Processing Dynamics of Rejection Sensitivity

描述(申请人提供)：因为被录取的愿望是人类的核心动机，所以被拒绝会引发包括暴力和抑郁在内的各种不适应反应就不足为奇了。尽管如此，人们对拒绝的反应是有个体差异的。我们以前曾提出，拒绝敏感性(RS)--焦虑地期待、容易察觉并对拒绝做出强烈反应的倾向--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，然后以敌意的方式做出破坏他们关系的反应。这项研究的目的是为了更全面地了解为什么焦虑地期待被拒绝的人的行为方式会导致他们最害怕的事情成为现实。我们的方法是基于这样一种观点，即RS的发展是为了在保持社会关系的同时保护自己免受拒绝。我们认为，高RS个体期望被拒绝的情况会激活防御动机系统(DMS)，这是一种进化来引导对危险威胁的快速和强烈反应的通用系统。DMS使生物体准备好检测与威胁相关的线索，积极努力阻止威胁的实现，并在威胁实现时做出快速而强烈的反应。这一观点导致了以下关于拒绝相关刺激的动态的预测，这些预测指导了应用的具体目的：目标1是检验如下假设，即拒绝相关刺激引起的防御动机系统。我们将通过确定在与拒绝相关的环境中，RS高的个体是否表现出惊吓反应的高度增强来做到这一点，惊吓反应是DMS激活的一个强有力的指标。目的二是考察当DMS被拒绝的可能性激活时，高RS个体是否表现出更高的发现人际负面情绪的倾向，并将这种负面情绪解释为个人拒绝。结合起来，这些过程可以潜在地解释为什么HRS个体比RS低的个体更容易感知拒绝。目标三是测试处于这种防御状态是否会引发防止被拒绝的有力努力，这涉及到通过自我沉默和过度关怀来过度迁就伴侣。我们还将测试，当感觉到拒绝时，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.