Processing Dynamics of Rejection Sensitivity

描述（由申请人提供）：因为渴望被接受是人类的核心动机，所以被拒绝会引发各种适应不良反应，包括暴力和抑郁，这并不奇怪。然而，人们对拒绝的反应存在个体差异。我们之前提出，拒绝敏感性（RS）——焦虑地期待、容易感知和强烈反应拒绝的倾向——有助于解释这种差异。到目前为止，我们的研究表明，那些焦虑地期待被拒绝的人更容易从别人的行为中察觉到这一点，然后以敌对的方式做出反应，破坏他们的关系。这项拟议研究的目的是为了更全面地理解为什么那些焦虑地期待被拒绝的人的行为方式会导致他们最糟糕的恐惧成为现实。我们的研究方法是基于这样一种观点，即RS的发展是为了在保持社会联系的同时保护自己免受拒绝。我们认为，高RS个体预期被拒绝的情况激活了防御动机系统（DMS），这是一种通用系统，用于指导对危险威胁的快速和强烈反应。DMS使生物体能够检测到与威胁相关的线索，积极努力防止威胁的实现，并在威胁实现时迅速而强烈地做出反应。这一观点导致了以下关于RS动力学的预测，这些预测指导了应用的具体目标：目标1是测试RS是一个防御性动机系统的假设，该系统由排斥相关刺激引起。我们将通过确定在排斥相关的环境中，RS高的个体是否表现出更高的惊吓反应增强，这是DMS激活的一个强有力的指标。目的2是检验当DMS被拒绝的可能性激活时，高RS个体是否表现出更高的倾向来检测人际消极情绪，并将这种消极情绪解释为个人拒绝。综上所述，这些过程可以潜在地解释为什么HRS个体比低RS个体更容易感知拒绝。目的3是测试这种防御状态是否会触发积极的努力来防止拒绝，包括通过自我沉默和过度关心来过度适应伴侣。我们还将测试，当被拒绝时，过度适应是否会让位于敌意和沮丧的过度反应。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Because the desire to be accepted is a central human motive, it is not surprising that rejection can trigger a variety of maladaptive reactions, including violence and depression. Nevertheless, there are individual differences in how people react to rejection. We have previously proposed that rejection sensitivity (RS) --the disposition to anxiously expect, readily perceive and intensely react to rejection -- helps explain this variability. Our research to date has shown that people who anxiously expect rejection more readily perceive it in others' behavior and then react in hostile ways that undermine their relationships. The purpose of the proposed research is to understand more fully why people who anxiously expect rejection behave in ways that lead to the realization of their worst fears. Our approach is guided by the view that RS develops to defend the self against rejection while maintaining social connection. We propose that situations where high RS individuals expect rejection activate the defensive motivational system (DMS), a generic system evolved to guide rapid and intense responses to threats of danger. DMS prepares the organism to detect threat-relevant cues, to engage in vigorous efforts to prevent the realization of the threat, and to react quickly and intensely if the threat is realized. This viewpoint leads to the following predictions about the dynamics of RS, which guide the specific aims of the application: Aim 1 is to test the assumption that RS is a defensively motivated system that gets elicited by rejection-relevant stimuli. We will do so by establishing whether in rejection-relevant contexts individuals high in RS show heightened potentiation of the startle response, a robust indicator of DMS activation. Aim 2 is to examine whether, when the DMS is activated by the possibility of rejection, high RS individuals show both a heightened propensity to detect interpersonal negativity and to interpret such negativity as personal rejection. In combination, these processes can potentially explain why HRS individuals more readily perceive rejection than those low in RS. Aim 3 is to test whether being in this defensive state triggers vigorous efforts to prevent rejection, that involve over-accommodation to partners through self-silencing and excessive solicitousness. We will also test whether over-accommodation gives way to hostile and dejected overreactions when rejection is perceived.