sensitivity to threat (i.e., behavioral inhibition system sensitivity) were qualified by sex, with only females participants experiencing this increase, and predicted by individual differences in lateral OFC volumes at baseline.
The inhibition of 99 children was observed from the start of preschool through Grade 1 in multiple settings: adult strangers, dyadic play with unfamiliar and familiar peers, and regular free play in class. A multisetting–multimethod–multioccasion analysis revealed (a) a high longitudinal stability of inhibition toward strangers and a medium stability of inhibition in class, (b) a decreasing consistency between inhibition in class and inhibition toward strangers, (c) an increasing consistency between inhibition in class and being ignored or rejected by classmates, and (d) no detrimental effect of children's inhibition toward strangers on their dyadic play with familiar peers. These results are discussed in terms of a 2-factor model of inhibition that is linked to J. A. Gray's (1982; see also PA, Vol 75:35718) concept of the behavioral inhibition system. It is assumed that both unfamiliarity and social–evaluative concerns contribute to individual differences in inhibition in childhood.
Socially withdrawn children frequently refrain from social activities in the presence of peers. The lack of social interaction in childhood may result from a variety of causes, including social fear and anxiety or a preference for solitude. From early childhood through to adolescence, socially withdrawn children are concurrently and predictively at risk for a wide range of negative adjustment outcomes, including socio-emotional difficulties (e.g., anxiety, low self-esteem, depressive symptoms, and internalizing problems), peer difficulties (e.g., rejection, victimization, poor friendship quality), and school difficulties (e.g., poor-quality teacher-child relationships, academic difficulties, school avoidance). The goals of the current review are to (a) provide some definitional, theoretical, and methodological clarity to the complex array of terms and constructs previously employed in the study of social withdrawal; (b) examine the predictors, correlates, and consequences of child and early-adolescent social withdrawal; and (c) present a developmental framework describing pathways to and from social withdrawal in childhood.
To integrate the 5-dimensional simple-structure and circumplex models of personality, the Abridged Big Five Dimensional Circumplex (AB5C) taxonomy of personality traits was developed, consisting of the 10 circumplexes that can be formed by pitting each of the Big Five factors against one another. The model maps facets of the Big Five dimensions as blends of 2 factors. An application to data consisting of 636 self-ratings and peer ratings on 540 personality trait adjectives yielded 34 well-defined facets out of a possible 45. The AB5C solution is compared with simple-structure and lower dimensional circumplex solutions, and its integrative and corrective potential are discussed, as well as its limitations.
This study attempted to distinguish two types of social withdrawal in early childhood: (a) one based on social fear and anxiety despite a desire to interact socially (conflicted shyness) and (b) one based on the lack of a strong motivation to engage in social interaction (social disinterest). Two samples of preschoolers (n = 119 and n = 127) 3-5 years of age participated. Their mothers completed the newly developed Child Social Preference Scale, which was designed to assess conflicted shyness and social disinterest. Maternal ratings of child temperament, parenting style, and social goals, teacher ratings of child social adjustment, observations of child free-play behaviors, and child interview assessments of perceived competence and preference for playing with peers were also collected. Distinct patterns of associations were found between conflicted shyness and social disinterest and outcome variables. Implications for the motivational underpinnings and adjustment outcomes of shyness and social disinterest are explored.
Gray (1981, 1982) holds that 2 general motivational systems underlie behavior and affect: a behavioral inhibition system (BIS) and a behavioral activation system (BAS). Self-report scales to assess dispositional BIS and BAS sensitivities were created. Scale development (Study 1) and convergent and discriminant validity in the form of correlations with alternative measures are reported (Study 2). In Study 3, a situation in which Ss anticipated a punishment was created. Controlling for initial nervousness, Ss high in BIS sensitivity (assessed earlier) were more nervous than those low. In Study 4, a situation in which Ss anticipated a reward was created. Controlling for initial happiness, Ss high in BAS sensitivity (Reward Responsiveness and Drive scales) were happier than those low. In each case the new scales predicted better than an alternative measure. Discussion is focused on conceptual implications.
In this article, we examine research on conceptualizing and assessing individual differences in children's preference for solitude. Social withdrawal is typically defined as the process whereby a child removes himself or herself from opportunities for social interaction with peers. Most research has focused on shy children (whose retreat into solitude is driven by social fear or anxiety), but some children may instead prefer solitary activities. We aim to clarify the distinction between unsociability (i.e., a nonfearful affinity for solitude) and social avoidance (i.e., a preference for solitude driven by actively avoiding social interaction). We also provide suggestions for further research, drawing on related perspectives from personality and clinical psychology.
Shyness is a temperamental trait characterized by a fear of novel social situations and self-consciousness in situations of perceived social evaluation. From early childhood to adolescence, shyness is associated with a host of negative outcomes including poor peer relationships (e.g., exclusion, victimization), internalizing problems (e.g., anxiety, depression), and school adjustment difficulties (e.g., lack of academic success, school avoidance). It has been suggested that shyness may be less socially acceptable for boys than for girls because it violates gender norms related to male social assertion and dominance. In the current paper, we review the empirical support for this assertion. More specifically, we examined: (1) possible gender differences in the prevalence of shyness; (2) how important others (i.e., parents, teachers, peers) might respond differentially to shyness in boys compared to girls; and (3) potential gender differences in the implications of shyness across multiple domains. Most of this research has been conducted with school-aged children from Canada and the United States. However, we also explore findings from emerging cross-cultural studies in this area. Possible conceptual mechanisms that may underlie differences in the potential implications of shyness for boys and girls are then discussed, as well as several prospective directions for future research.
Participants completed the Big Five NEO-FFI (Costa & McCrae, 1992) as a personality measure, the Wonderlic Personnel Test (Wonderlic, 1992) as an intelligence measure, and four measures of creativity: Guilford’s (1967) unusual uses divergent thinking test; the Biographical Inventory of Creative Behaviours; a self-rated measure of creativity; and the Barron–Welsh Art Scale to measure creative judgement. Extraversion was significantly related to all four measures of creativity. Intelligence failed to add any incremental variance in predicting the creativity scores. Multiple regression indicated that up to 47% of the variance in divergent thinking scores can be accounted for by the Big Five personality traits. Personality correlates to creativity vary as a function of the creativity measure.
An attempt is made in this article to relate creativity to personality in a much more definitive way than has been done previously and to use the known correlates of personality to suggest a theory of creativity that would explain many of the phenomena associated with this concept. A causal chain is suggested reaching from DNA to creative achievement, based largely on experimental findings not usually considered in relation to creativity (e.g., latent inhibition). Inevitably, the model is highly speculative, but it is testable and hence may prove useful in not only accounting for many observations and experimental results but also in suggesting new experiments and observations.
A model of the neuropsychology of anxiety is proposed. The model is based in the first instance upon an analysis of the behavioural effects of the antianxiety drugs (benzodiazepines, barbiturates, and alcohol) in animals. From such psychopharmacologi-cal experiments the concept of a “behavioural inhibition system” (BIS) has been developed. This system responds to novel stimuli or to those associated with punishment or nonreward by inhibiting ongoing behaviour and increasing arousal and attention to the environment. It is activity in the BIS that constitutes anxiety and that is reduced by antianxiety drugs. The effects of the antianxiety drugs in the brain also suggest hypotheses concerning the neural substrate of anxiety. Although the benzodiazepines and barbiturates facilitate the effects of γ-aminobutyrate, this is insufficient to explain their highly specific behavioural effects. Because of similarities between the behavioural effects of certain lesions and those of the antianxiety drugs, it is proposed that these drugs reduce anxiety by impairing the functioning of a widespread neural system including the septo-hippocampal system (SHS), the Papez circuit, the prefrontal cortex, and ascending monoaminergic and cholinergic pathways which innervate these forebrain structures. Analysis of the functions of this system (based on anatomical, physiological, and behavioural data) suggests that it acts as a comparator: it compares predicted to actual sensory events and activates the outputs of the BIS when there is a mismatch or when the predicted event is aversive. Suggestions are made as to the functions of particular pathways within this overall brain system. The resulting theory is applied to the symptoms and treatment of anxiety in man, its relations to depression, and the personality of individuals who are susceptible to anxiety or depression.
It has been suggested that children who play on their own, without interacting
with peers, may be at risk for social, cognitive, and social-cognitive problems Recently,
however, the children's play literature has revealed that some forms of nonsocial activity are
constructive and adaptive In this study the social, cognitive, and social-cognitive correlates
of nonsocial play were examined 122 4-year-olds were observed for 20 mm during free play
They were also administered a role-taking test and tests of social and impersonal problem solvmg
skills Sociometric popularity and social competence (as rated by teachers) were also
assessed Analyses indicated that nonsocial-functional (sensorimotor) and dramatic activities
generally correlated negatively with the measures of competence Parallel-constructive activities
generally correlated positively with the various measures of competence
The anhedonic symptoms of depression have been linked to a lack of incentive responsiveness, which is a function of the Behavioral Activation System ( BAS). Using structural equation modeling within the context of a cross-sectional design, the authors found that a lack of positive experiences and positive expectancies mediated the BAS- depression link among an undergraduate sample. 57 males and 114 females (aged 17-46 yrs; mean age 19.18 yrs) participated in the study. The authors tested the specificity of this model across four alternative models substituting negative experiences, negative expectancies, threat sensitivity, and symptoms of anxiety for their theoretical counterparts in the original model. In each case, the alternative model did not fit the data as well as our original model. This pattern of results is consistent with the position that a lack of positive experiences and positive expectancies uniquely mediate the relationship between the BAS and anhedonic symptoms of depression.
This study had three goals: (a) To investigate gender differences in relational aggression and victimization within young adults' romantic relationships, (b) to investigate associations between romantic relational aggression and victimization and perceptions of romantic relationship quality, and (c) to explore parent and peer predictors of romantic relational aggression and victimization. College students (70 females and 34 males) completed self-reports of romantic relational aggression and victimization, and parent, peer, and romantic relationship quality. Men and women reported equal levels of romantic relational aggression, and men reported higher levels of victimization than women. Aggression and victimization were positively correlated with negative romantic relationship qualities and negatively correlated with positive relationship qualities. Regression analyses indicated that both romantic relational victimization and romantic relational aggression explained variance in romantic relationship quality. There were several significant associations between parent and peer relationship quality and romantic relational aggression and victimization, which suggest that poor relationships with parents and peers may play a role in the development and maintenance of these behaviors.
This article examines the adequacy of the “rules of thumb” conventional cutoff criteria and several new alternatives for various fit indexes used to evaluate model fit in practice. Using a 2‐index presentation strategy, which includes using the maximum likelihood (ML)‐based standardized root mean squared residual (SRMR) and supplementing it with either Tucker‐Lewis Index (TLI), Bollen's (1989) Fit Index (BL89), Relative Noncentrality Index (RNI), Comparative Fit Index (CFI), Gamma Hat, McDonald's Centrality Index (Mc), or root mean squared error of approximation (RMSEA), various combinations of cutoff values from selected ranges of cutoff criteria for the ML‐based SRMR and a given supplemental fit index were used to calculate rejection rates for various types of true‐population and misspecified models; that is, models with misspecified factor covariance(s) and models with misspecified factor loading(s). The results suggest that, for the ML method, a cutoff value close to .95 for TLI, BL89, CFI, RNI, and Gamma Hat; a cutoff value close to .90 for Mc; a cutoff value close to .08 for SRMR; and a cutoff value close to .06 for RMSEA are needed before we can conclude that there is a relatively good fit between the hypothesized model and the observed data. Furthermore, the 2‐index presentation strategy is required to reject reasonable proportions of various types of true‐population and misspecified models. Finally, using the proposed cutoff criteria, the ML‐based TLI, Mc, and RMSEA tend to overreject true‐population models at small sample size and thus are less preferable when sample size is small.
Christopher R. Long and James R. Averill, Solitude: An Exploration of Benefits of Being Alone, pp. 21–44.
Historically, philosophers, artists, and spiritual leaders have extolled the benefits of solitude; currently, advice on how to achieve solitude is the subject of many popular books and articles. Seldom, however, has solitude been studied by psychologists, who have focused instead on the negative experiences associated with being alone, particularly loneliness. Solitude, in contrast to loneliness, is often a positive state—one that may be sought rather than avoided. In this article, we examine some of the benefits that have been attributed to solitude—namely, freedom, creativity, intimacy, and spirituality. In subsequent sections, we consider the environmental settings and personality characteristics conducive to solitude, how time spent alone is experienced differently across the life span, and the potential dangers related to the attractiveness of solitude. We conclude with a brief discussion of the theoretical and practical implications of solitude.
The Behavioral Inhibition System and Behavioral Activation System Scales (BIS/BAS scales) are the most widely used measures
designed to assess Gray’s Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory. However, questions remain regarding its factor, convergent, and
discriminant validity. We assessed these properties in two samples of undergraduates (N = 723, N = 103). In Study 1, confirmatory factor analysis supported previous findings that suggested removal of several items, resulting
in acceptable fit for a four-factor model. Convergent and discriminant validity were assessed for the original and revised
scales. In Study 2, a public speaking task was used to assess validity of the scales in reference to positive/negative affect.
Convergent and discriminant validity for the revised scales were not substantially different from the original scales. We
suggest that future researchers should consider the use of the revised measure we describe. We also suggest that the creation
of a revised BIS/BAS scale using new items may be warranted.
KeywordsBehavioral inhibition system–Behavioral activation system–Convergent and discriminant validity–Factor analysis–Social anxiety
The overarching goal of this study was to examine the associations between three social withdrawal subtypes (shyness, unsociability, avoidance), peer isolation, peer difficulties (victimization, rejection, exclusion, low acceptance), and loneliness in India during early adolescence. Participants were 194 adolescents in Surat, India (M age = 13.35 years). Peer nominations of peer relations and socioemotional behaviors were gathered, along with self-reports of reasons for being alone and loneliness. Preliminary evidence of validity for the self-report measure of withdrawal subtypes and isolation was found, and factor analyses indicated that shyness, unsociability, and avoidance represent related, but distinct forms of withdrawal that are distinct from isolation. Shyness and avoidance were uniquely associated with loneliness and exclusion, but unsociability was not. The association between avoidance and loneliness was mediated by exclusion. Findings suggest that social withdrawal may be best conceptualized as a multifaceted construct during childhood and adolescence, in Western and non-Western societies.
A distinction is proposed between anxiety (frequency of symptom occurrence) and anxiety sensitivity (beliefs that anxiety experiences have negative implications). In Study 1, a newly-constructed Anxiety Sensitivity Index (ASI) was shown to have sound psychometric properties for each of two samples of college students. The important finding was that people who tend to endorse one negative implication for anxiety also tend to endorse other negative implications. In Study 2, the ASI was found to be especially associated with agoraphobia and generally associated with anxiety disorders. In Study 3, the ASI explained variance on the Fear Survey Schedule—II that was not explained by either the Taylor Manifest Anxiety Scale or a reliable Anxiety Frequency Checklist. In predicting the development of fears, and possibly other anxiety disorders, it may be more important to know what the person thinks will happen as a result of becoming anxious than how often the person actually experiences anxiety. Implications are discussed for competing views of the ‘fear of fear’.
Recent studies have noted personality differences among adult survivors of very preterm birth, including higher neuroticism and cautiousness and lower extraversion. We attempted to replicate and extend these recent studies by examining personality characteristics across multiple components of personality that traditionally define personality structure in a birth cohort of young adults born at extremely low birth weight (501-1000 g), the smallest and most at-risk infants.
We assessed 71 (76% of the original birth cohort) extremely low birth weight and 83 (74% of the original cohort) term normal birth weight young adults by using well-validated personality measures, indexing 4 traditional components of personality: temperament (Cheek and Buss shyness and sociability and Eysenck neuroticism and extraversion), motivation (Carver and White behavioral inhibition and behavioral activation), cognitive and affective (Coopersmith self-esteem and University of California, Los Angeles, loneliness), and socialization (Eysenck psychoticism and lie). All of the participants were right-handed and free of neurosensory and psychiatric impairments.
Extremely low birth weight adults reported significantly higher shyness, behavioral inhibition, and socialization (a measure of prosocial behavior defined by risk aversion and adherence to societal mores) and lower sociability and emotional well-being than their normal birth weight counterparts, replicating and extending the findings of previous studies.
Young adults who were born at extremely low birth weight and without major impairments are more cautious, shy, and risk aversive and less extraverted than their normal birth weight counterparts, possibly placing them at risk for future psychiatric and emotional problems.
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