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How do we cope with ostracism? Psychological flexibility moderates the relationship between everyday ostracism experiences and psychological distress

September 2017
Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science 6(4)

DOI:10.1016/j.jcbs.2017.09.001

Authors:

Daniel Waldeck

Coventry University

Ian Tyndall

University of Chichester

Paolo Riva

Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca

Nik Chmiel

University of Chichester

The present paper examined the relationship between everyday experiences of ostracism and psychological distress by focusing on the potential moderating role of psychological flexibility. As expected, data from a two-wave survey of 299 internet users (Study 1) indicated that perceived ostracism was positively related to psychological distress. However, the findings revealed that when psychological flexibility was low, the relationship between perceived ostracism and psychological distress was significant. By contrast, we found that for those with high levels of psychological flexibility the relationship between perceived ostracism and psychological distress was no longer significant. This pattern of findings was replicated in a separate two-wave survey of 231 internet users (Study 2). Implications of the present research suggest that strategies to increase psychological flexibility may help individuals cope with everyday experiences of ostracism.

The moderating effects of perceived ostracism (PO) and psychological flexibility

…

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Author’s Accepted Manuscript

How do we cope with ostracism? Psychological

flexibility moderates the relationship between

everyday ostracism experiences and psychological

distress

Daniel Waldeck, Ian Tyndall, Paolo Riva, Nik

Chmiel

PII: S2212-1447(17)30081-9

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jcbs.2017.09.001

Reference: JCBS201

To appear in: Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science

Received date: 12 June 2017

Revised date: 4 September 2017

Accepted date: 8 September 2017

Cite this article as: Daniel Waldeck, Ian Tyndall, Paolo Riva and Nik Chmiel,

How do we cope with ostracism? Psychological flexibility moderates the

relationship between everyday ostracism experiences and psychological distress,

Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science,

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jcbs.2017.09.001

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How do we cope with ostracism? Psychological flexibility moderates the relationship

between everyday ostracism experiences and psychological distress

Daniel Waldeck1, Ian Tyndall1*, Paolo Riva2, Nik Chmiel1

1Department of Psychology, University of Chichester, UK

2Department of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy

*Corresponding author. Dr. Ian Tyndall, Department of Psychology, University of

Chichester, College Lane, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 6PE, UK. Ph: 0044-1243816421.

I.Tyndall@chi.ac.uk.

Abstract

The present paper examined the relationship between everyday experiences of ostracism and

psychological distress by focusing on the potential moderating role of psychological

flexibility. As expected, data from a two-wave survey of 299 internet users (Study 1)

indicated that perceived ostracism was positively related to psychological distress. However,

the findings revealed that when psychological flexibility was low, the relationship between

perceived ostracism and psychological distress was significant. By contrast, we found that for

those with high levels of psychological flexibility the relationship between perceived

ostracism and psychological distress was no longer significant. This pattern of findings was

replicated in a separate two-wave survey of 231 internet users (Study 2). Implications of the

present research suggest that strategies to increase psychological flexibility may help

individuals cope with everyday experiences of ostracism.

Keywords: Ostracism, Psychological flexibility, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy,

Distress.

Ostracism, one form of social exclusion, may include being ignored by an individual

or group in a wide range of contexts such as family, friendship networks, in the workplace, or

on the Internet. Ostracism is known to be a distressing experience that often leads to

emotional pain and hurt feelings with increased sadness, anger, and loneliness (e.g.,

Williams, 2009; Riva, Wirth, & Williams, 2011). Indeed, the emotional pain caused by

ostracism is so pervasive and immediate that just 60 seconds of ostracism during Cyberball (a

computer programmed ball-toss game that is designed to induce an online experience of

ostracism as it involves participants initially receiving an equal number of ‘passes’ from

fellow ‘players’ but they subsequently receive no passes of the ball for the remainder of the

game) can threaten the self by increasing negative emotions and depleting psychological

needs (i.e., belonging, self-esteem, control and meaningful existence; Williams, Cheung, &

Choi, 2000). According to the Temporal Need-Threat Model of ostracism (TNTM; Williams,

2009) there are three stages of reactions to ostracism: reflexive (immediate), reflective

(delayed), and resignation (long-term). In general, according to the TNTM, how an ostracized

person appraises or copes with their ostracism experience in the reflective stage is an

indicator of how soon they will recover from this upsetting event. The purpose of the present

study is to examine whether a core construct of contextual behavioral science, psychological

flexibility (see below for description), might inform and complement this key social

psychology model (i.e., TNTM) of ostracism. As such, differences in levels of psychological

flexibility across ostracized persons might feasibly be a mechanism that could help account

for whether a person recovers quickly from their ostracism experience or suffers prolonged

psychological distress.

The majority of ostracism research is focused on the initial two stages (i.e., short-term

ostracism) whereby participant’s levels of psychological distress are recorded immediately

after an experimentally induced ostracism event (e.g., Cyberball), and then again after a few

minutes delay. Research has generally shown that the immediate distress (e.g., lower need

satisfaction) from ostracism tends to be immune to individual differences (Williams, 2009).

However, after a delay, individual differences can moderate the recovery time from the initial

distress. For example, lower levels of social anxiety (Zadro, Boland, & Richardson, 2006), a

tendency to fail to reappraise the ostracism event (Sethi, Moulds, & Richardson, 2013), an

interdependent self-construal (Ren, Wesselmann, & Williams, 2013), and lower levels of

depressive symptoms and ruminative tendencies (Poznanski, Wirth, & Williams, 2010) have

all been associated with facilitating recovery from ostracism.

It seems, therefore, that individual differences can moderate the speed of recovery

from a single experience of ostracism (i.e., short-term ostracism). However, in real life,

people often face with more than one ostracism experience. What is the role of individual

differences in moderating the impact of everyday experiences of ostracism and psychological

distress? Past theorization would suggest that how one reflects on their ostracism experience

might result in the associated distress either to be maintained or to dissipate relatively quickly

(e.g., Riva, Wesselmann, Wirth, Carter-Sowell, & Williams, 2014). Recent research provided

empirical support to the notion that chronic experiences of social exclusion are associated

with the resignation stage outcomes (e.g., alienation; Riva, Montali, Wirth, Curioni, &

Williams, 2016). However, virtually no empirical study has considered the possibility that

some people might be more likely than others to maintain psychological distress when

exposed to longer term (e.g., over a period of months) everyday experiences of ostracism.

In previous research, the long-term effects of social exclusion have been typically

examined using the life-alone paradigm (Williams, 2007). The life-alone paradigm (e.g.,

Baumeister, Twenge, & Nuss, 2002) randomly assigns participants to one of three conditions

following a personality test. In the acceptance/high belonging condition participants are told

that they will have rewarding lifelong friendships and a long and stable marriage. In the

rejected/low-belonging condition they are told they have the personality type that often ends

up alone in later life as current friendships will disappear and they will have a failed or

multiple failed marriages. The control condition provides general negative feedback (not

socially related) in that they will likely experience a lifetime of accidents and injuries (see

Williams, 2007). Research has shown that when participants anticipate long-term periods of

social exclusion, their immediate reaction is that of being detached and numb (i.e., no

emotional distress or pain), particularly if perceived as involving severe disconnection from

significant others (Bernstein & Claypool, 2012a; Bernstein & Claypool, 2012b). Further,

such individuals have also been found to display temporary impairment in self-regulation

(Baumeister, DeWall, Ciarocco, & Twenge, 2005; Williams, 2007).

However, life-alone studies typically only examine the immediate impact of perceived

long-term ostracism within the duration of such experiments, not the delayed impact over

time. Furthermore, some authors have suggested that the emotional numbness resulting from

anticipating social exclusion in the future life alone paradigm might be due to self-

presentational concerns (Bernstein et al., 2013). Indeed, participants might feel embarrassed

in showing hurt feelings in response to a prognosis based on a personality test when the

validity of such prognosis is not verifiable. Alternative paradigms (e.g., Cyberball) are used

by researchers to assess the delayed impact of ostracism, however, the impact is restricted to

minutes after an ostracism event (i.e., within the reflective stage). In contrast, questionnaire

studies allow for the self-reported assessment of extended periods of ostracism over weeks

and months as well as measuring the associated distress (i.e., delayed impact) from ostracism

in the long term (e.g., Ferris, Brown, Berry, & Lian, 2008; Wu, Yim, Kwan, & Zhang, 2012).

For example, Ferris et al. (2008) found that when people perceive they are being persistently

ostracised, the perception might lead to higher levels of self-reported psychological distress

over time.

However, the possible risk factors that could cause some people, when exposed to

more regular ostracism experiences, to suffer long-term psychological distress are still

unknown. Accordingly, more research needs to examine why or how some people appear to

be able to cope quite well with everyday experiences of ostracism whereas others seem not

able to cope and become distressed following such experiences. Crucially, it may be the case

that those people who have difficulty coping with such everyday experiences of ostracism in

the reflective stage of the TNTM might subsequently be more likely to experience prolonged

or chronic distress following repeated experiences of ostracism. The current research presents

initial attempts to address this important question.

Psychological flexibility

One potential moderator may be that of psychological flexibility. Psychological

flexibility is defined as contacting the present moment as a conscious human being, fully and

without defense, taking the situational context into account, and persisting in behavior in the

services of chosen values (Hayes, Levin, Plumb-Vilardaga, Villatte, & Pistorello, 2013), and

can be conceptualised as a continuum from psychological flexibility to inflexibility. One key

component process of psychological inflexibility, experiential avoidance, is the tendency to

engage in behaviors that seek to alter the form, frequency or content of unwanted private

events (i.e., thoughts, feelings and sensations; Hayes, Strosahl, & Wilson, 1999, 2012).

Psychological inflexibility is characterised by a difficulty in distancing oneself from one’s

psychological content (i.e., negative thoughts, unwanted emotions), and thus a tendency to

engage in experiential avoidance of such thoughts and feelings which leads them in a

direction away from living life by their own chosen values and a stance of acceptance of the

self (e.g., Hayes et al., 2013; Hayes, Luoma, Bond, Masuda, & Lillis, 2006).

As Scott and McCracken (2015) put it, “…psychological inflexibility is the overall

process of excessive, typically restrictive, influence of cognitive, emotional, or sensory

experiences on behavior, which contributes to ‘unworkable’ patterns of behavior” (p. 92; see

also McCracken & Morley, 2014). People low in psychological flexibility tend to report high

levels of psychological distress (Bond et al., 2011), tolerate and endure less pain (Zettle et al.,

2005), and use maladaptive coping strategies to deal with stress (e.g., denial; Karekla &

Panayiotou, 2011) compared to those high in psychological flexibility. Further, psychological

flexibility has been consistently demonstrated to be a moderator of psychological distress

(e.g., Bardeen, Fergus, & Orcutt, 2013; Kashdan & Kane, 2011).

Overall, psychological flexibility might complement and inform the reflection stage

(i.e., Stage 2) of Williams’ (2009) TNTM as it could be considered an important mechanism

for moderating the effects of psychological distress from everyday experiences of ostracism.

Conceptually, psychological flexibility might be inversely related to a wide range of

maladaptive cognitions that could link the perception of ostracism to prolonged distress. For

example, individual differences such as a tendency to ruminate (Wesselmann, Ren, Swim, &

Williams, 2013) during the reflective stage negatively affect recovery time from ostracism.

Psychological flexibility could help elucidate the effects of prolonged rumination in

ostracism. Ostracism results in social pain and psychological distress (Eisenberger,

Lieberman, & Williams, 2003; Riva et al., 2011). Thus, those low in psychological flexibility

may engage in more efforts to control and struggle with the psychological distress and thus

may take longer to cope with their ostracism. As noted above, Sethi et al. (2013) found that

those who focus attention upon themselves (e.g., reflecting intensively on their social

performance) and do not attempt to reappraise their ostracism can lead to prolonging the

negative effects of such experiences. In comparison, those high in psychological flexibility

(i.e., are flexible) may allow their pain to pass by without struggle (e.g., thought stopping;

excessive rumination) and thus may not be as distressed from such events.

Indeed, a qualitative study suggested that people might be able to cope with ostracism

much better if they are psychologically flexible as opposed to being inflexible in their

response to such events (Waldeck, Tyndall, & Chmiel, 2015). For example, a common theme

within the reports of ostracism experiences was of the tendency to attempt to avoid thinking

about (or experiencing) the negative effects following ostracism. As noted above, such

experiential avoidance of negative thoughts and feelings is a core aspect of psychological

inflexibility and is considered by many to be a key functional impairment (see Hayes,

Wilson, Gifford, Follette, & Strosahl, 1996) in emotional self-regulation which characterises

prolonged psychological distress following stressful life events (Bond et al., 2011; Hayes et

al., 2013; Zettle et al., 2005). Thus, the current study may add to our understanding of how

emotional self-regulation and individual differences (e.g., Baumeister et al., 2005; DeWall et

al., 2011) influence the development of resilience to the negative effects of ostracism or serve

to prolong and exacerbate the negative impact. Indeed, Riva et al. (2014) suggest that certain

individuals may be prone to catastrophize their pain from long term ostracism (and thus

prolong the negative consequences associated with it).

The present study

Many people experience ostracism episodes on a weekly basis, with varying degrees

of severity ranging from minimal to extreme (see Nezlek, Wesselmann, Wheeler, &

Williams, 2012). However, whereas some people are able to cope with such everyday

experience and recover their threatened psychological needs, others might not, and suffer

prolonged psychological distress. To account for such different trajectories, in the present

study we focused on the moderating role of psychological flexibility on the relationship

between self-reported ostracism experiences and psychological distress. Moreover, in this

study, unlike previous paradigms (e.g., Cyberball; Life-alone), reported experiences of

ostracism up to six months (i.e., long term) were examined, and a measure of distress

administered one week later. We expect perceived ostracism to be positively related to levels

of psychological distress. However, we predict that people high in psychological flexibility

would be able to cope with everyday experiences of ostracism and so no association between

such experiences and distress will appear. By contrast, we predict that the relationship

between perceived ostracism and psychological distress would be stronger at low levels of

psychological flexibility.

Study 1

Method

Participants

Three hundred and seventy-three internet users were recruited using an online survey

distributed through emails to Universities within the UK, websites, social media platforms,

and Internet data collection sites designed for academic researchers (e.g.,

http://www.findparticipants.com). The majority of the participants were obtained from

academic universities (69%), most of whom were students (47%). Participants were required

to complete two parts of the survey with the second part (outcome measure) emailed 1-week

later. Such temporal separation is recommended to reduce potential common method bias

effects (Podsakoff, MacKenzie, Lee, & Podsakoff, 2003). For example, separating the

predictor and outcome variables helps reduce potential for participants to develop implicit

theories about the association between these measures and then responding in a socially

desirable manner. Such a short temporal separation is not uncommon in this field of research

to allow for some variance in the chosen construct (see Avey, Luthans, Smith, & Palmer,

2010). This strategy helps reduce the potential sample attrition rate and has been employed,

albeit with a larger temporal separation, in studies of workplace ostracism (e.g., Wu et al.,

2012). Of the 373 participants who completed Survey 1, 299 also completed Survey 2 (226

female). Thus, the final sample consisted of 299 participants. The participants ranged

between 18 and 88 years of age (M= 30.3; Mdn = 26; SD=13). The sample consisted mostly

of White British (60.2%) and White American (13.7%) participants

. Participants were

employed in a broad array of industries. Before data collection began, the study gained

approval by the Institutional Research Ethics committee.

Materials

Time 1 measures

Perceived Ostracism.

Participants completed a modified version of the 10-item Workplace Ostracism Scale

(WOS; Ferris et al., 2008). The WOS was developed to assess the frequency of perceived

ostracism in the workplace (e.g., “others ignored you at work”). Given we were interested in

‘global’ (i.e., any context) perceived ostracism, the items were adjusted to remove the

context-dependent focus (e.g., “others ignored you”, “others avoided you”, and “others

treated you as if you weren’t there”). This provided a general individual difference measure

that assessed general experiences with ostracism that occurred in participants lives over the

past six months, α = .90. Participants answered using a 7-point Likert scale from 1 = “never”

Due to space constraints, a breakdown of race and ethnic demographic data for Study 1 and 2 is included

within the appendix.

to 7 = “always”. Lower scores indicate low levels of perceived ostracism. An exploratory

factor analysis revealed a unidimensional factor structure with the range of factor loadings

(.65 to .84) similar in magnitude to the factor loadings reported by Ferris et al. (2008).

Psychological Flexibility.

The Acceptance and Action Questionnaire-II (AAQ-II; Bond et al., 2011) is a 7-item

measure of psychological flexibility. Participants responded to items using a 7-point Likert

scale from 1 (not at all true) to 7 (completely true), (α = .91). Sample AAQ-II items include:

“Emotions cause problems in my life” and “I’m afraid of my feelings”. Test scores on the

AAQ-II have shown good internal consistency, validity, and test-retest reliability in

community samples (Bond et al., 2011). Lower scores indicate greater psychological

flexibility (i.e., high levels of flexibility).

Time 2 measure

Psychological Distress.

To assess psychological distress, participants completed 21 items from the Depression

Anxiety and Stress Scales (DASS-21; Lovibond & Lovibond, 1995). The DASS-21 has

demonstrated sufficient construct validity in non-clinical samples (Henry & Crawford, 2005).

The DASS-21 total score was chosen as research has suggested that the total measure

accounts for greater variability in distress (e.g., including mixed anxiety and depression)

compared to using the separate scales of depression, anxiety and stress (Henry & Crawford,

2005; Osman et al., 2012). Participants rated the frequency and severity of experiencing

psychological distress in the last week. The items were rated on a 4-point Likert scale (α =

.94), where 0 represented “did not apply to me at all” and 3 represented “applied to me very

much or most of the time”. Sample DASS-21 items include: “I found it hard to relax” and “I

felt that life was meaningless”. Lower scores indicate low levels of psychological distress.

Results

Data were cleaned prior to analyses as only participants who completed all Time 1

measures and the Time 2 measure were taken forward. Indeed, all questions were subject to

force-choice responding and so participants were required to complete the measures in full.

Therefore, there were no missing data within any measures. Further, data was checked for

quality by testing regression assumptions (e.g., assessing normality of data, linearity,

homoscedasticity, autocorrelation). The WOS demonstrated significant kurtosis (3.07). To

help reduce the influence of the non-normal distribution of the WOS, the bias-corrected and

accelerated bootstrap procedure (BCa) was performed on the regression analysis (Efron,

1987). The recommended resamples of 5000 was selected for this study (Preacher & Hayes,

2008). All other regression assumptions were met.

Table 1 presents the means, standard deviations and zero-order correlations of all key

variables. As indicated, psychological flexibility was significantly associated with perceived

ostracism and psychological distress. Further, perceived ostracism was significantly

associated with psychological distress. Mann-Whitney U tests revealed no significant

differences between males and females on levels of perceived ostracism (U = 9115.50, p =

.17), flexibility (U = 9268.50, p = .11) or psychological distress (U = 8432, p = .77).

As the measures administered were all highly correlated, confirmatory factor

analyses were conducted to examine the construct validity of the measures. Results

demonstrated that all items loaded significantly onto the respective constructs demonstrating

convergent validity. Further, a three-factor model including perceived ostracism, flexibility,

and psychological distress provided a greater fit to the data (CFI = .99; RMSEA = .018) than

any alternative models combining the constructs (e.g., flexibility and distress combined

resulted in poorer fit; CFI = .86, RMSEA = .18), thus demonstrating sufficient discriminant

validity for this study.

Regression Analysis

A multiple regression analysis was conducted to examine psychological flexibility as

a moderator of the relationship between perceived ostracism and psychological distress. The

predictor variables were mean centred and an interaction term was computed by multiplying

the centred predictors (Aiken & West, 1991). In addition, participant age and sex were

entered as covariates for this model. Table 2 reports the model summary for psychological

distress. There was a significant main effect of perceived ostracism (B = .80, p <.001) and

flexibility (B = 1.15, p < .001) on psychological distress, controlling for participant age and

sex. Further, psychological flexibility interacted with perceived ostracism to predict

psychological distress (B = .03, p =.02). The effect size of this interaction was small in

magnitude (Cohen’s f 2 = .02). A simple slopes analysis was then conducted at both high (+1

SD) and low (-1 SD) mean levels of flexibility (see Figure 1). Analyses revealed a significant

association between perceived ostracism in the last six months and psychological distress for

participants who reported low levels of psychological flexibility (B = .96, p < .001, 95% CI [-

.13, .80]), but there was no significant association between perceived ostracism in the last six

months and psychological distress for those who reported high levels of psychological

flexibility (B = .32, p = .18, 95% CI [.62, 1.32]).

Sensitivity Analyses

As quadratic effects can sometimes masquerade as linear interactions (MacCallum &

Mar, 1995), and because the contribution of this research rests solely on a single interaction,

we added a final model (i.e., Model 3) including the quadratic terms (i.e., the squared

predictor variables) into the analysis. Importantly, it was found that the interaction between

perceived ostracism and psychological flexibility still significantly predicted psychological

distress after entering the quadratic terms (B = .04, p < .01, 95% CI [-.00, .06]). Finally, the

results of Study 1 confirmed our predictions.

Study 2

There is a growing concern regarding the replicability of findings in psychological

research (Maxwell, Lau, & Howard, 2015). To address this concern, Study 2 was designed to

replicate the preliminary findings of Study 1. This is particularly important practice in studies

where a finding is novel but effect sizes might be considered somewhat low. In other words,

the aim of Study 2 was to ensure that the observed moderation effect (i.e., that low levels of

psychological flexibility was associated with psychological distress following repeated

experiences of ostracism whereas those with high levels of flexibility do not appear to report

high levels of psychological distress following repeated experiences of ostracism) was a

stable and consistent finding.

Method

Participants

Two hundred and eighty-seven participants were recruited using the same design as

Study 1. Unlike Study 1, the majority of the sample was recruited from online research

platforms (58%) such as www.findparticipants.com and www.reddit.com/r/SampleSize/. Of

the 278 participants who completed Survey 1, 231 also completed Survey 2 (174 female).

Thus, the final sample consisted of 231 participants. The participants ranged between 18 and

73 years of age (M= 32.2; Mdn = 27; SD=13). The majority of participants were either of

American (44.4%) or British (32.3%) nationality. Furthermore, 84 per cent of the sample

identified themselves as being of a white ethnic background. Participants were employed in a

broad array of industries. Before data collection began, the study gained approval by the

Institutional Research Ethics committee.

Materials & Procedure

As in Study 1, we used the same measures (i.e., the modified WOS [α = .91], AAQ-II

[α = .91]) at Time 1 and Time 2 (i.e., the DASS-21 [α = .93]) respectively. An exploratory

factor analysis revealed a unidimensional factor structure for the modified WOS with the

range of factor loadings (.64 to .94) similar in magnitude to the factor loadings reported by

Ferris et al. (2008).

Results

As in Study 1, the data were screened for quality and distribution. Similarly, the BCa

procedure was performed on the regression analyses at 5000 samples due to high kurtosis on

the WOS measure (3.47). All other regression assumptions were met.

Table 3 presents the means, standard deviations and zero-order correlations of all key

variables. As indicated, psychological flexibility was significantly associated with perceived

ostracism and psychological distress. Further, perceived ostracism was significantly

associated with psychological distress. Mann-Whitney U tests revealed no significant

differences between males and females on levels of perceived ostracism (U = 4541.50, p =

.81) and psychological flexibility (U = 5250.50, p = .14). However, women (M =30.54; SD =

21.32) tended to score higher than men (M = 26.18; SD = 25.63) on psychological distress, U

= 5496.50, p = .02, and the effect size was small (r = .15).

Similar to Study 1, confirmatory factor analyses were conducted to examine the

construct validity of the measures. A three-factor model including perceived ostracism,

flexibility, and psychological distress provided a greater fit to the data (CFI = .90; RMSEA =

.057) than any alternative models combining the constructs (e.g., psychological flexibility

and distress combined resulted in poorer fit; CFI = .87, RMSEA = .06), thus demonstrating

sufficient discriminant validity for this study. Moreover, a Harman one-factor test revealed

that a one-factor solution accounted for 34.3% of the variance. .

The same hierarchical multiple regression analysis procedure was conducted for

Study 2 (Table 4) as in Study 1. In Model 1, it was found that there was a significant main

effect of perceived ostracism (B = .54, p <.01, 95% CI [.26, .87]) and psychological

flexibility (B = 1.23, p < .01, 95% CI [1.01, 1.44]) on psychological distress. The next step

(i.e., Model 2) added the interaction between perceived ostracism and psychological

flexibility which was found to significantly predict psychological distress (B = .03, p < .01,

95% CI [.01, .05]). The effect size of this interaction was small in magnitude (Cohen’s f 2 =

.03). A simple slopes analysis was then conducted at both high (+1 SD) and low (-1 SD)

mean levels of flexibility (see Figure 2). Analyses revealed a significant association between

perceived ostracism and psychological distress for participants who reported low levels of

psychological flexibility (B = .73, p < .001, 95% CI [.41, 1.05]), but there was no significant

association between perceived ostracism and psychological distress for those who reported

high levels of psychological flexibility (B = .19, p = .16, 95% CI [-.07, .45]). Finally, adding

quadratic terms in model 3 led to the interaction effect still significantly predicting

psychological distress (B = .03, p < .01, 95% CI [.00, .05]

. Therefore, Study 2 fully

replicated the effects of Study 1

As women scored higher than men on the DASS-21, gender was examined as a potential moderator. Both

Study 1 and Study 2 found no evidence that gender moderates the psychological distress associated with

ostracism. Further, there were no differences detected based on race or ethnicity within either study.

Due to space constraints we were unable to elaborate upon other control measures included in this study. The

Need to Belong Scale (Leary, Kelly, Cottrell, & Schreindorfer, 2013) and The International Positive and

Negative Affect Schedule Short Form (I-PANAS-SF; Thompson, 2007) measured the need to belong and

affectivity respectively. Both these constructs are theorised to lead to heightened sensitivity to ostracism (Riva

General Discussion

The present research investigated a factor that could link everyday experiences of

social exclusion to prolonged psychological distress. Consistent with previous research (e.g.,

Ferris et al., 2008; Wu et al., 2012), perceived ostracism was positively related with

psychological distress. What is new from the present set of studies is that psychological

flexibility was found to moderate the relationship between perceived ostracism (measured

over a large time span) and psychological distress. Therefore, perceived ostracism was only

associated with psychological distress when individuals were low in psychological flexibility.

Indeed, those who were high in psychological flexibility did not have a significant increase in

psychological distress, regardless of the frequency with which they perceived ostracism.

Further, the results of the present study support recent evidence that psychological flexibility

is a moderator of psychological distress (e.g., Bardeen et al., 2013). Therefore, those who are

more prone to adopt methods that hamper psychological flexibility (e.g., experiential

avoidance) when coping with a variety of stressors may be more likely to experience

prolonged psychological distress. In contrast, those who are high in psychological flexibility

appear to cope significantly better and recover more quickly from such stressors.

According to Williams (2009), long-term ostracism results in individuals losing

motivation to try and recover their lost needs (e.g., belonging). Following the design of the

present study, it is difficult to elucidate the mechanism in which psychological flexibility

moderates the distress from long-term ostracism as there were no assessments of

psychological needs. Thus, future research is needed to examine the mechanism of

psychological flexibility in coping within the resignation stage of the TNTM. However, Riva

et al. (2014) argued that impaired self-regulation is the main mechanism by which long-term

et al., 2014). We found that the main interaction effect held when these measures were included as control

variables. Further, there were no moderation effects detected with these measures included in the study.

ostracism leads to resignation (distress). It is here that we see further promise in cross-

pollination of contextual behavioral science and social psychology frameworks where both

traditions may inform each other. It may be the case, therefore, that high levels of

psychological flexibility is related to a greater capacity for self-control (Kashdan &

Rottenberg, 2010), such that individuals who are high in psychological flexibility may have

more psychological resources available to them to recover from their ostracism.

The results of the present studies may have potential implications for understanding

individual differences in the impact of long-term ostracism, and potentially informing future

interventions to support people in coping with such events. Indeed, Acceptance and

Commitment Therapy (ACT; Hayes et al., 2012) clinicians use a range of techniques, such as

cognitive defusion strategies, with the explicit aim of encouraging clients to observe and

accept their private experiences (thoughts, emotions, sensations). Such ACT-based

techniques are designed to reduce engagement in experiential avoidance, with the overall

goal of increasing psychological flexibility (Hayes et al., 2013; McCracken & Guitierrez-

Martinez, 2011; Villatte et al., 2016; Vowles & McCracken, 2010). Moreover, the efficacy of

ACT in reducing psychological distress is well established in the empirical literature (e.g.,

Levin, Hildebrandt, Lillis, & Hayes, 2012; Powers, Zum Vörde Sive Vörding, &

Emmelkamp, 2009). However, the use of ACT to support those with chronic experiences of

ostracism has not been investigated thus far. Molet, Macquet, Lefebvre, and Williams (2013),

however, have demonstrated that prior to being ostracised, if one is provided with relaxation

training to focus their attention on their breath (mindfulness) then this can significantly

reduce recovery time compared to an unfocused condition. As mindfulness techniques are

often employed by ACT clinicians to increase awareness and acceptance of private

experiences (Hayes et al., 2013), this provides further support for the proposal that increasing

psychological flexibility may be of benefit to those suffering the negative effects of long-term

ostracism.

Limitations and Directions for Future Research

The present paper has several limitations. First, the effect sizes for the moderation

effect detected across both studies were rather small. However, the effect sizes observed in

these studies was consistent with the magnitude of interactive effects observed in prior

research examining psychological flexibility as a moderator of psychological distress (e.g.,

Bardeen et al., 2013; Kashdan & Kane, 2011). Second, as the data on perceived ostracism,

psychological flexibility and psychological distress came from the same source, this increases

the risk of common method bias. However, as discussed previously, procedures were applied

to reduce the influence of common method variance as suggested by Podsakoff et al. (2003),

thus it is unlikely that common method bias provides a substantial threat to the findings.

Third, as non-clinical samples were recruited, it may be somewhat difficult to generalise the

results to samples who may be significantly distressed by ostracism. Future research could,

therefore, exclusively recruit a chronically ostracised (clinical) sample (e.g., Riva et al., 2016)

and examine the potential influence of psychological flexibility in moderating psychological

distress. Fourthly, the WOS was modified for the present paper. However, exploratory and

confirmatory factor analyses indicate that scores on the modified WOS appeared to have

sufficient internal reliability and construct validity within the context of the present studies.

Future researchers may consider replicating the present design whilst separating the

measure of distress further (e.g., 1 – 6 months rather than the 1-week separation) than in the

present studies, so as to bolster our understanding of the strength of the moderating effect of

psychological flexibility on distress from ostracism over extended periods of time. It is

common for temporal separation in studies of this area (e.g., Wu et al., 2012) but they do tend

to be longer than the 1-week reported here. More pertinently, the present study does not allow

for cross-lagged analyses as distress measures were not taken at both Time 1 and Time 2.

Thus, future research will need to address this shortcoming. An important next step for

research in this area is to conduct an empirical study to examine the moderation effect of

psychological flexibility reported here with these correlational designs and establish an

empirical grounding for the proposed predicted impact of high or low levels of psychological

flexibility on responses to experimentally induced experiences of ostracism (e.g., Cyberball).

As the majority of the sample in both studies was female (although it should be

acknowledged that it is particularly common to have such high responses for females when

using online survey methods in psychological research; see Gerhart, Baker, Hoerger, &

Ronan, 2014), it might be prudent to sample male populations more widely. However, it

should be noted that gender was found to have no significant interaction with perceived

ostracism in either study. This finding might not be surprising as ostracism is proposed to

impact on all humans (Williams, 2009), thus sample demographic characteristics might not

be overly influential as there may be no substantive gender or indeed cross-cultural

differences.

Moreover, it would be prudent in future research to counter a possible critique that,

rather than levels of flexibility per se, it is levels of general negative affect or distress that

influences the likelihood of recovery from experiences of ostracism. However, importantly,

as noted above (see Footnote 2), the current study found that measures of negative affect (I-

PANAS) and need to belong had no impact on the moderation effect of psychological

flexibility reported here. On a somewhat related note, future researchers may wish to consider

using different measures of psychological flexibility as there are some concerns in the

literature over the efficacy and construct validity of the AAQ-II (e.g., Frances, Dawson, &

Golijani-Moghaddam, 2016; Vaughan-Johnston, Quickert, & MacDonald, 2017; Wolgast,

2014). However, despite the suggestion that AAQ-II might actually be a measure of

psychological distress (Wolgast, 2014), it should be acknowledged that Wolgast did not use a

standardised measure of psychological distress to test those specific claims. All the same,

future researchers might consider employing more recently developed instruments to measure

psychology flexibility such as the CompACT (Frances et al., 2016).

Future research could consider including behavioral outcome measures (Baumeister,

Vohs, & Funder, 2007), such as the life-alone paradigm, rather than rely exclusively on self-

report measures so as to extend the present findings to how people actually react and behave

in response to ostracism. Such behavioral outcome research could be coupled with a more

detailed examination of factors that are thought to characterise the third and final stage of the

TNTM, the resignation stage of ostracism (e.g., alienation, unworthiness, helplessness, and

depression; Williams, 2009) by employing established measures of sense of belonging, self-

esteem, hopelessness and depression (see Riva et al., 2016). This work is needed, for, as to

our knowledge, no research has examined potential moderators within the resignation stage

of ostracism in relation to general perceived ostracism. Indeed, questionnaire-based ostracism

studies have typically focused on potential moderators of workplace ostracism, but have

tended to neglect a discussion of the resignation stage (e.g., Hitlan, Cliffton, & DeSoto, 2006;

Scott, Zagenczyk, Schippers, Purvis, & Cruz, 2014; Wu et al., 2012). Furthermore, there is

scope to for future researchers to develop a more comprehensive model of how to overcome

the psychological distress associated with the resignation stage (Williams, 2009) of ostracism

by integrating research from seemingly disparate philosophical traditions. For example, as the

name clearly implies, psychological acceptance is a cornerstone goal of reducing

psychological inflexibility within ACT and its roots in the functional contextual behavioral

tradition (e.g., Hayes et al., 2013). The importance of acceptance has also been identified

within the social cognition tradition as a promising factor to examine in social impact theory

and the social rejection-aggression link (e.g., DeWall, Twenge, Bushman, Im, & Williams,

2010). We feel there is much to be gained by building bridges and reaching out across such

different research traditions.

Conclusion

The present paper provides an attempt to further our understanding of how the

negative impact of long-term everyday experiences of ostracism may be influenced.

Importantly, the current research advances on previous literature by not being constrained to

a specific context such as the workplace (e.g., Wu et al. 2012). Overall, this theory driven

investigation on the role of psychological flexibility in moderating the psychological distress

associated with perceived ostracism suggests that perceived ostracism may only be associated

with psychological distress at low levels of psychological flexibility. Overall, these findings

may have potential implications for chronically ostracised individuals as interventions (e.g.,

ACT) aimed at increasing psychological flexibility may help enhance coping with such

events.

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Figure 1. The moderating effects of perceived ostracism (PO) and psychological flexibility

(EA) on distress (Study 1).

Low PO High PO

Distress

Low

High

Figure 2. The moderating effects of perceived ostracism (PO) and psychological flexibility

(EA) on distress (Study 2).

Table 1. Means, standard deviations, and correlations between study variables for Study 1

(N=299).

Variables

1. Perceived ostracism

2. Flexibility

.42**

3. Distress (Time 2)

.46**

.61**

Mean

19.55

25.83

32.48

8.35

9.77

24.44

Table 2. Hierarchical Regression Analysis Study 1 (Dependent Variable: Psychological

Distress)

Model 1

Model 2

Model 3

Independent variables

Low PO High PO

Psychological Distress

Low

High

Perceived ostracism

.80**

.65**

.80**

Flexibility (Flex)

1.15**

1.16**

1.15**

Moderator

Perceived ostracism x Flex

.03**

.04**

Quadratic Terms

-.01

Perceived ostracism^2

-.00

Flex^2

.39

.40

.41

Δ R2

.01

.00

Note: n = 299; ** p <.01

Table 3. Means, standard deviations, and correlations between study variables for Study 2

(N=231).

Variables

1. Perceived ostracism

2. Flexibility

.36**

3. Distress (Time 2)

.42**

.66**

Mean

21.20

24.59

30.05

9.50

9.93

22.97

Note: ** p <.01.

Table 4. Hierarchical Regression Analysis Study 2 (Dependent Variable: Psychological

Distress)

Model 1

Model 2

Model 3

Independent variables

Perceived ostracism

.54**

.47**

.60**

Flexibility (Flex)

1.23**

1.20**

1.17**

Moderator

Perceived ostracism x Flex

.03**

Quadratic Terms

-.00

Perceived ostracism^2

.00

Flex^2

.46

.48

Δ R2

.02

.00

Note: n = 231; ** p <.01

Highlights

 Psychological flexibility moderates the distress following experiences of ostracism

 At low levels of psychological flexibility, distress following ostracism is high

 At high levels of psychological flexibility, distress following ostracism is low

Figures Information

Data

November 2017

Daniel Waldeck · Ian Tyndall · Paolo Riva · Nik Chmiel

Download

Study 1 and 2 Demographic Table

Data

October 2017

Daniel Waldeck · Ian Tyndall · Paolo Riva · Nik Chmiel

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Article

Aug 2023

Social exclusion can induce negative emotions and aggression. While previous studies have investigated the effect of trait acceptance on emotional experience and aggression during social exclusion, it is still unclear how different forms of acceptance strategy can downregulate negative emotions and whether this potential reduction of negative emotions should mediate the effect of acceptance on aggression. To address these questions, 100 participants were recruited and randomly divided into three groups: control group (CG, N = 33), conscious acceptance group (CAG, N = 33) and unconscious acceptance group (UAG, N = 34). Negative emotions were induced by the cyberball game and measured by the modified PANAS. Aggressive behavior was assessed by the hot sauce allocation task. Results showed that anger, rather than other negative emotions, mediated the effect of acceptance on aggressive behavior. Conscious and unconscious acceptance both effectively regulated anger, hurt feelings and aggressive behavior during social exclusion. Compared to conscious acceptance, unconscious acceptance was associated with less reduction of positive emotion and had a better effect on reducing sadness. These findings highlight the advantage of applying unconscious acceptance strategy to regulating social exclusion-induced emotions for the purpose of reducing aggressive behavior.

CECIRANJ Volume 13 Issue 2 Pages 78-67 (1)

Article

Full-text available

Apr 2023

Seyed Mosa Tabatabaee

The aim of this study was to examine the Effect of Acceptance and Commitment Intervention on Perceived Social Support, Cognitive Flexibility, and Emotional exchange in mothers of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). This study was semi-experimental with a pretest-posttest design and a control group. The statistical population includes 70 mothers and a random sample of 34 mothers with autistic children aged 5 to 8 years in the Autism Rehabilitation Center of Ayat City of Shahriar selected from the total population, randomly assigned in the control group (n=17) and the experiment group (n=17). Data were collected using a multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS), Denis Cognitive Flexibility Questionnaire (CFQ), and McMaster family assessment device (Affective exchange) (CFI). The experiment group received acceptance and commitment therapy for 9 sessions of 90 minutes twice a week. Data were analyzed by Multivariable Analysis of Covariance (MANCOVA) using SPSS23 software. The results showed significant differences between the components of affective exchange, perception of behavior justification, perception of control-ability, perception of substitutes for human behaviors, total cognitive flexibility, family support, friends’ support, other’s support, and total perceived social support in the experimental group were higher (P≤0.05). The current research findings showed that acceptance and commitment therapy could boost the mental health level and cognitive/social components of mothers with an autism spectrum disorder. Keywords: Autism Spectrum Disorder, Cognitive Flexibility, Affective Exchange, Perceived Social Support, Acceptance, and Commitment Therapy.

“Don't need [therapy]! Not necessary, that's what we're for!”: Does content from fibromyalgia Facebook peer support groups emulate psychological flexibility principles?

Article

Mar 2023

Objective: Many persons with fibromyalgia (FM) use online peer support groups (OPSGs) to address unmet emotional or psychological needs. Some OPSG members have suggested that participation in an OPSG is a viable substitute for professional psychological services, however, no published research exploring this claim was identified. Methods: Discussion content collected from three Facebook FM OPSGs was thematically analyzed to explore whether the content posted in FM OPSGs emulated content consistent with the psychological flexibility model underlying Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) - an evidence-based psychotherapy for chronic pain conditions. Results: The content posted in OPSGs did not emulate and often contradicted the core psychological flexibility processes or skills emphasized in ACT programs. Conclusion: Participation in an FM OPSG should be approached cautiously. Content from the FM OPSGs should not be considered a substitute for professionally delivered ACT, although participation may provide emotional support to help individuals move towards readiness for active psychotherapy. Innovation: This research represents a novel application of the psychological flexibility model underlying ACT to assess the potential therapeutic value of a peer support community. Additionally, it is the first to clarify that content in FM OPSGs is not aligned with psychological flexibility processes.

The relationship between stressful life events and school engagement for junior high school students in China: A serial mediation model

Article

Feb 2023

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between stressful life events (SLE) and school engagement and to determine if there are some likely mediating variables between them. A sample of 1517 Chinese junior high school students (51.5% female) completed the adolescent self-rating life events checklist (ASLEC), Utrecht Work Engagement Scale-student (UWES-s), cognitive fusion questionnaire (CFQ), and positive psychological capital questionnaire (PPQ). The model was calculated using the PROCESS macro in SPSS. The serial mediator model revealed a significant negative effect of SLE on school engagement through psychological flexibility and psychological capital (effect = −.08, 95% CI [−.10, −.06]). There was also a direct mediating effect through psychological capital (effect = −.17, 95% CI [−.21, −.13]). The results of the present study may help to clarify mechanisms that might explain the association between SLE and school engagement. Future research on improving school engagement should consider the critical roles of psychological flexibility and psychological capital.

Socioeconomic status impact Chinese youth’s internalizing problems: The risk role of psychological insecurity and cognitive fusion

Preprint

Full-text available

Nov 2022

Background Low socioeconomic status (SES) has been shown to be associated with more internalizing problems in youth, but the mechanism of this relationship, has not been investigated in Chinese families. We tested the hypotheses that this association would be mediated by the youth’s psychological insecurity, and that there would be a moderating effect of cognitive fusion. Method Senior middle school students (N = 780, ages 16–19, 54.45% girls) were recruited to complete a self-report a measure of SES, the anxious/depression subscales of the Youth Self-Report, the Security Questionnaire and the Cognitive Fusion Questionnaire. A moderated mediation model was tested in regression-based analyses. Results Results indicated that (1) psychological insecurity fully mediated the relationship between SES and adolescent internalizing problems; (2) high cognitive fusion adolescents show stronger positive association of psychological insecurity and internalizing problems; (3) cognitive fusion also moderated the mediated pathway. Conclusions Present results emphasize the important effect of a psychological security and resourced environment on adolescent development and adolescents’ excessive fusion with thoughts of overestimating interpersonal and environmental insecurity may strengthen the indirect pathway from SES to internalizing problems via psychological insecurity. The findings are discussed in terms of their possible practical application in acceptance and commitment therapy.

The Role of Psychological Capital and Psychological Flexibility in Predicting Loneliness in Elderly

Article

Full-text available

Jul 2019

Growing old, decreasing perception of social efficiency because of retirement and separation from children cause the elderly to feel lonely. Therefore, the present study was conducted to investigate the role of psychological capital and psychological flexibility in predicting loneliness among the elderly. It was a correlational descriptive study. The statistical population of the study included the elderly living in Isfahan in 2018. Samples included 253 elderlies who were selected through the convenience sampling method. The loneliness scale (Russell), psychological flexibility questionnaire (Denis and Vanderwal) and the questionnaire of psychological capitals (Lotanz and Olio) were used to collect data. Data were analyzed using Pearson Correlation and simultaneous multiple regression. The results reported a significant relationship between psychological capital and psychological flexibility and feeling of loneliness in the elderly (P˂0.001). Moreover, the results showed that psychological capital and psychological flexibility were significant predictors of loneliness among the elderly, while there was no significant difference in predicting predictive variables (psychological capital and psychological flexibility) (P˃0.05). Considering the meaningful role of psychological capital and psychological flexibility in significantly predicting loneliness in the elderly, it seems necessary to provide training for psychological capital and improve psychological flexibility among the elderly to decrease feeling lonely and apply the outcomes to decrease loneliness in the elderly.

The Development and Validation of the Comprehensive Assessment of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy Processes (CompACT)

Article

Full-text available

May 2016

Extant ACT process measures are typically circumscribed in their focus (limited to particular theoretical sub-processes or contexts of application) and have been subject to critique in terms of their discriminant validity and conflation of process and outcome variables. Conceptual questions therefore remain regarding how best to operationalize and measure core ACT processes. In this study, we describe the development of a new general measure of ACT processes (the CompACT) and explore the measure’s factor structure, validity and reliability. In phase one, ACT experts rated the face and content validity of 106 items using a Delphi consensus methodology, and produced an initial 37-itemed measure. In phase two, a non-clinical sample of participants (N = 377) completed the CompACT and measures of other theoretically related and unrelated variables. An exploratory factor analysis suggested a theoretically-coherent three-factor structure (clustering ACT’s six processes into three dyadic processes) for a 23-itemed version of the CompACT. The CompACT demonstrated good internal consistency, and converged and diverged in theory-consistent ways with other measured variables: higher levels of psychological inflexibility were associated with higher levels of distress and lower levels of health and wellbeing. The CompACT shows initial promise as a general measure of ACT processes.

Chronic social exclusion and evidence for the resignation stage: An empirical investigation

Article

Full-text available

Apr 2016
J SOC PERS RELAT

Experiences of social exclusion, including ostracism and rejection, can last anywhere from a few seconds to many years. Most research focused on short-term social exclusion whereas virtually no empirical work has investigated the experiences of long-term social exclusion. Williams (2009) theorized that prolonged experiences of social exclusion (i.e., ostracism) would cause individuals to pass from the reflexive and reflective stages to the resignation stage, characterized by the inability to recover threatened psychological needs and feelings of alienation, unworthiness, helplessness, and depression. Across two studies, we explored this prediction—and, in light of pain overlap theories, considered the possibility that chronic exclusion and chronic pain induce common psychological responses. Study 1 consisted of a quasi-experimental study involving five groups of participants: those with (1) chronic experiences of social exclusion (N=82), (2) chronic physical pain (N=82), (3) chronic hypertension (N=69), (4) chronic kidney disease (N=60), and (5) a group of healthy people (N=83). Participants filled out a questionnaire including measures of need threat, negative emotions, and the four key outcomes linked to the resignation stage (i.e., alienation, unworthiness, helplessness, and depression). Although our data showed little evidence to support the psychological overlap between chronic exclusion and chronic physical pain, the results suggested that chronic experiences of social exclusion were associated with higher levels of negative emotions and resignation stage outcomes compared to participants in all the other groups. Furthermore, we found that threatened psychological needs mediated the effect of social exclusion on the resignation stage outcomes. Study 2 tested, but found no support for, the possibility that acute experiences of social exclusion could increase the resignation stage outcomes. Overall, our research indicates that when people are exposed to short-term exclusion, they recover their threatened psychological needs. However, when enduring chronic social exclusion, they do not, and enter the resignation stage.

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy Modules: Differential Impact on Treatment Processes and Outcomes

Article

Full-text available

Feb 2016
BEHAV RES THER

A modular, transdiagnostic approach to treatment design and implementation may increase the public health impact of evidence-based psychosocial interventions. Such an approach relies on algorithms for selecting and implementing treatment components intended to have a specific therapeutic effect, yet there is little evidence for how components function independent of their treatment packages when employed in clinical service settings. This study aimed to demonstrate the specificity of treatment effects for two components of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), a promising candidate for modularization. A randomized, nonconcurrent, multiple-baseline across participants design was used to examine component effects on treatment processes and outcomes in 15 adults seeking mental health treatment. The ACT OPEN module targeted acceptance and cognitive defusion; the ACT ENGAGED module targeted values-based activation and persistence. According to Tau- U analyses, both modules produced significant improvements in psychiatric symptoms, quality of life, and targeted therapeutic processes. ACT ENGAGED demonstrated greater improvements in quality of life and values-based activation. ACT OPEN showed greater improvements in symptom severity, acceptance, and defusion. Both modules improved awareness and non-reactivity, which were mutually targeted, though using distinct intervention procedures. Both interventions demonstrated high treatment acceptability, completion, and patient satisfaction. Treatment effects were maintained at 3-month follow up. ACT components should be considered for inclusion in a modular approach to implementing evidence-based psychosocial interventions for adults.

Resilience to Ostracism: A Qualitative Inquiry

Article

Full-text available

Oct 2015

Ostracism is a painful event, which may lead to prolonged psychological distress. However, little is known about the mechanisms which may help people recover from such events. This study explored how people who are not chronically ostracised describe processing and coping with ostracism. Using a qualitative methodology, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 21 participants (age group: 18-59; 12 female) from different occupational status groups. Thematic analyses revealed four major themes within the data: participants' immediate reaction to ostracism (“reflex”), subsequent reflections (“reflection”), efforts to manage their behaviour (“regulation”), and capacities to cope following ostracism (“adjustment”). Intensity emerged as a superordinate theme whereby the closer the ostraciser was to the participant, the greater the negative impact. The findings suggested that although most people will experience pain or stress following ostracism, it is how such events are reflected upon and managed that will determine when it leads to distress. Furthermore, some people may be resilient to ostracism. However, this resistance may weaken if the ostraciser(s) are considered close to the person. © 2015: Daniel Waldeck, Ian Tyndall, Nik Chmiel, and Nova Southeastern University.

Is Psychology Suffering From a Replication Crisis? What Does "Failure to Replicate" Really Mean?

Article

Full-text available

Sep 2015
AM PSYCHOL

Psychology has recently been viewed as facing a replication crisis because efforts to replicate past study findings frequently do not show the same result. Often, the first study showed a statistically significant result but the replication does not. Questions then arise about whether the first study results were false positives, and whether the replication study correctly indicates that there is truly no effect after all. This article suggests these so-called failures to replicate may not be failures at all, but rather are the result of low statistical power in single replication studies, and the result of failure to appreciate the need for multiple replications in order to have enough power to identify true effects. We provide examples of these power problems and suggest some solutions using Bayesian statistics and meta-analysis. Although the need for multiple replication studies may frustrate those who would prefer quick answers to psychology's alleged crisis, the large sample sizes typically needed to provide firm evidence will almost always require concerted efforts from multiple investigators. As a result, it remains to be seen how many of the recently claimed failures to replicate will be supported or instead may turn out to be artifacts of inadequate sample sizes and single study replications. (PsycINFO Database Record

The Depression Anxiety Stress Scales-21 (DASS-21): Further Examination of Dimensions, Scale Reliability, and Correlates

Article

Dec 2012
J CLIN PSYCHOL

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy: The Process and Practice of Mindful Change

Book

Sep 2011

Since the original publication of this seminal work, acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) has come into its own as a widely practiced approach to helping people change. This book provides the definitive statement of ACT—from conceptual and empirical foundations to clinical techniques—written by its originators. ACT is based on the idea that psychological rigidity is a root cause of a wide range of clinical problems. The authors describe effective, innovative ways to cultivate psychological flexibility by detecting and targeting six key processes: defusion, acceptance, attention to the present moment, self-awareness, values, and committed action. Sample therapeutic exercises and patient–therapist dialogues are integrated throughout. New to This Edition *Reflects tremendous advances in ACT clinical applications, theory building, and research. *Psychological flexibility is now the central organizing focus. *Expanded coverage of mindfulness, the therapeutic relationship, relational learning, and case formulation. *Restructured to be more clinician friendly and accessible; focuses on the moment-by-moment process of therapy.

Psychological flexibility under fire: Testing the incremental validity of experiential avoidance

Article

Jan 2017
PERS INDIV DIFFER

Experiential avoidance (EA), the preference for avoiding or suppressing the experience of internal events, is gaining increased currency as a predictor of responses to emotional events, including relationship distress in clinical contexts. Nonetheless, several issues challenge the credibility of its measures' discriminant and incremental validities. Furthermore, its application to subclinical populations is less understood. In three studies using university samples, we examined the relevance of EA as a predictor of internal (emotional and cognitive) and external (behavioural) responses to imagined relationship conflicts. Despite consistently moderate associations between the EA measures and outcomes, we found that these associations were eliminated when hypothesized covariates (present affect, neuroticism, and anxious attachment) were included. Attachment anxiety predicted these outcomes over and above mood, neuroticism, and multiple EA measures, in all studies. Furthermore, study three shows how EA might better be conceived as a process by which mood, neuroticism, and attachment anxiety influence reactions – rather than an independent trait. Implications for future research on experiential avoidance are considered in light of these findings.

Rumination Hinders Recovery From Ostracism

Article

Jan 2013

Ostracism - being ignored and excluded - is a painful event that threatens fundamental needs. Ostracized individuals' reflective responses focus on cognitive appraisal and motivated recovery, and previous research suggests these appraisals can help or hinder recovery. Rumination is a negative style of cognitive appraisal that often leads to maladaptive coping strategies by prolonging distress and impeding individuals' active actions toward problem solving. We hypothesized that rumination would hinder individuals' ability to recover from ostracism in a laboratory experiment. We randomly assigned participants (N = 112, average age 19.67) to be included or ostracized in an online group interaction, and then either allowed them to ruminate or distracted them. Ostracized participants who were allowed to ruminate reported more distress than ostracized participants who were distracted, suggesting less recovery. We then discuss the developmental implications for rumination and effects on chronically ostracized individuals.

Ostracism: A temporal need-threat model

Article

Jan 2009
ADV EXP SOC PSYCHOL

K.D. Williams

How do we cope with ostracism? Psychological flexibility moderates the relationship between everyday ostracism experiences and psychological distress

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