1. Rejection Sensitivity

2. Rejection Sensivity
Human beings are social animals. Seeking acceptance and avoid rejection from others has been recognized as on one of human motives.
Social exclusion and rejection affects people’s psychological functioning and behaviour triggering hostile, disrupting self-regulation.

3. Rejection Sensivity
Human beings are social animals. Seeking acceptance and avoid rejection from others has been recognized as on one of human motives.
Social exclusion and rejection affects people’s psychological functioning and behaviour triggering hostile, disrupting self-regulation.
People vary in the intensity of their reactions to rejection or threat to rejection.

4. Rejection Sensivity
It is a cognitive-affective disposition – people anxiously expect readily perceive and intensely react to cues of rejecting the behaviour of others.
Downey’s model
Accepting rejection is a privileged dimension of information processing that reflects the fact human beings need each other for survival. Avoiding rejection is challenging.
Rejection sensitivity is a product of people’s biological make up and social history. People learn to expect rejection from certain individuals and groups. People expect rejection because it is natural in some cases.
Minorities etc.

5. Rejection Sensivity
Mischel and Shoda (1995) conceptualized it as cognitive affective processing system (1995) CAPS
CAPS – an individual’s behavior varies in a systematic manner within situations.
What are the specific situational features ( both internal and external) that trigger this personality signature?
What cognitive- affective units mediate the characteristics?
If ……then

6. Rejection Sensivity
In Downey’s model highly rejection sensitive people approach to situations in which rejection is possible with anxious expectations of rejection.
Rejection sensitive individuals avoid negative situations whenever possible. However when avoiding rejection is not possible rejection sensitive person feels rejected, reacts intensely with hostile behaviour, social avoidance, depression.

7. Rejection Sensivity
Rejection-sensitivity dynamic operates as defensive affectively based system that evolved quite rapid and intense responses to threats of danger.

8. Measurement
Rejection Sensitivity Questionnaire (RSQ; Downey & Feldman, 1996).
Presents series of interpersonal situations, identified through extensive qualitative pilot work in which people make a request of someone who is important to them.
Developed for particular groups such as college students, middle-school children etc.
Sample situation from the scale on page 468.

9. Measurement
Rejection Sensitivity Scale does not tap into a general sensitivity to negative events but rather measures of specifically fears and expectations of personal rejection by significant others.
The construct is NOT redundant with constructs with which it might be expected to overlap, such as introversion, neuroticism, self-esteem, general attachment style, depression, social anxiety and social avoidance.
Not associated with empathic-concern and perspective taking
But positively correlated with empathy that assess tendency to find other people’s distress.

10. The perception and immediate reaction to rejection cues
In social interaction highly rejection sensitive people are vigilant for cues of the relevant threat in the same way that people with sever phobias are vigilant for cues of their particular fear objects.
In the presence of rejection-themed art, highly rejection sensitive people show increased physiological reactivity associated with attentive state.

11. The perception and immediate reaction to rejection cues
Although rejection sensitive individuals are attentive to the cues of rejection, they show a bias to ignore information about potential rejection.
When the option – or situations to avoid rejection or situations that are likely to result in rejection exist– these individuals are likely to disregard it.
Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) children show strategies for controlling threat.
Motivation to prevent rejection and motivation to seek acceptance

12. Rejection sensitivity and immediate affective responses to rejection
Rejection sensitivity is associated with a tendency to absorb or mirror negative affect of other people.
In a study that documented the bias to overestimate negativity both rejection sensitivity and the mood of the person in the video predicted the participants’ self-reported moods. The more negatively the target person felt the more negative observers felt.

13. Rejection sensitivity and immediate affective responses to rejection
Highly rejection sensitive people they have difficulty in regulating their emotions.
They show decreased cognitive control of emotion in the face of cues of rejection

14. Rejection sensitivity and hostile responses to rejection
People who are low versus high rejection sensitivity differ in their perceptions of cues of rejection and how they react to them. One response
Increased hostility and aggression (Leary, Twenge, & Quinlivan, 2006). Even among children.
The link between rejection and hostility thoughts is strong and automatic among people who are rejection sensitive.
Rejection related words facilitate pronunciation of hostility related words among people who are high in rejection sensitivity but not in low RS.

15. Rejection sensitivity and hostile responses to rejection
A diary study among couples – rejection sensitivity predicted a greater probability of conflict following a day when highly rejection sensitive people felt more rejected – suggesting that highly rejection sensitive women react to rejection with hostile behaviours (Ayduk et al., 1999).
Rejection sensitivity predicts greater relationship violence by male college students who were highly invested in their relationships ( Downey, Feldman, & Ayduk, 2000).

16. Rejection sensitivity and hostile responses to rejection
Rejection-hostility link is also evident in highly rejection-sensitive people’s reactions to distant powerful others.
Withdrawal of support from politicians who people feel betrayed them (Romero-Canyas & Downey, 2003).
Distancing from God among religious people who are facing personal difficulties ( Anderson, Romero-Canyas, & Downey, 2008).

17. Rejection sensitivity and hostile responses to rejection
Behaving in a hostile way toward others is likely to elicit rejection. Dating couples that include a highly rejection sensitive person are almost three times more likely than couples without a highly rejection sensitive person to have separated within a year of the time their rejection sensitivity is measured (Downey, Freitas, et al., 1998).
Women high in rejection sensitivity were more hostile, defensive, and negative than women low in rejection sensitivity. This affects their partner’s affect in a negative way.

18. Rejection sensitivity and efforts to secure acceptance
Rejection sensitive people are highly motivated to prevent rejection. They engage in impression management strategies
When rejected from a social group or rejected by a person they try to win back the person(s) who rejected them.
Adolescent girls in romantic relationships – rejection sensitivity is related to «do anything» to keep their boyfriends if that meant doing something they thought was wrong (Purdie & Downey, 2000).

19. Rejection sensitivity and efforts to secure acceptance
Self-presentation strategies – when introducing themselves to groups ( Romero- Canyas, Downey, Pelayo, & Bashan, 2004)
Who have unathletic
Conservatism

20. Rejection sensitivity and efforts to secure acceptance
The rejection-avoidance behavior that highly rejection-sensitive people adopt may not always yield to the desired results.
People who fear rejection may end…(Impett, Gable & Peplau, 2005).
Long-term consequences of transforming oneself into a different person

21. The link between rejection sensitivity and health problems
Rejection sensitivity predicts poor mental health
Rejection sensitive children tend to be socially avoidant and lonely (London, Downey, Bonica, & Paltin, 2007).
College students – RS predicts smaller number of close friends, smaller number of dating relationships and longer periods of time before entering relationships (Berenson et al., 200).
RS – stronger internalization of rejection experiences, predicting depression following interpersonal losses associated with rejection

22. Rejection Sensitivity and Personality Disorders
Sensitivity to rejection – is one of the diagnostic criteria for some forms of psychopathology such as depression and borderline personality disorder (APA, 1994).
BPD is characterized by
Impulsivity
Instability in mood
Self-directed harm or injury
Avoidant personality disorder (APD) is characterized by
Social Inhibition
Feelings of inadequacy
Avoidance of social interaction

23. Rejection Sensitivity and Personality Disorders
At the core of both disorders is a fear of rejection or abandonment that leads to volatile relationships and low-self concept clarity.
Both BPD and APD people have higher levels of rejection sensitivity.
BPD perceived significantly more negativity and slightly less positivity in faces and were more certain about their interpretations than controls.
BPD and APD – have tendency to detect angry faces easily
When asked to imagine that close others might be losing interest in them BPD – reported a higher likelihood of loosing control.

24. Eating and Body Dysmorphic Disorders
Appearance- related sensitivity together with RS predicted a drive for thinness and symptoms of bulimia.
High appearance-based rejection sensitivity is strongly associated with body dysmorphic disorder and predicts intent to undergo cosmetic surgery for social rather than personal reasons (Park, DiRaddo, & Harwin,2007).

25. Sensitivity to Status-Based Rejection
Stigmatized groups
Past experiences of rejection or discrimination based on one’s social identity or status ( race, gender, age SES) can lead people to anxiously expect such rejection in situations in which rejection is possible. – Downey’s arguments. These expectation influence
Behavioral
Affective responses
Expecting rejection from others affect interpersonal relationships and relationships with institutions.

26. Race based Rejection Sensitivity among African-Americans
Anxious expectation of rejection based on one’s race or ethnicity( Mendoza-Denton et al., 2002, 2006).
Raced based RS is measured using Race-based Rejection Sensitivity Questionnaire – describes 12 ambiguous scenarios in which racial/ethnic discrimination is possible.
Imagine that you are in a pharmacy trying to pick out a few items…page 474

27. Race based Rejection Sensitivity among African-Americans
African American college students – high in race-based rejection sensitivity reported feeling of lower sense of belonging with the university as a whole and with their peers and prof.
Having quality of friendships with white students increased sense of belonging among highly race-based rejection sensitive African American students at a predominantly white college (Mendoze-Denton et al., 2006).

28. Race based Rejection Sensitivity among African-Americans
Race-based RS predicted
Less academic help seeking
Low use of available resources – such as office hours and review sessions etc.
Experimental study showed that
Students who had high RBRS and who thought that Prof. is aware of his racial identity were less willing to take feedback

29. Race based Rejection Sensitivity among African-Americans
African Americans and Hispanics in majority white settings may be more at risk for health problems if they score high in race-based rejection sensitivity.
Pietrzak (2004) found that students high RBRS reported more somatic problems such as
Stomacache
Pounding heart
After reading a scenario about a negative racial experiences.

30. Race based Rejection Sensitivity among Asian-Americans
Because Asian American stereotypes and discrimination experiences differ from those of other ethnic minorities i US, a scale specific to stigmatisation of Asian Americans was developed.
Internalized stigma – because they have lower self-esteem than African Americans
Shame self directed negative emotion particularly relevant in interpersonal contexts of rejection or discrimination is the mechanism which leads to lower self esteem.

31. Race based Rejection Sensitivity among Asian-Americans
Race based rejections sensitivity are activated in different contexts and lead to negative outcomes.
Culturally salient values and experiences are important in understanding how rejection sensitivity affect people’s emotions and behaviors.

32. Gender-Based Rejection Sensitivity
Rejection sensitivity – gender predicts
Lower institutional belonging
Higher self-silencing among college students
Meeting with the professor…
Gender-based rejection sensitivity was associated with more negative affect and greater somatic responses to stressful events.

33. Sexual Orientation Based Rejection Sensitivity
They do not share their stigmatized minority status with others.
Parental rejection and shameful and inferior feelings
Gay-related rejection sensitivity scale
Relationship between parental rejection and gay related rejection sensitivity is mediated by internalized homophobia.
Internalized homophobia is the mechanisms by which parental rejection leads to gay-related rejection sensitivity.
Gay- related rejections sensitivity also influences interpersonal behavior such that those who are high in gay related rejection sensitivity is are less likely to assert their needs in relationships.

34. GOOD LUCK WITH YOUR FINALS AND HAVE A GREAT SUMMER HOLIDAY!