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Anger suppression after imagined rejection among individuals with social anxiety
Abstract
Individuals experiencing high levels of social anxiety report frequent and intense anger. Yet, little is known about how they manage this emotion. Despite general tendencies towards anger suppression, subsets of individuals with social anxiety regulate anger through outward expression. In this study, we investigated rejection as an antecedent to anger, examined how and when individuals with high social anxiety suppress anger, and evaluated experiential avoidance (EA) as a moderator of the relationship between social anxiety and anger suppression. 170 undergraduate students described their responses to everyday social situations that were designed to elicit anger; several situations reflected instances of social rejection. Our results suggest that rejection was a potent source of anger for most people and that social anxiety predicted both anger and EA in response to imagined rejection. In addition, as evidence of a moderation model, individuals with low social anxiety and low EA reported the least anger suppression; no significant differences were found for individuals with high social anxiety. We discuss the implications for understanding the interface of social anxiety and anger.
... There is evidence that the anticipated fear of negative evaluation and rejection in SAD provokes anger across a wide range of situations corresponding to increased trait anger [15,14]. The increased experience of anger poses a great predicament for individuals with SAD, as the expression may increase the real or perceived threat of further negative evaluation [16]. Therefore anger may evoke anxiety and is suppressed in order to reduce anxiety. ...
... Therefore anger may evoke anxiety and is suppressed in order to reduce anxiety. In keeping with this assumption previous studies found higher levels of suppressed anger in SAD [15][16][17]. ...
... Consequently, suppression of anger may be utilized to reduce this anxiety. Since individuals with SAD are likely to interpret ambiguous social stimuli as threatening and identify neutral events as dangerous, rejection is more salient to them [16]. This might be particularly problematic as feared rejection is a potent antecedent of anger for individuals with social anxiety [16] rendering coping with anger particularly challenging [15]. ...
Background
There is evidence for the relevance of attachment style and anger expression for the manifestation of social anxiety disorder (SAD).
Method
In a cross-sectional study 321 individuals with social anxiety disorder (41% men, age 38.8 ± 13.9) were compared with 94 healthy controls (37% men, age 35.8 ± 15.1) on several questionnaires (Attachment Styles Questionnaire, State Trait Anger Inventory, Social Phobia Inventory, Beck Depression Inventory).
Results
Individuals with SAD showed moderate-sized reduced levels of secure and large-sized increased levels of fearful and preoccupied attachment style compared to healthy controls (all p < 0.001) as well as small-sized increased levels of trait anger (p = 0.03) and moderate-sized increased levels of anger-in (p < 0.001). Attachment style and anger regulation could predict 21% (R² = 0.21, p < 0.001) of the extent of social anxiety (SPIN) in SAD; secure (β = − 0.196, p < 0.01) and preoccupied attachment style (β = 0.117, p < 0.05), as well as anger-in (β = 0.199, p < 0.01) were significant cross-sectional predictors. Further analysis revealed that the relationship between preoccupied attachment and social anxiety is partially mediated by anger-in.
Conclusion
Study findings confirm the relevance of preoccupied attachment style and anger suppression for social anxiety. Disentangling the role of anger regulation in early attachment patterns has significant therapeutic implications in SAD.
... Kashdan and McNight (2010) suggest that some socially anxious individuals may become angry and aggressive in response to perceived rejection. Breen and Kashdan (2011) considered the role of psychological inflexibility in the relationship between social anxiety and anger in response to rejection. Participants were 170 undergraduates at a Mid-Atlantic U.S. university who completed standardized measures of social anxiety, anger, and psychological inflexibility and responded to a vignette asking them to imagine social rejection (including anger and experiential avoidance responses). ...
... Participants low in social anxiety and low in experiential avoidance engaged in less anger suppression in response to vignettes compared to participants high in social anxiety or experiential avoidance. Breen and Kashdan (2011) suggested that individuals who are higher in experiential avoidance may struggle more with adaptively handling anger and emphasized the extent to which flexible responding was important to address social challenges. ...
... Generally, psychological inflexibility has been linked to anger and aggression in these examinations (Breen & Kashdan, 2011;Tull et al., 2007) and appears to interact with anger and depression in relation to difficulty in delaying gratification (Gerhart et al., 2014). Additionally, psychological inflexibility was found to partially explain the relationship between PTSD symptoms and aggression (Tull et al., 2007). ...
A growing body of literature has begun to examine anger, hostility, and aggression using the psychological flexibility model among both youth and adults. This manuscript provides the first overview of this research. Papers were included in this review if they were published in English, peer-reviewed, published throughDecember 8th 2017 on PsycInfo and PubMed, or were recommended during the review process. The research reviewed examines anger, hostility, and aggression in a variety of contexts, such as interpersonal difficulties, emotional difficulties (e.g., depression, posttraumatic stress disorder), impulse control, and externalizing. The article also reviews Acceptance and Commitment Therapy-based interventions targeting problems related to anger and aggression. Generally, there is support for the psychological flexibility model in this domain and treatment studies have been demonstrated a beneficial impact of ACT on aggression and domestic violence in adults. The literature in youth is extremely limited, although some supportive findings were demonstrated. More extensive and methodologically stronger examinations would strengthen this area of study and are discussed.
... Individuals with SAD reported greater intensity of situationally experienced anger (state anger), disposition to experience anger in a wide range of situations (trait anger), inclination to express anger when criticized, evaluated negatively, or treated unfairly by others (angry reaction), and tendency to experience and express anger without provocation (angry temperament), as measured by the State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory (Spielberger 1988). Breen & Kashdan (2011) replicated these findings in a sample of undergraduates and also found that SA was positively correlated with anger in response to imagined rejection after listening to a series of vignettes. In a study using ecological momentary sampling in community adults, Kashdan & Collins (2010) found SA to be associated with more time spent feeling angry throughout the day. ...
... In contrast, groups did not differ in their likelihood to aggressively direct anger toward other people or objects (anger-out) or to monitor and control the expression of anger (anger control). In undergraduates, SA was also positively correlated with anger-in scores and anger suppression in response to imagined rejection after listening to vignettes (Breen & Kashdan 2011). Similarly, people with SAD were less likely to express anger than were nonanxious controls, even after accounting for the effects of depressive symptoms (Moscovitch et al. 2008). ...
Research on social anxiety and social anxiety disorder has proliferated over the years since the explication of the disorder through cognitive-behavioral models. This review highlights a recently updated model from our group and details recent research stemming from the (a) information processing perspective, including attention bias, interpretation bias, implicit associations, imagery and visual memories, and (b) emotion regulation perspective, including positive emotionality and anger. In addition, we review recent studies exploring the roles of self-focused attention, safety behaviors, and post-event processing in the maintenance of social anxiety. Within each area, we detail the ways in which these topics have implications for the treatment of social anxiety and for future research. Finally, we conclude with a discussion of how several of the areas reviewed contribute to our model of social anxiety disorder.
... [7,8] Emerging evidence indicates that meaningful subgroups of individuals with social phobia exhibit symptoms involving violent behavior, aggression, and novelty seeking. [9] Individuals with anxiety disorders frequently perceive criticism or rejection from others, [10,11] engage in self-criticism, and have difficulty discussing negative emotional states with others. Because suppression of negative emotions has the counterproductive effect of heightening physiological arousal, [12] such suppression might contribute to intense anger expression and aggressive outbursts over time. ...
... All respondents with a mental health diagnoses were assessed with the Sheehan Disability Scales [31] measuring the extent to which mental health symptoms interfered in the following domains: home life, school or work, family relationships, and social life. Response options were none (0), mild (1-3), moderate (4-6), severe (7)(8)(9), and very severe (10). Consistent with prior research, [1,4] severe impairment was operationalized as a score of 7 or higher. ...
Background:
Evidence suggests that impulsive aggression and explosive anger are common among individuals with anxiety disorders; yet, the influence of intermittent explosive disorder (IED) on the onset, course, consequences, and patterns of comorbidity among those with anxiety disorders is unknown.
Methods:
Data were drawn from the National Comorbidity Survey Replication (N = 9,282) and Adolescent Supplement (N = 9,632), nationally representative surveys conducted between 2001 and 2004. Diagnoses were based on structured lay-administered interviews. Lifetime diagnoses were assessed with structured instruments. Outcomes included comorbidity, functional and role impairment, and treatment utilization.
Results:
Adolescents with a lifetime anxiety disorder had a higher prevalence of a lifetime anger attacks (68.5%) and IED (22.9%) than adolescents without a lifetime anxiety disorder (48.6 and 7.8%, respectively), especially social phobia and panic disorders. Similar elevation was found for adults. Age of onset and course of anxiety disorders did not differ by IED. Severe functional impairment associated with anxiety was higher among adolescents (39.3%) and adults (45.7%) with IED than those without IED (29.2 and 28.2%, respectively). Comorbidity for all other disorders was elevated. However, individuals with anxiety disorders and IED were no more likely to use treatment services than those with anxiety disorders without IED.
Conclusions:
Individuals with IED concomitant to anxiety disorder, especially social phobia and panic, are at marked risk for worse functional impairment and a higher burden of comorbidity, but onset and course of anxiety disorder do not differ, and those with anxiety and IED are no more likely to utilize treatment services. Assessment, identification, and specialized treatment of anger in the context of anxiety disorders are critical to reducing burden.
... In the same line, Heeren et al. (2017) investigated brain activation in SAD patients and control participants after ostracism and suggested that SAD may be characterized by a "poor ability to recover" (Heeren et al., 2017, p. 1) after rejection rather than particular differences during the social exclusion. Breen and Kashdan (2011) found that participants' social anxiety predicted feelings of anger after imagined rejection. In Mallott et al. (2009), HSAs showed the signs of avoidance such as decreased eye contact after rejection and giving others less reward than non-anxious controls. ...
... Additionally, we expected that reward behavior and approach tendencies would accumulate with an increasing number of rejecters (Williams et al., 2000). Furthermore, in line with Vroling et al. (2016), it was expected that with increasing levels of social anxiety, the reward given by rejected individuals would decrease and would lead to a stronger avoidance tendency (Ayduk et al., 1999;Ayduk et al., 2008;Oaten et al., 2008;Mallott et al., 2009;Breen and Kashdan, 2011). Due to overgeneralization of negative experiences, it was finally expected that with increasing degrees of social anxiety, the differentiation of rewarding and avoidance between rejecters and accepters (innocent individuals) would diminish (Maner et al., 2007;Mallott et al., 2009;DeWall, 2013). ...
In general, human beings tend to try and reconnect after they have been socially rejected. It is not clear, however, which role the number of rejecters and rejection sensitivity plays. In addition, it is unclear whether the supposed pro-social behaviors are aimed at the rejecters or at innocent individuals. By means of a new paradigm, the present pilot study investigated compensatory behavior of individuals with varying degrees of social anxiety, following varying degrees of rejection. In addition, it was explored toward whom their behavior was directed: rejecters or innocent individuals. Female students (N = 34) were assessed on their degree of social anxiety and then, based on a personal profile they wrote, they were either rejected by 1, 2, or 3 fictional other participants or completely accepted. Afterward, the participants had to explicitly rate the creativity of drawings made by the others and, in a pro-social reward paradigm, awarded the other participants money based on their creativity rating. In addition, implicit social approach tendencies toward photos of rejecters, acceptors, or innocent individuals were assessed by means of an approach-avoidance task. The results confirmed that people with a low degree of social anxiety respond to rejection in a compensatory pro-social manner explicitly as well as implicitly, but that people with a high degree of social anxiety fail to do so. With regard to sources of rejection, only implicit approach-avoidance tendencies reflected a distinction between rejecters and innocent individuals. Theoretical implications are discussed in the light of the small sample size and other limitations.
... In a recent analysis by Versella and colleagues (Versella et al. 2016), it was shown that individuals with SAD who had high levels of trait anger, a tendency toward anger suppression, and a lack of control over anger expression also had the highest levels of distress and impairment. Literature on anger in socially anxious samples is increasing (e.g., Breen and Kashdan 2011;Erwin et al. 2003;Hawkins and Cougle 2011), with studies generally examining how individuals with high levels of social anxiety experience anger. Findings point to the presence of a unique relationship between SAD and problems with anger experience and expression. ...
... Findings point to the presence of a unique relationship between SAD and problems with anger experience and expression. One study found that social anxiety predicted both anger and experiential avoidance in response to imagined rejection (Breen and Kashdan 2011). Another study suggested a possible skills deficit, such that individuals with social anxiety have poorer anger expression skills compared to nonanxious controls (Erwin et al. 2003). ...
The Social Suspiciousness Scale (SSS) is a 24-item self-report questionnaire designed to assess suspiciousness, along with the associated constructs of anger and hostility, within a social context. The present research evaluated the psychometric properties of this newly developed scale. The sample consisted of outpatients with social anxiety disorder (SAD; n = 145), unselected undergraduate university students (n = 162), and healthy community controls (n = 46). A principal components analysis suggested a one-factor solution. Internal consistency of the scale was high, and interitem correlations indicated that items were nonredundant. Test-retest reliability was strong. SSS scores were moderately correlated with measures of social anxiety, paranoia, anger and hostility. Moreover, in the outpatient SAD sample, SSS scores decreased significantly following a 12-week cognitive-behavioral group treatment program for SAD. The SSS may be a useful tool for measuring suspiciousness, anger and hostility across a variety of social contexts, particularly in individuals with SAD. This research contributes more generally to a broader understanding of SAD, and supports the importance of considering the role of mistrust and suspiciousness in this disorder.
... In the same line, Oaten, Williams, Jones, and Zadro (2008) reported that SAIs still showed extensive self-regulation deficits 45 min after ostracism. Breen and Kashdan (2011) found that SAIs displayed more anger after imagining having been excluded. However, they used anger suppression techniques more than NACs to not experience the emotion. ...
... Our proposals have their general basis in cross-sectional, longitudinal, and experimental studies on safety behaviours and cognitive avoidance that have been obtained from our review of the social anxiety literature. These studies have demonstrated that trait social anxiety has consistent associations with safety behaviours (e.g., Cuming et al., 2009;McManus et al., 2008;Plasencia et al., 2011;Stangier et al., 2006;Thomas et al., 2012) and cognitive avoidance (e.g., Breen and Kashdan, 2011;Kashdan et al., 2013Kashdan et al., , 2014Panayiotou et al., 2014; see also Table 4). Furthermore, in line with the maintenance function of safety behaviours, experimental studies have consistently demonstrated that the use of safety behaviours results in higher social-evaluative anxiety and the reduction of safety seeking behaviours leads to lower social-evaluative anxiety and reductions in anxiety-related self-judgements (Morgan and Raffle, 1999;Alden, 2010, 2011;Wells et al., 1995; see also Table 4). ...
Background:
Within maintenance models of social anxiety disorder (SAD), a number of cognitive and behavioural factors that drive the persistence of SAD have been proposed. However, these maintenance models do not address how SAD develops, or the origins of the proposed maintaining factors. There are also models of the development of SAD that have been proposed independently from maintenance models. These models highlight multiple factors that contribute risk to the onset of SAD, but do not address how these aetiological factors may lead to the development of the maintaining factors associated with SAD.
Methods:
A systematic review of the literature was conducted to identify aetiological and maintenance models of SAD. We then united key factors identified in these models and formulated an integrated aetiological and maintenance (IAM) model of SAD. A systematic review of the literature was then conducted on the components of the IAM model.
Results:
A number of aetiological and maintaining factors were identified in models of SAD. These factors could be drawn together into the IAM model. On balance, there is empirical evidence for the association of each of the factors in the IAM model with social anxiety or SAD, providing preliminary support for the model.
Limitations:
There are relationships between components of the IAM model that require empirical attention. Future research will need to continue to test the IAM model.
Conclusions:
The IAM model provides a framework for future investigations into the development and persistence of SAD.
... On the other hand, some studies have investigated the association between social relationships and close structures to EMSs, such as rejection sensitivity (Butler et al., 2007;Berenson et al., 2009;Breen & Kashdan, 2011), shame (Kim, Talbot, & Cicchetti, 2009; Hasanvande Amoozadeh, Shaeeri, & Asghari Moghadam, 2012), perfectionism (Sherry, Law, Hewitt, Flett, & Besser, 2008;Ye, Rice, & Storch, 2008), entitlement and narcissism (Ogrodniczuk, Piper, Joyce, Steinberg, & Duggal, 2009;Mueller, Degen, Petitjean, Wiesbeck, & Walter, 2009), and factors like parent-child relationship (Robinson, 2000), maltreatment experiences (Gaffey, 2005;Gaffey, 2009), and childhood trauma (Drapeau & Perry, 2004). They have shown significant associations between these structures. ...
Objective: In recent years, interpersonal relationships have become more complex and
increasing number of people suffers from seclusion and loneliness. Early maladaptive schemas
(EMSs), important cognitive structures, are expected to have a profound effect on interpersonal
relationships. The present study aimed to investigate the relationship between EMSs and
interpersonal problems among university students.
Methods: This study was a cross-sectional correlational study. A total of 150 female students
selected using snowball sampling method out of Rasht universities and completed the Short
Form of Young Schema Questionnaire (SF-YSQ) and the 64-item Inventory of Interpersonal
Problems (IIP-32). For data analysis, Pearson correlation coefficient test and stepwise
regression were administered. SPSS-20 was used for statistical analysis.
Results: Results showed positive significant correlations between EMSs’ domains, especially
the domains of disconnection/rejection and impaired autonomy and performance with
interpersonal problems.
Conclusion: Given the important role of EMSs in interpersonal relationships, and the significant
role of interpersonal relationships in psychological adjustment, further investigations on this
field seem necessary.
... Theorists identify suppression of anxiety in SAD as a safety behavior used to minimize unpleasant emotions during social interactions (Voncken, Alden, & Bögels, 2006). Paradoxically, emotional suppression can lead to greater probability of social rejection by others and subsequent elevation of negative emotions (Breen & Kashdan, 2011). Elevated expressive suppression tendencies in individuals with social anxiety has been observed using experience-sampling (Farmer & Kashdan, 2012) and clinical interviews (Werner et al., 2011). ...
Individuals with social anxiety disorder (SAD) suffer from intense fear of social evaluation, heightened emotional reactivity to social cues, and problems implementing effective forms of emotion regulation (ER), particularly in social situations. In this chapter, we examine the role of emotion and ER in SAD to elucidate how different families of ER strategies function in individuals with SAD, and are modified by clinical interventions for SAD, specifically, cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) and mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR).
... Also, Zolfaghari, Fatehizadeh, and Abedi (2008), and Attari et al., (2012) showed that the impaired autonomy and performance schemas have significant negative effect on marital satisfaction, close relationships, and emotional maturation. On the other hand, some studies have investigated the association between social relationships and close structures to EMSs, such as rejection sensitivity (Butler et al., 2007; Berenson et al., 2009; Breen & Kashdan, 2011), shame (Kim, Talbot, & Cicchetti, 2009; Hasanvande Amoozadeh, Shaeeri, & Asghari Moghadam, 2012 ), perfectionism (Sherry, Law, Hewitt, Flett, & Besser, 2008; Ye, Rice, & Storch, 2008), entitlement and narcissism (Ogrodniczuk, Piper, Joyce, Steinberg, & Duggal, 2009; Mueller, Degen, Petitjean, Wiesbeck, & Walter, 2009), and factors like parent-child relationship (Robinson, 2000), maltreatment experiences (Gaffey, 2005; Gaffey, 2009), and childhood trauma (Drapeau & Perry, 2004). They have shown significant associations between these structures. ...
Objective: In recent years, interpersonal relationships have become more complex and
increasing number of people suffers from seclusion and loneliness. Early maladaptive schemas
(EMSs), important cognitive structures, are expected to have a profound effect on interpersonal
relationships. The present study aimed to investigate the relationship between EMSs and
interpersonal problems among university students.
Methods: This study was a cross-sectional correlational study. A total of 150 female students
selected using snowball sampling method out of Rasht universities and completed the Short
Form of Young Schema Questionnaire (SF-YSQ) and the 64-item Inventory of Interpersonal
Problems (IIP-32). For data analysis, Pearson correlation coefficient test and stepwise
regression were administered. SPSS-20 was used for statistical analysis.
Results: Results showed positive significant correlations between EMSs’ domains, especially
the domains of disconnection/rejection and impaired autonomy and performance with
interpersonal problems.
Conclusion: Given the important role of EMSs in interpersonal relationships, and the significant
role of interpersonal relationships in psychological adjustment, further investigations on this
field seem necessary.
... On the other hand, some studies have investigated the association between social relationships and close structures to EMSs, such as rejection sensitivity (Butler et al., 2007;Berenson et al., 2009;Breen & Kashdan, 2011), shame (Kim, Talbot, & Cicchetti, 2009; Hasanvande Amoozadeh, Shaeeri, & Asghari Moghadam, 2012), perfectionism (Sherry, Law, Hewitt, Flett, & Besser, 2008;Ye, Rice, & Storch, 2008), entitlement and narcissism (Ogrodniczuk, Piper, Joyce, Steinberg, & Duggal, 2009;Mueller, Degen, Petitjean, Wiesbeck, & Walter, 2009), and factors like parent-child relationship (Robinson, 2000), maltreatment experiences (Gaffey, 2005;Gaffey, 2009), and childhood trauma (Drapeau & Perry, 2004). They have shown significant associations between these structures. ...
Objective: In recent years, interpersonal relationships have become more complex andincreasing number of people suffers from seclusion and loneliness. Early maladaptive schemas(EMSs), important cognitive structures, are expected to have a profound effect on interpersonalrelationships. The present study aimed to investigate the relationship between EMSs andinterpersonal problems among university students.
Methods: This study was a cross-sectional correlational study. A total of 150 female studentsselected using snowball sampling method out of Rasht universities and completed the ShortForm of Young Schema Questionnaire (SF-YSQ) and the 64-item Inventory of InterpersonalProblems (IIP-32). For data analysis, Pearson correlation coefficient test and stepwiseregression were administered. SPSS-20 was used for statistical analysis.
Results: Results showed positive significant correlations between EMSs’ domains, especiallythe domains of disconnection/rejection and impaired autonomy and performance withinterpersonal problems.
Conclusion: Given the important role of EMSs in interpersonal relationships, and the significantrole of interpersonal relationships in psychological adjustment, further investigations on thisfield seem necessary.
... It may be that these episodes of aggressive behavior represent an important expression of distress for teens, and may be linked to the experience of anxiety or mood problems (Coccaro et al., 1998;Olvera et al., 2001). For example, Kashdan and colleagues (Breen & Kashdan, 2011;Kashdan & McKnight; have discussed a subset of disinhibited individuals with social anxiety disorder who exhibit risk-taking, impulsivity, and hostile outbursts. Therefore, future research is necessary to disentangle IED from this form of social anxiety. ...
Little is known about the epidemiology of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed.; DSM-IV) intermittent explosive disorder (IED) in adolescents, and no information is currently available regarding the relationship between race/ethnicity and IED among Black youth in the United States. Using the World Health Organization World Mental Health Composite International Diagnostic Interview (Adolescent Version), we estimated the prevalence, severity, and disability of IED in a national, probability sample of African American and Caribbean Black youth (ages 13-17) from the National Survey of American Life, Adolescent Supplement. Face-to-face surveys of 810 African American and 360 Caribbean Black youth were conducted between 2001 and 2003. We calculated lifetime and 12-month diagnoses of IED using diagnostic algorithms based on DSM-IV and assessed IED disability using a modified Sheehan Disability Scale. Overall findings indicated lifetime and 12-month IED prevalence rates of 9.2% and 7.0%, respectively. Lifetime prevalence rates of IED were 9.0% for African American and 12.4% for Caribbean Black teens. Within the past 12 months, 6.7% of African American and 11.5% of Caribbean Black adolescents met diagnostic criteria for IED. Lifetime and 12-month IED were associated with anxiety disorders. In addition, few teens with lifetime IED received any treatment. Findings are consistent with recent evidence that intermittent explosive disorder may be more common than previously considered, especially among adolescents. Significant acts of aggression and impairment are associated with IED, and low treatment rates indicate that more research on this disorder and intervention options is warranted. (PsycINFO Database Record
... Additionally, we controlled for several factors that have been linked to both OCD and other psychosomatic symptoms: age, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, and one-child family status (Murphy and Flessner, 2015;Fan, 2016). Finally, we also examined current levels of depression and anxiety both because these two factors are commonly associated with OC symptoms and anger proneness and suppression (Radomsky et al., 2007;Breen and Kashdan, 2011;Yap et al., 2012;Nissen et al., 2016) and because depressive and anxious symptoms may bias participants toward more negative responses to other assessments, including inventories of OCD and family circumstance (Waldinger et al., 2006). ...
Previous research has shown strong connections of anger experience and expression with obsessive–compulsive (OC) symptoms. Additionally, studies have demonstrated links between family environment variables and obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD). Our study aims to integrate the perspectives from these two literatures by exploring the moderating roles of family cohesion and family adaptability in the relationship between anger proneness and suppression and OCD symptoms. A total of 2008 college students were recruited from a comprehensive university in Shanghai, China between February and May 2016. The subjects completed self-report inventories, including the Symptom Check List-90, State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory 2 (Chinese version), and Family Adaptability and Cohesion Scale, second edition (Chinese Version). Controlling for age, one-child family status, ethnicity, family income, current depression, and anxiety, our analyses showed that the association between anger proneness and OC symptoms was moderated by family cohesion among men and that family adaptability moderated the connection between anger suppression and OC complaints among women. The findings imply that a more cohesive and empathic family environment may protect male students with high levels of anger proneness from developing OC behaviors or thoughts. The results suggest that for female subjects who are accustomed to suppressing angry feelings, flexible family coping strategies and communication atmospheres would reduce their vulnerability to OC symptoms. The findings are somewhat consistent with those of previous studies on psychotherapy outcomes that showed that OCD patients benefitted from psychotherapeutic interventions that cultivated the clients’ family cohesion and adaptability.
... Study 2 also found a positive relationship (r ¼ .39) between Anger Distress scores and Social Phobia scores on the SPAI-23. This is in line with Breen and Kashdan (2011), who found a positive relationship between social anxiety and state anger (r ¼ .25). Although this project found a stronger relationship between anger and social anxiety, this is to be expected given that the Anger Distress scale items assess responses specific to social anxiety. ...
Research shows that social anxiety disorder (SAD) is prevalent in the United States, and may interfere with many aspects of a person’s life. Although numerous psychological instruments have been developed to measure presence and intensity levels of social anxiety, these instruments fail to capture the range of responses individuals utilize to mitigate the negative affect associated with the anxiety, namely alcohol use and anger distress. Recently, the Multidimensional Social Anxiety Response Inventory – 21 (MSARI-21) was developed to address this limitation and increase our understanding of the complexity of social anxiety. We expand on this work by evaluating the psychometric properties of the instrument, using a combination of exploratory structural equation and bi-factor modeling, and item response techniques. Across two studies, data indicated the presence of a strong, 3-factor structure (i.e., Anger Distress, Alcohol Reliance, and Social Avoidance), strong internal consistency, and evidence of both convergent and discriminant validity. In addition, results showed that the MSARI-21 multidimensional structure was invariant across gender. We conclude that the MSARI-21 is a valid and valuable tool for assessing individuals’ responses to social anxiety, and that future research should evaluate the instrument within other samples to ensure its utility across clinical and subclinical populations.
... Additionally, it allows the experimenter to manipulate the content of the scenario to test for the influence of a wide variety of situational variables, and studies suggest this method of assessing decision-making processes to predict behavior is much more effective than using retrospective self-reports (Finkelstein and Brannick, 2000;Hughes, 1998). Furthermore, although experimental vignette paradigms have not been used in the rejection sensitivity literature (to our knowledge), researchers have successfully manipulated cues of rejection using vignettes to investigate the relationships between experiences of rejection and similar constructs, such as attachment (Feeney, 2005) and social anxiety (Breen, 2011). ...
Given the significant consequences of women’s choices to have unprotected sex, empirical research designed to understand the in-the-moment factors influencing women’s risky sexual decision-making has become crucial. Nevertheless, the present literature continues to emphasize the importance of intrapersonal factors such as attitudes and personality traits, while giving less research attention to interpersonal factors such as situational contexts. Thus, with the Rejection Sensitivity Model (RSM; Downey and Feldman, 1996) as a theoretical base, the present study employed an experimental vignette paradigm to investigate the relationship between women’s in-the-moment experiences of rejection within an interpersonal situation and their intentions to engage in unprotected sex as a function of their individual level of rejection sensitivity. Specifically, we posited that individual levels of rejection sensitivity would predict women’s intentions to engage in unprotected sex as a means of attenuating the possibility of rejection in the presence of her romantic partner’s potentially rejecting cues.
In the present study, 133 female college students (Mage = 19.17, SD = 1.22) read and projected themselves into a vignette depicting a hypothetical dating scenario between a man and a woman after completing a background measure of rejection sensitivity. In this scenario, a man (Michael) and a woman (the participant) are on their sixth date. During the date, Michael and the participant become physically intimate before discovering that neither of them have a condom. Subsequently, the participant must decide whether she will have unprotected sex with Michael after he suggests they should. The male character’s behavioral cues (accepting, ambiguous or rejecting) were manipulated within the vignette. Participants’ perceptions of rejection, angry affective reactions and unprotected sex intentions were assessed as dependent variables during two stopping-points built into the vignette.
We used multistage regression analysis to test the direct and indirect effects of rejection sensitivity and behavioral cue condition on perceived rejection, angry affective reactions, and unprotected sex intentions. Women’s rejection sensitivity and their randomly assigned cue condition both positively predicted perceptions of rejection within the experimental vignette. As women’s perceptions of rejection increased, so did their angry affective reactions, which in turn decreased their intentions to engage in unprotected sex. Additionally, rejection sensitivity had a direct, positive relationship with unprotected sex intentions, but only among women who received explicitly rejecting cues from her romantic partner within the experimental vignette.
In the present study, the rejection sensitivity model revealed a direct and an indirect path whereby anxious expectations of rejection and rejecting cues can both positively and negatively influence women’s risky sexual decision-making. In conclusion, this experimental study provides empirical support for the Rejection Sensitivity Model’s application to women’s sexual decision-making, and contributes to the literature focusing on both the interactive and independent influences of intrapersonal and interpersonal factors on women’s sexually risky behaviors.
... Furthermore, people who do not trust that their partners will be accepting or responsive are more likely to suppress their emotions during threatening interactions (Righetti et al., 2015;Thomson et al., 2018;Von Culin, Hirsch, & Clark, 2018), including individuals high in attachment anxiety (Clear & Zimmer-Gembeck, 2017;Holmberg et al., 2011;Low et al., 2019). Highly anxious individuals may also suppress the outward expression of relationship-threatening emotions, such as anger and frustration (Breen & Kashdan, 2011), but not proximity-seeking emotions, such as sadness and hurt (Jayamaha et al., 2016;Overall et al., 2014; also see Lemay, Overall & Clark, 2012). ...
Suppressing the expression of negative emotions tends to undermine individuals' and their partners' wellbeing. However, sometimes expressive suppression may be relatively innocuous given that individuals commonly withhold negative emotions in order to maintain close relationships, and this may be especially the case when expressive suppression is enacted by people who exhibit amplified expressions of negative emotions, such as those high in attachment anxiety. The current research examined when and for whom expressive suppression may be more or less costly by testing whether the curvilinear effect of individuals' expressive suppression on individuals' and partners' outcomes is moderated by individuals' attachment anxiety. Our results across 3 dyadic studies revealed a linear effect of expressive suppression when predicting individuals' outcomes: greater expressive suppression had costs for individuals (lower relationship satisfaction, reported responsiveness and discussion success, and greater discussion threat). Furthermore, in 4 of the 5 models, a moderated curvilinear effect of expressive suppression emerged when predicting partners' outcomes. For individuals low in attachment anxiety, low levels of expressive suppression did not incur costs for their partners' relationship satisfaction, perceptions of individuals' responsiveness, discussion success, and discussion threat. Once expressive suppression surpassed moderate levels, however, greater expressive suppression had a detrimental effect on partners' outcomes. In contrast, for individuals high in attachment anxiety, the negative effect of moderate-to-high levels of expressive suppression on partners' outcomes was attenuated. These novel results demonstrate how considering curvilinear methods can uncover when and for whom expressive suppression may be more or less costly in intimate relationships. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).
... Among treatment-seeking individuals with SAD, higher levels of trait anger and anger suppression have been associated with greater social anxiety (Erwin et al., 2003). Similarly, in non-clinical samples, more time spent experiencing anger throughout the day (Kashdan and Collins, 2010) and higher levels of anger in response to imagined rejection (Breen and Kashdan, 2011) were associated with greater social anxiety. ...
Background
: Cognitive-behavioral therapy and mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) are two prominent evidence-based treatments for social anxiety disorder (SAD). It is not clear, however, whether outcomes of these two treatments are moderated by similar factors. For example, whereas anger suppression and anger expression each predict outcomes in cognitive- behavioral group therapy (CBGT), it is unknown whether they differentially influence outcomes in CBGT versus MBSR.
Methods
: One hundred eight participants with SAD were randomized to CBGT, MBSR or Waitlist (WL). WL participants were later randomized to CBGT or MBSR, and their data were combined with data from those originally randomized to CBGT or MBSR. Anger suppression and anger expression were assessed at pre-treatment, and social anxiety was assessed at pre-treatment, post-treatment, and every 3 months throughout a 12-month follow-up period.
Results
: From pre- to post-treatment, higher anger suppression was associated with significantly greater reduction in social anxiety in CBGT compared with MBSR. From post-treatment through follow-up, higher anger expression was associated lesser reduction in social anxiety in MBSR but not in CBGT.
Limitations
: Data are limited by sole reliance on self-report and it is unclear whether these findings generalize beyond group-based interventions.
Conclusions
: Individuals with SAD who are higher in anger suppression and/or expression might be better suited to CBGT than MBSR.
Purpose: To investigate the effectiveness of transactional analysis group therapy on decreasing aggression in addicted couples. Method: The design of this study was quasi-experimental with a pretest–posttest control group design.The participants included 40 addicted couples from the camp of 'Life Expectancy' in Sabzevar.They were randomly assigned into two groups. The experimental group received 8 sessions of transactional analysis group therapy while the control group was not offered any intervention. Before and after the intervention, aggression questionnaire was completed by the participants of the study. Findings: The results of ANCOVA revealed that, in the post-test, the experimental group's aggression decreased significantly in comparison with that of the control group. The findings also confirmed that transactional analysis group therapy can reduce aggression in addicted couples.
Objective: The present study aimed to explore the relationship between social anxiety and reaction bias towards different types of potential social opportunities after suffering ostracism. Methods: 110 participants were divided into high-social-anxiety(HSA) or low-social-anxiety(LSA) group by scoring the top or bottom 20% in the Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale. They were also randomly assigned to ostracism group(58 participants) or control group(52 participants), and then received ostracism or control manipulation via a Cyber-ball task. After the manipulation, participants were measured by a manipulation check followed by Satisfaction of Basic Psychological Needs Scale, Modified Interest in Social Contact Questionnaire and Modified Compliance Request Task. Results: Two-way ANOVA showed a significant interaction between SA and ostracism manipulation on volunteering time. LSA group, but not HSA, enrolled more volunteering time after ostracism than control group. Moreover, significant main effects for SA and ostracism manipulation were observed for social interest towards friends and communication online. Conclusion: After ostracism, HSA individuals show compensatory deficits when faced with potential social opportunities for interacting with strangers, but show no compensatory deficits when potential social opportunities are from friends or online.
Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is highly prevalent and associated with high levels of impairment and distress. Therapies for SAD leave many patients symptomatic at the end of treatment, and little is known about predictors or mechanisms of treatment outcome. Given the interpersonal dysfunction fundamental to SAD, this study investigated whether prominent interpersonal features of SAD (submissive behavior, childhood maltreatment, suppression of anger, and depression) predicted attrition and response to pharmacotherapy and whether the working alliance mediated these relationships. This is the first study to examine the role of the working alliance in pharmacotherapy for SAD. One hundred thirty-eight treatment-seeking individuals with a primary diagnosis of SAD received 12 weeks of open treatment with paroxetine. Higher levels of depression predicted greater severity of SAD at the end of treatment, and higher levels of submissive behavior and childhood emotional maltreatment predicted a greater probability of attrition from treatment. The psychiatrist-assessed working alliance mediated response to pharmacotherapy for individuals who reported a history of emotional maltreatment. These results identify variables that predict pharmacotherapy outcome and emphasize the importance of the working alliance as a mechanism of treatment response for those with a history of emotional maltreatment. Implications for person-specific treatment selection are discussed.
The aim of the study is to examine the intermediary role of loneliness in the relation between the social interaction anxiety and happiness amonBu araştırmanın amacı üniversite öğrencilerinde sosyal etkileşim kaygısı ile mutluluk arasındaki
ilişkide yalnızlığın aracı rolünün incelemektir. Araştırmanın çalışma grubunu Fırat
Üniversitesi’nde öğrenim gören 324 kadın, 270 erkek olmak üzere 594 üniversite öğrencisi
oluşturmuştur. Veri toplama araçları olarak; Etkileşim Kaygısı Ölçeği, UCLA Yalnızlık Ölçeği ile
Oxfort Mutluluk Ölçeği Kısa Formu kullanılmıştır. Araştırmada veriler korelasyon ve regresyon
teknikleri kullanılarak çözümlenmiştir. Elde edilen sonuçlara göre; sosyal etkileşim kaygısının
yalnızlığı ve mutluluğu yordadığı, yalnızlığın mutluluğu yordadığı ve sosyal etkileşim kaygısı ile mutluluk arasındaki ilişkide yalnızlığın kısmi aracılık ettiği sonucuna ulaşılmıştır.g university students.
Individuals with social anxiety disorder (SAD) exhibit elevated levels of anger and anger suppression, which are both associated with increased depression, diminished quality of life, and poorer treatment outcomes. However, little is known about how anger experiences differ among individuals with SAD and whether any heterogeneity might relate to negative outcomes. This investigation sought to empirically define anger profiles among 136 treatment-seeking individuals with SAD and to assess their association with distress and impairment. A latent class analysis was conducted utilizing the trait subscales of the State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory-2 as indicators of class membership. Analysis revealed four distinct anger profiles, with greatest distress and impairment generally demonstrated by individuals with elevated trait anger, a greater tendency to suppress the expression of anger, and diminished ability to adaptively control their anger expression. These results have implications for tailoring more effective interventions for socially anxious individuals.
When individuals hold positive interpersonal expectations, social exclusion provokes individuals to positively engage in restoring unsatisfied basic psychological needs, so as to reconnect to others. However, individuals with social anxiety tend to show distinct response tendency from individuals in general, or psychological need compensatory deficits, after social exclusion. The differences specifically lie in cognitive, emotional, physiological, neural, as well as behavioral responses. Furthermore, four underlying psychological mechanism behind the formation of the response bias were presented based on cognition belief, social monitoring system, self-regulation ability, and ruminant processing. Future research directions were discussed.
Purpose: Determine of social and personal factors discriminating resilient from non-resilient adolescences against abuse.
Methodology: The statistical population encompasses all high-school students of Jajarm, city, who were 516 people. Emotional abused questionnaire,rauma resilience questionnaire, young self- report scale, and Wechsler IQ test have been administered and then a discriminant analysis were used.
Findings: Findings showed that individual (excluding intelligence) and social (excluding supportive relations to peers and active social involvement) factors were different in two groups (p<0.05). Discriminating function also revealed discrimination between resilient and non-resilient teens so that it determined 20.2 % of resilience changes. it might be concluded that individual protective factors like problem-solving, pessimism, belief structure, self-regulation, and self-esteem as well as social protective factors like supportive academic performance and neighborhood safety/support help adolescents endure against parents’ emotional abuse.
This paper reviews Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and Obsessive Compulsive (OC) spectrum disorders (e.g., trichotillomania and chronic skin picking). It reviews the philosophy of science that underlies ACT: functional contextualism; the basic research that informs it: learning theory, rule governed behavior and relational frame theory; ACT’s model: psychological flexibility; and the research to date that supports ACT for OCD and OC spectrum disorders. Limitations to this research and future directions are discussed.
A fair amount of research exists on acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) as a model and a treatment for anxiety disorders and OCD spectrum disorders; this paper offers a quantitative account of this research. A meta-analysis is presented examining the relationship between psychological flexibility, measured by versions of the Acceptance and Action Questionnaire (AAQ & AAQ-II) and measures of anxiety. Meta-analytic results showed positive and significant relationships between the AAQ and general measures of anxiety as well as disorder specific measures. Additionally, all outcome data to date on ACT for anxiety and OCD spectrum disorders is reviewed, as are data on mediation and moderation within ACT. Preliminary meta-analytic results show that ACT is equally effective as manualized treatments such as cognitive behavioral therapy. Future directions and limitations of the research are discussed.
Social pain is a common experience that has potent implications for health. However, individuals differ in their sensitivity to social pain. Recent evidence suggests that sensitivity to social pain varies according to a biological factor that modulates sensitivity to physical pain: resting (tonic) blood pressure. The current studies extended this evidence by testing whether blood pressure relates to sensitivity to imagined (Study 1: N = 762, 51% female adults) and acute (Study 2, preregistered: N = 204, 57% female adults) experiences of social pain and whether associations extend to general emotional responding (Studies 1–3; Study 3: N = 162, 59% female adults). In line with prior evidence, results showed that higher resting blood pressure was associated with lower sensitivity to social pain. Moreover, associations regarding blood pressure and sensitivity to social pain did not appear to be explained by individual differences in general emotional responding. Findings appear to be compatible with the interpretation that social and physical pain share similar cardiovascular correlates and may be modulated by convergent interoceptive pathways.
Salivary IgA, heart rate and mood were measured in thirty individuals before and after experiencing care or anger. Two methods of inducing the emotional states were compared: self-induction and external induction via video tapes. Anger produced a significant increase in total mood disturbance and heart rate, but not in S-IgA levels. Positive emotions, on the other hand, produced a significant increase in S-IgA levels. Examining the effects over a six hour period we observed that anger, in contrast to care, produced a significant inhibition of S-IgA from one to five hours after the emotional experience. Results indicate that self-induction of positive emotional states is more effective at stimulating S-IgA levels than previously used external methods. Self-induction techniques may therefore be useful in minimizing the immunosuppressive effects of negative emotions.
U.S. emotion culture contains beliefs that women are more emotional and emotionally expressive than men and that men and women differ in their experience and expression of specific emotions. Using data from the 1996 emotions module of the GSS, the authors investigate whether men and women differ in self-reports of feelings and expressive behavior, evaluating whether the patterns observed for men and women are consistent with cultural beliefs as well as predictions from two sociological theories about emotion and two sociological theories about gender. Surprisingly, self-reports do not support cultural beliefs about gender differences in the frequency of everyday subjective feelings in general. Men and women do, however, differ in the frequency of certain positive and negative feelings, which is explained by their difference in social position. The implications of the findings for theory and research on both gender and emotion are discussed.
The present study describes the development of a short, general measure of experiential avoidance, based on a specific theoretical approach to this process. A theoretically driven iterative exploratory analysis using structural equation modeling on data from a clinical sample yielded a single factor comprising 9 items, A fully confirmatory factor analysis upheld this same 9-item factor in an independent clinical sample. The operational characteristics of the Acceptance and Action Questionnaire (AAO) were then examined in 8 additional samples. All totaled, over 2,400
The present study describes the development of a short, general measure of experiential avoidance, based on a specific theoretical approach to this process. A theoretically driven iterative exploratory analysis using structural equation modeling on data from a clinical sample yielded a single factor comprising 9 items. A fully confirmatory factor analysis upheld this same 9-item factor in an independent clinical sample. The operational characteristics of the Acceptance and Action Questionnaire (AAQ) were then examined in 8 additional samples. All totaled, over 2,400 participants were studied. As expected, higher levels of experiential avoidance were associated with higher levels of general psychopathology, depression, anxiety, a variety of specific fears, trauma, and a lower quality of life. The AAQ related to more specific measures of avoidant coping and to self-deceptive positivity, but the relation to psychopathology could not be fully accounted for by these alternative measures. The data provide some initial support for the model of experiential avoidance based on Relational Frame Theory that is incorporated into Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, and provides researchers with a preliminary measure for use in population-based studies on experiential avoidance.
Syndromal classification is a well-developed diagnostic system but has failed to deliver on its promise of the identification of functional pathological processes. Functional analysis is tightly connected to treatment but has failed to develop testable, replicable classification systems. Functional diagnostic dimensions are suggested as a way to develop the functional classification approach, and experiential avoidance is described as 1 such dimension. A wide range of research is reviewed showing that many forms of psychopathology can be conceptualized as unhealthy efforts to escape and avoid emotions, thoughts, memories, and other private experiences. It is argued that experiential avoidance, as a functional diagnostic dimension, has the potential to integrate the efforts and findings of researchers from a wide variety of theoretical paradigms, research interests, and clinical domains and to lead to testable new approaches to the analysis and treatment of behavioral disorders. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
The psychometric adequacy of the Social Interaction Anxiety Scale (SIAS; R. P. Mattick & J. C. Clark, 1989), a measure of social interaction anxiety, and the Social Phobia Scale (SPS; R. P. Mattick & J. C. Clark, 1989), a measure of anxiety while being observed by others, was evaluated in anxious patients and normal controls. Social phobia patients scored higher on both scales and were more likely to be identified as having social phobia than other anxious patients (except for agoraphobic patients on the SPS) or controls. Clinician-rated severity of social phobia was moderately related to SIAS and SPS scores. Additional diagnoses of mood or panic disorder did not affect SIAS or SPS scores among social phobia patients, but an additional diagnosis of generalized anxiety disorder was associated with SIAS scores. Number of reported feared social interaction situations was more highly correlated with scores on the SIAS, whereas number of reported feared performance situations was more highly correlated with scores on the SPS. These scales appear to be useful in screening, designing individualized treatments, and evaluating the outcomes of treatments for social phobia. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
This study set out to explore how people feel (anxious vs angry) and attribute blame for criticism with the development of a new scale called the sensitivity to put-down scale. It was found that self-blame, but not blaming others for criticism, was associated with a number of psychopathology variables such as social anxiety, depression and shame. Blaming self (but not blaming others) was also associated with increased anger proneness and hostile attitudes. This study also found that those who see themselves as relatively down rank tend to blame themselves for criticism, while those who feel relatively superior, tend to blame others. This research was contextualised in social rank theory [Gilbert, P. (1989). Human nature and suffering. Hove: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.; Gilbert, P. (1992). Depression: the evolution of powerlessness. Hove: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Ltd. and New York: Guilford] which argues that personal perceptions of one's social rank affects a range of social behaviours and affects.
The need to belong has been forwarded as a pervasive human motive, influencing a range of cognitive, emotional, and behavioural responses. The current research explored the influence of belongingness needs on the selective retention of social information. Just as physical hunger results in selective memory for food-relevant stimuli, it was hypothesized that social hunger, aroused when belongingness needs were unmet, would result in selective memory for socially relevant stimuli. In two studies, the authors used a simulated computer chat room to present brief acceptance or rejection experiences to participants. Participants then read a diary containing both social and individual events. In both, rejection experiences resulted in selective memory for the explicitly social events of the diary. The implications of these results for the existence and consequences of a basic need to belong are discussed.
Although previous studies of emotional responding have found that women are more emotionally expressive than men, it remains unclear whether men and women differ in other domains of emotional response. We assessed the expressive, experiential, and physiological emotional responses of men and women in 2 studies. In Study 1, undergraduates viewed emotional films. Compared with men, women were more expressive, did not differ in reports of experienced emotion, and demonstrated different patterns of skin conductance responding. In Study 2, undergraduate men and women viewed emotional films and completed self-report scales of expressivity, gender role characteristics, and family expressiveness. Results replicated those from Study 1, and gender role characteristics and family expressiveness moderated the relationship between sex and expressivity.
Anger is paradoxically one of the most talked about but least studied of human emotions. The author presents a model of anger arousal that emphasizes the adaptive as well as the maladaptive roles of anger in terms of the diverse functions anger serves in affecting behavior. In light of the fact that competence in anger management involves dealing with stress situations that require patience, composure, and constructive thought for their resolution, he discusses cognitive self-control processes affecting the regulation of anger.
A hypothesized need to form and maintain strong, stable interpersonal relationships is evaluated in light of the empirical literature. The need is for frequent, nonaversive interactions within an ongoing relational bond. Consistent with the belongingness hypothesis, people form social attachments readily under most conditions and resist the dissolution of existing bonds. Belongingness appears to have multiple and strong effects on emotional patterns and on cognitive processes. Lack of attachments is linked to a variety of ill effects on health, adjustment, and well-being. Other evidence, such as that concerning satiation, substitution, and behavioral consequences, is likewise consistent with the hypothesized motivation. Several seeming counterexamples turned out not to disconfirm the hypothesis. Existing evidence supports the hypothesis that the need to belong is a powerful, fundamental, and extremely pervasive motivation.
An ACT Approach Chapter 1. What is Acceptance and Commitment Therapy? Steven C. Hayes, Kirk D. Strosahl, Kara Bunting, Michael Twohig, and Kelly G. Wilson Chapter 2. An ACT Primer: Core Therapy Processes, Intervention Strategies, and Therapist Competencies. Kirk D. Strosahl, Steven C. Hayes, Kelly G. Wilson and Elizabeth V. Gifford Chapter 3. ACT Case Formulation. Steven C. Hayes, Kirk D. Strosahl, Jayson Luoma, Alethea A. Smith, and Kelly G. Wilson ACT with Behavior Problems Chapter 4. ACT with Affective Disorders. Robert D. Zettle Chapter 5. ACT with Anxiety Disorders. Susan M. Orsillo, Lizabeth Roemer, Jennifer Block-Lerner, Chad LeJeune, and James D. Herbert Chapter 6. ACT with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. Alethea A. Smith and Victoria M. Follette Chapter 7. ACT for Substance Abuse and Dependence. Kelly G. Wilson and Michelle R. Byrd Chapter 8. ACT with the Seriously Mentally Ill. Patricia Bach Chapter 9. ACT with the Multi-Problem Patient. Kirk D. Strosahl ACT with Special Populations, Settings, and Methods Chapter 10. ACT with Children, Adolescents, and their Parents. Amy R. Murrell, Lisa W. Coyne, & Kelly G. Wilson Chapter 11. ACT for Stress. Frank Bond. Chapter 12. ACT in Medical Settings. Patricia Robinson, Jennifer Gregg, JoAnne Dahl, & Tobias Lundgren Chapter 13. ACT with Chronic Pain Patients. Patricia Robinson, Rikard K. Wicksell, Gunnar L. Olsson Chapter 14. ACT in Group Format. Robyn D. Walser and Jacqueline Pistorello
Being preoccupied with the pursuit of money, wealth, and material possessions arguably fails as a strategy to increase pleasure and meaning in life. However, little is known about the mechanisms that explain the inverse relation between materialism and well-being. The current study tested the hypothesis that experiential avoidance mediates associations between materialistic values and diminished emotional well-being, meaning in life, self-determination, and gratitude. Results indicated that people with stronger materialistic values reported more negative emotions and less relatedness, autonomy, competence, gratitude, and meaning in life. As expected, experiential avoidance fully mediated associations between materialistic values and each dimension of well-being. Emotional disturbances such as social anxiety and depressive symptoms failed to account for these findings after accounting for shared variance with experiential avoidance. The results are discussed in the context of alternative, more fulfilling routes to well-being.
It is proposed that interpersonal loss that communicates rejection increases the risk for depression specifically in individuals who not only expect rejection but are also concerned about preventing it. Accordingly, the role of rejection sensitivity (RS)—the disposition to anxiously expect, readily perceive, and overreact to rejection—in women’s depressive reactions to rejection by a romantic partner was examined. A 6-month longitudinal study of college women revealed that women high in RS compared with those who are low became more depressed when they experienced a partner-initiated breakup but not when they experienced a self-initiated or mutually initiated breakup. By contrast, RS was not associated with increased depression in response to failing to achieve an academic goal. These results support the view that depression in high-RS women is a reaction to a loss in a valued goal domain, that is, failure to prevent rejection in an important relationship.
We frequently try to appear less emotional than we really are, such as when we are angry with our spouse at a dinner party, disgusted by a boss’s sexist comments during a meeting, or amused by a friend’s embarrassing faux pas in public. Attempts at emotion suppression doubtless have social benefits. However, suppression may do more than change how we look: It also may change how we think. Two studies tested the hypothesis that emotion suppression has cognitive consequences. Study 1 showed that suppression impaired incidental memory for information presented during the suppression period. Study 2 replicated this finding and further showed that suppression increased cardiovascular activation. Mediational analyses indicated that physiological and cognitive effects were independent. Overall, findings suggest that emotion suppression is a cognitively demanding form of self-regulation.
Social phobia has become a focus of increased research since its inclusion in DSM-III. However, assessment of social phobia has remained an underdeveloped area, especially self-report assessment. Clinical researchers have relied on measures that were developed on college populations, and these measures may not provide sufficient coverage of the range of situations feared by social phobic individuals. There is a need for additional instruments that consider differences in the types of situations (social interaction vs. situations involving observation by others) that may be feared by social phobics and between subgroups of social phobic patients. This study provides validational data on two instruments developed by Mattick and Clarke (1989): the Social Interaction Anxiety Scale (SIAS), a measure of anxiety in social interactional situations, and the Social Phobia Scale (SPS), a measure of anxiety in situations involving observation by others. These data support the use of the SIAS and SPS in the assessment of individuals with social phobia.
Emotional numbness remains an empirically supported and theoretically intriguing pattern of response to social exclusion that warrants further research, and it would be a loss to the field if such research were prematurely terminated or hampered by the unwarranted conclusions from misleading meta-analyses. The meta-analyses by Gerber and Wheeler (2009, this issue) are based on a biased sample that omits much relevant work. Worse, the authors misinterpret what evidence they do assemble, even interpreting strong evidence for numbness as if it contradicted numbness. Their conclusions about control are similarly unfounded and misguided.
© 2009 Association for Psychological Science.
Pleasures of the mind are different from pleasures of the body. There are two types of pleasures of the body: tonic pleasures and relief pleasures. Pleasures of the body are given by the contact senses and by the distance senses (seeing and hearing). The distance senses provide a special category of pleasure. Pleasures of the mind are not emotions; they are collections of emotions distributed over time. Some distributions of emotions over time are particularly pleasurable, such as episodes in which the peak emotion is strong and the final emotion is positive. The idea that all pleasurable stimuli share some general characteristic should be supplanted by the idea that humans have evolved domain-specific responses of attraction to stimuli. The emotions that characterize pleasures of the mind arise when expectations are violated, causing autonomic nervous system arousal and thereby triggering a search for an interpretation. Thus pleasures of the mind occur when an individual has a definite set of expectations (usually tacit) and the wherewithal to interpret the violation (usually by placing it in a narrative framework). Pleasures of the mind differ in the objects of the emotions they comprise. There is probably a
One hundred sixty-four participants recounted situations in which their feelings had been hurt (victim accounts) or in which they had hurt another person's feelings (perpetrator accounts) and then completed a questionnaire. Hurt feelings were precipitated by events that connoted relational devaluation, and the victims' distress correlated strongly with feelings of rejection. Victims were typically hurt by people whom they knew well, suggesting that familiarity or closeness played a role. Analyses of the subjective experience revealed that hurt feelings are characterized by undifferentiated negative affect that is often accompanied by emotions such as anxiety and hostility. Victims' responses to the event were related to their attributions for the perpetrators' actions, and hurtful episodes typically had negative repercussions for the relationships between perpetrators and victims. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
The criterion validity of the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II; A. T. Beck, R. A. Steer, & G. K. Brown, 1996) was investigated by pairing blind BDI-II administrations with the
major depressive episode portion of the Structured Clinical Interview for
DSM-IV Axis I Disorders (SCID-I; M. B. First, R. L. Spitzer, M. Gibbon, & J. B. W. Williams, 1997) in a sample of 137 students receiving treatment at a university counseling center. Student BDI-II scores correlated strongly (
r=.83) with their number of SCID-I depressed mood symptoms. A BDI-II cut score of 16 yielded a sensitivity rate of 84% and a false-positive rate of 18% in identifying depressed mood. Receiver operating characteristic analyses were used to produce cut scores for determining severity of depressed mood. In a second study, a sample of 46 student clients were administered the BDI-II twice, yielding test-retest reliability of .96. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
In 1872, Darwin (1965) observed that anger (rage) was a powerful emotion that motivated “animals of all kinds, and their progenitors before them, when attacked or threatened by an enemy, to fight and protect themselves” (p. 74). Anger is reflected in facial expressions (e.g., reddened face, clenched teeth), muscular tension, and accelerated heart rate, and it differs from rage “only in degree, and there is no marked distinction in their characteristics” (Darwin, 1965, p. 244).
Keywords:
anger;
aggression;
hostility;
STAXI;
emotion;
personality;
anger expression;
anger control
In this chapter, the authors present a social functional account of emotions that attempts to integrate the relevant insights of evolutionary and social constructivist theorists. The authors' account is summarized in 3 statements: (1) social living presents social animals with problems whose solutions are critical for individual survival; (2) emotions have been designed in the course of evolution to solve these problems; and (3) in humans, culture loosens the linkages between emotions and problems so that cultures find new ways of using emotions. In the first half of the chapter the authors synthesize the positions of diverse theorists in a taxonomy of problems of social living and then consider how evolution-based primordial emotions solve those problems by coordinating social interactions. In the second half of the chapter the authors discuss the specific processes according to which culture transforms primordial emotions and how culturally shaped elaborated emotions help solve the problems of social living. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Baumeister and Tice's (this issue) social exclusion theory of anxiety proposes that a primary source of anxiety is perceived exclusion from important social groups. This article elaborates the basic propositions of social exclusion theory, then applies the theory to a broader analysis of affective reactions to exclusion. Specifically, the article examines the relationship between perceived social exclusion and social anxiety, jealousy, loneliness, and depression. The function of self-esteem and its role in moderating reactions to perceived exclusion are also discussed.
The need to belong is a powerful motivational basis for interpersonal behavior, and it is thwarted by social exclusion and rejection. Laboratory work has uncovered a destructive set of consequences of being socially excluded, such as increased aggressiveness and reduced helpfulness toward new targets. Rejected persons do, however, exhibit a cautious interest in finding new friends. Theory and intuition associate social exclusion with emotional distress, but laboratory research finds instead that the first response is a reduced sensitivity to pain and an emotional insensitivity that hampers empathy and may contribute to a variety of interpersonal behaviors. Self-regulation and intelligent thought are also impaired as a direct result of being rejected.
While the emotion of anger has become an increasingly important part of clinical assessment, the theoretical and psychometric adequacy of the instruments used to assess anger and hostility have long been questioned. In the present review, we first provide definitions of anger and hostility in order to provide a theoretical context from which to evaluate the scope of current measures of these constructs. Second, we review the major self-report scales used to assess anger and hostility in light of these definitions and provide a detailed evaluation of psychometric evidence concerning their reliability and validity. Finally, we offer specific recommendations concerning how anger and hostility assessment instruments can be improved and expanded. In particular, we note the need for (a) an expansion of anger assessment methods beyond traditional endorsement approaches, (b) scales to assess specific domains of anger experience, (c) scales that assess unique content domains of anger experience and expressions, such as spouse-specific or driving-related anger scales, and (d) scales that assess the clinical aspects of the anger construct.
The present study examined social anxiety, anger, and depression among 234 persons with social anxiety disorder and 36 nonanxious controls. In addition to greater social anxiety, persons with social anxiety disorder exhibited more severe depression, greater anger, and poorer anger expression skills than did nonanxious control participants. Analyses investigating attrition and response to cognitive-behavioral group treatment (CBGT) among a subset of 68 persons treated for social anxiety disorder indicated that patients who experienced anger frequently, perceived unfair treatment, and were quick-tempered were less likely to complete a 12-session course of CBGT. Among treatment completers, significant reductions in the frequent experience of anger to perceived negative evaluation and in anger suppression were noted. However, those who suppressed anger responded less favorably to CBGT. Future directions and clinical implications are discussed.
Using an explicit model of emotion, we developed the Berkeley Expressivity Questionnaire. This measure of emotional expressivity has three facets: impulse strength, negative expressivity, and positive expressivity. After evaluating its factor structure and psychometric properties, we tested propositions derived from an analysis of display rules. As predicted, women were more expressive than men; Asian-Americans less expressive than other ethnic groups; and Democrats more expressive than Republicans. Expressivity also was related to two mood dimensions and to four of the Big Five personality dimensions. The pattern of findings for the subscales showed convergent and discriminant validity. Positive mood, Extraversion, and Agreeableness were most strongly related to the Positive Expressivity subscale. Negative mood, Neuroticism, and somatic complaints were most strongly related to the Impulse Strength and Negative Expressivity subscales.
The goal of the present study was to determine whether the investigation of interpersonal problems in social phobia would lead to qualitatively different subgroups, subgroups that would provide additional nonoverlapping information to the Mental Disorders-IV (DSM-IV) classification. 30 generalized socially phobic (college students, aged 18-29 yrs old), 30 nongeneralized socially phobic, and 30 nondisordered control participants were selected based on dual structured interviews. All participants completed the Inventory of Interpersonal Problems Circumplex Scales (IIP-C). Results showed that when social phobia subtypes were classified using the DSM-IV definition, the IIP-C reflected subgroup differences in global severity of interpersonal problems, with the generalized social phobia group evidencing the greatest difficulty. However, the subgroups could not be discriminated on core or central interpersonal problems. In contrast, when an interpersonal analysis of subtype classification was employed, 2 groups were formed, each with discriminating core unifying features suggesting qualitatively different problematic reactions to interpersonal situations. The potential clinical relevance of an assessment of interpersonal dysfunction to the treatment of social phobia is discussed.
This article elaborates a view of anxiety as deriving from a basic human need to belong to social groups. Anxiety is seen as a pervasive and possibly innately prepare form of distress that arises in response to actual or threatened exclusion from important social groups. The reasons groups exclude individuals (incompetence, deviance or immorality, and unattractiveness) therefore should all be linked to anxiety, and events that implicate the self as incompetent, guilty, or unattractive should create anxiety. This "exclusion theory" of anxiety can be considered a broader revision of separation anxiety theory and is distinguished from theories that base anxiety on fear of death, fear of castration, and perception of uncertainty. Current evidence from multiple sources is reviewed to show the explanatory power and utility of exclusion theory, and implications of this theory are developed in relation to culturally changing standards of sexual behaviour, the motivations underlying the Oedipus complex, and the formation and functions of the self.
The present research describes the development and psychometric evaluation of a second version of the Acceptance and Action Questionnaire (AAQ-II), which assesses the construct referred to as, variously, acceptance, experiential avoidance, and psychological inflexibility. Results from 2,816 participants across six samples indicate the satisfactory structure, reliability, and validity of this measure. For example, the mean alpha coefficient is .84 (.78-.88), and the 3- and 12-month test-retest reliability is .81 and .79, respectively. Results indicate that AAQ-II scores concurrently, longitudinally, and incrementally predict a range of outcomes, from mental health to work absence rates, that are consistent with its underlying theory. The AAQ-II also demonstrates appropriate discriminant validity. The AAQ-II appears to measure the same concept as the AAQ-I (r=.97) but with better psychometric consistency.
Traditionally, positive emotions and thoughts, strengths, and the satisfaction of basic psychological needs for belonging, competence, and autonomy have been seen as the cornerstones of psychological health. Without disputing their importance, these foci fail to capture many of the fluctuating, conflicting forces that are readily apparent when people navigate the environment and social world. In this paper, we review literature to offer evidence for the prominence of psychological flexibility in understanding psychological health. Thus far, the importance of psychological flexibility has been obscured by the isolation and disconnection of research conducted on this topic. Psychological flexibility spans a wide range of human abilities to: recognize and adapt to various situational demands; shift mindsets or behavioral repertoires when these strategies compromise personal or social functioning; maintain balance among important life domains; and be aware, open, and committed to behaviors that are congruent with deeply held values. In many forms of psychopathology, these flexibility processes are absent. In hopes of creating a more coherent understanding, we synthesize work in emotion regulation, mindfulness and acceptance, social and personality psychology, and neuropsychology. Basic research findings provide insight into the nature, correlates, and consequences of psychological flexibility and applied research provides details on promising interventions. Throughout, we emphasize dynamic approaches that might capture this fluid construct in the real-world.
Despite longstanding debate over the nature of the boundary between social anxiety disorder (SAD) and less severe social anxiety, no study has tested directly whether the defining features of the disorder correspond to a latent category or dimension. The present study examined this question using data from the National Comorbidity Survey Replication (NCS-R), a nationally representative survey of the U.S. household population. Indicators representing the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed.; DSM-IV; American Psychiatric Association, 1994) criteria for SAD were submitted to taxometric analyses in a subsample of adults (n = 2,166) who reported excessive social fear in their lifetime. Multiple taxometric procedures and consistency tests converged on a dimensional solution, suggesting that SAD is continuous with milder social anxiety. In follow-up analyses, a dimensional SAD diagnosis outperformed the DSM-IV diagnosis in predicting the subsequent onset of a range of clinically important outcomes. Large differences in associations with comorbid mood disorders, suicidality, and treatment seeking in particular favored the prognostic value of dimensional over categorical diagnosis. These findings support the validity and potential utility of a dimensional conceptualization of SAD that may inform efforts to revise the diagnosis for DSM-V.
This research investigated whether combat veterans' daily strivings are related to the presence of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and well-being. Veterans created a list of their most important strivings, which were content-analyzed for emotion regulation and approach or avoidance themes. It was hypothesized that veterans pursuing strivings with themes of emotion regulation or avoidance experience deleterious consequences compared with other veterans. For all veterans, devoting finite time and energy in daily life to regulating emotions was associated with less purpose, meaning, and joy compared with other strivings. Veterans with PTSD endorsed more strivings related to emotion regulation and devoted considerable effort to emotion regulation and avoidance strivings. Yet, these efforts failed to translate into any discernible benefits; veterans without PTSD derived greater joy and meaning from strivings focusing on approac- oriented behavior and themes other than emotion regulation. The presence of PTSD and a high rate of emotion regulation strivings led to the lowest global well-being and daily self-esteem during a 14-day assessment period. The presence of PTSD and a high rate of avoidance strivings also led to lower emotional well-being. Results indicate that strivings devoted to regulating emotions or avoidance efforts influence the mental health of veterans with and without PTSD. Studying personality at different levels of analysis-traits, strivings, and life narratives-allows for a fine-grained understanding of emotional disorders.
Experiential avoidance, or attempts to alter or avoid undesirable thoughts and feelings, has been theorized to be relevant to the development of emotional disturbances, particularly anxiety problems. Prior work has relied on two methodologies: global self-report measures or laboratory manipulations. To better understand links between experiential avoidance and emotional disturbances, we measured experiential avoidance in the context of prominent anxious autobiographical events. Trained raters coded events for emotionality and reliance on experiential avoidance. Our interest was whether experiential avoidance could be measured as a memory characteristic and how it relates to social anxiety, depressive, and anger symptoms. As evidence of construct validity, experiential avoidance ratings were related to more intense negative emotions and coping difficulties during anxious events, memory vividness, and emotion suppression tendencies. Experiential avoidance was positively related to social anxiety and depressive symptoms and predicted an increase in social anxiety over a 3-month period; findings could not be attributed to the emotionality of memories. In contrast, no relations were found with inward or outward expressions of anger, or longitudinal change in depressive or anger symptoms. Results suggest that experiential avoidance is an important dimension of people's life narratives and particularly relevant to social anxiety problems.
Little is known about people with social anxiety disorder (SAD) who are not behaviorally inhibited. To advance knowledge on phenomenology, functional impairment, and treatment seeking, we investigated whether engaging in risk-prone behaviors accounts for heterogeneous outcomes in people with SAD. Using the National Comorbidity Survey-Replication (NCS-R) dataset, our analyses focused on people with current (N = 679) or lifetime (N = 1143) SAD diagnoses. Using latent class analysis on NCS-R risk-prone behavior items, results supported two SAD classes: (1) a pattern of behavioral inhibition and risk aversion and (2) an atypical pattern of high anger and aggression, and moderate/high sexual impulsivity and substance use problems. An atypical pattern of risk-prone behaviors was associated with greater functional impairment, less education and income, younger age, and particular psychiatric comorbidities. Results could not be subsumed by the severity, type, or number of social fears, or comorbid anxiety or mood disorders. Conclusions about the nature, course, and treatment of SAD may be compromised by not attending to heterogeneity in behavior patterns.
A few recent studies have found evidence showing that social anxiety is associated with diminished positive affect and elevated anger. However, prior work has relied on trait self-report measures of global positive mood or anger. In this preliminary study, we examined how trait social anxiety relates to moment-to-moment positive and angry emotional states as people navigate through their natural environment in a given day. Of additional interest was whether any associations were limited to social situations or were evident more broadly in non-social situations as well. For 14 days, 38 non-clinical community adults carried electronic diaries to assess their experience of positive emotions, anger, and their current social context and activity. Participants were randomly prompted up to four times per day, leading to 1702 observations. Results showed that social anxiety was associated with less time spent feeling happy and relaxed and more time spent feeling angry throughout the day. In general, people felt happier when they were with other people compared to being alone. Interestingly, people with relatively higher levels of social anxiety reported fewer and less intense positive emotions and greater anger episodes across social and non-social situations.
Few studies have been conducted on psychological disorders other than post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in war survivors. The aim of this study was to examine PTSD, social anxiety disorder (SAD), and major depressive disorder (MDD) and their associations with distress and quality of life in 174 Albanian civilian survivors of the Kosovo War. This included testing of conceptual models suggesting that experiential avoidance might influence associations between anxiety and mood disorders with psychological functioning. Each of the three psychiatric disorders was associated with greater experiential avoidance and psychological distress, and lower quality of life. Being a refugee was associated with a higher likelihood of having SAD and MDD. We found evidence for experiential avoidance as a partial mediator of the respective effects of SAD and PTSD on quality of life; experiential avoidance did not mediate the effects of disorders on global distress. We also found support for a moderation model showing that only war survivors without SAD and low experiential avoidance reported elevated quality of life; people with either SAD or excessive reliance on experiential avoidance reported compromised, low quality of life. This is the third independent study, each using a different methodology, to find empirical support for this moderation model [Kashdan, T. B., & Breen, W. E. (2008). Social anxiety and positive emotions: a prospective examination of a self-regulatory model with tendencies to suppress or express emotions as a moderating variable. Behavior Therapy, 39, 1-12; Kashdan, T. B., & Steger, M. F. (2006). Expanding the topography of social anxiety: an experience sampling assessment of positive emotions and events, and emotion suppression. Psychological Science, 17, 120-128]. Overall, we provided initial evidence for the importance of addressing PTSD, SAD, MDD, and experiential avoidance in primarily civilian war survivors.
60 undergraduates, selected on the basis of scores on the Trait form of the State-Trait Anger Scale, participated in cognitive and relaxation coping skill interventions for anger reduction or in a no-treatment control. Ss also completed measures such as the State form of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory and the Beck Depression Inventory. By 4-wk follow-up, cognitive and relaxation groups reported significantly less general anger, physical symptoms of anger, daily ratings of anger, and less state anger and tendency to cope with verbal antagonism in response to imaginal provocations than did controls and did not differ from one another. Constructive coping in the imaginal provocations and trait anxiety showed the cognitive condition improved relative to the control, whereas the relaxation group did not differ significantly from other groups. No between-groups differences were found for personal anger situations, depression, or heart rate and coping via physical antagonism in response to provocations. One-year follow-up revealed maintenance of patterns for general anger and anxiety reduction. Results are discussed in terms of the value of applied relaxation for anger reduction. (12 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
In a first experiment, subjects verbalizing the stream of consciousness for a 5-min period were asked to try not to think of a white bear, but to ring a bell in case they did. As indicated both by mentions and by bell rings, they were unable to suppress the thought as instructed. On being asked after this suppression task to think about the white bear for a 5-min period, these subjects showed significantly more tokens of thought about the bear than did subjects who were asked to think about a white bear from the outset. These observations suggest that attempted thought suppression has paradoxical effects as a self-control strategy, perhaps even producing the very obsession or preoccupation that it is directed against. A second experiment replicated these findings and showed that subjects given a specific thought to use as a distracter during suppression were less likely to exhibit later preoccupation with the thought to be suppressed.
Reciprocal inhibition is a process of relearning whereby in the presence of a stimulus a non-anxiety-producing response is
continually repeated until it extinguishes the old, undesirable response. A variety of the techniques based on reciprocal
inhibition, such as systematic desensitization, avoidance conditioning, and the use of assertion, are described in detail.
Behavior therapy techniques evaluated on the basis of their clinical efficacy are found to have striking success over traditional
psychoanalytic methods. Currently, more comparative studies are required which will validate the merit of behavior therapy
in the psychotherapeutic field while experimental research should continue to refine the techniques.
Describes a series of surveys on the everyday experience of anger, and a sample of data from these surveys is used to address a number of issues related to the social bases of anger. These issues include the connection between anger and aggression; the targets, instigations, and consequences of typical episodes of anger; the differences between anger and annoyance; and possible sex differences in the experience and/or expression of anger. However, the primary focus of the present paper is not on anger and aggression, but anger is used as a paradigm case to explore a number of issues in the study of emotion, including the advantages and limitations of laboratory research, the use of self-reports, the proper unit of analysis for the study of emotion, the relationship between human and animal emotion, and the authenticity of socially constituted emotional responses. (68 ref)
Presents a critical review of the psychodynamic, personality (including the use of objective tests and projective techniques), and psychophysiological approaches to the study of emotional behavior as it affects elevated blood pressure and heart disease. While anger and hostility are found to be correlated with hypertension, the mechanism is not yet clearly specified. A global portrait drawn from the literature would depict the hypertensive as a conflicted individual ridden with hostility and resentment, constantly guarding against impulse expression through distancing, suppression, submission, and/or compliance. In the heart disease literature, aggression is more commonly referred to than anger; recent evidence suggests, however, that hostility may be a highly significant component of the Type A coronary-prone behavior pattern. In contrast to hypertensives, coronary-prone individuals seem to be more aggressive, prone to channel emotional arousal into action, and less anxious when provoked. The research is seen as providing support for the utility of emotion as a construct relevant to understanding psychophysiological mechanisms associated with cardiovascular disorders. (159 ref)
This study examined the nature of impairment of functioning in persons with social phobia and assessed the validity of two new rating scales for describing impairment in social phobia.
In 32 patients with social phobia and 14 normal control subjects, impairment was assessed using the Disability Profile and the Liebowitz Self-Rated Disability Scale, new instruments designed to provide clinician- and patient-rated descriptive measures of current and lifetime functional impairment related to emotional problems. Validity of the new scales was assessed by measuring internal consistency, comparing scores for patients and controls, and comparing scores with those on standard measures of disability, social phobia symptoms, and social support.
More than half of all social phobic patients reported at least moderate impairment at some time in their lives, due to social anxiety and avoidance, in areas of education, employment, family relationships, marriage/romantic relationships, friendships/social network, and other interests. Social phobic patients were rated more impaired than normal controls on nearly all items on both measures. Both scales were internally consistent, with Cronbach's alpha coefficients for lifetime and current disability subscales in the range of .87 to .92. Significant positive correlations of scores on the new scales with scores on coadministered standard scales of social phobia symptoms and disability demonstrated concurrent validity. Disability was not significantly correlated with measures of social support.
Social phobia is associated with impairment in most areas of functioning, and the new scales appear useful in assessing functional impairment related to social phobia.
Psychoanalytic theory's pathogenic view of repression gave rise to the widely held belief that the expression of anger is beneficial to mental and physical health. The present paper reviews a number of experimental and correlational studies which demonstrate that the
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expression of anger, with its vocal manifestations, is associated with significant cardiovascular hyperreactivity. Furthermore, epidemiological studies indicate that such expressions of anger are also related to coronary heart disease (CHD) and to some physiological and hormonal changes that have been implicated in the pathophysiology of CHD. On the other hand, neither the mere experience of anger nor its repression has any of the above negative cardiovascular consequences, although the repression of anger seems to have other untoward health consequences.
Cluster analysis, using TRYSYS key cluster variable analyses, on 59 anger expression items replicated Spielberger's Anger-In and Anger-Control dimensions and revealed seven additional forms of anger expression: Noisy Arguing, Verbal Assault, Physical Assault-People, Physical Assault-Objects, Reciprocal Communication, Time Out, and Direct Expression. Aggressive dimensions (Noisy Arguing, Verbal Assault, Physical Assault-People and -Objects) correlated positively with each other and with trait anger and negatively with non-aggressive forms of expression (Control, Reciprocal Communication, and Time Out). The latter were positively correlated with each other and negatively with trait anger. Forms of expression correlated logically with the frequency of eight types of anger consequences, and there was evidence of distinct relationships between anger expression and anger consequences; e.g. Physical Assault-People correlated most with frequency of physical altercations, and Noisy Arguing and Verbal Assault with the frequency of verbal fights. Males were more likely to utilize aggressive forms of expression and to suffer consequences involving physical and verbal fights and property damage. Results are discussed in terms of convergent and discriminant validity, and in terms of their implications for assessment, treatment, and future research.