Processing Dynamics of Rejection Sensitivity

描述（由申请人提供）：因为渴望被接受是人类的一个核心动机，所以拒绝会引发各种适应不良的反应，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。我们以前曾提出，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-有助于解释这种变异性。我们迄今为止的研究表明，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。这项研究的目的是更全面地了解为什么那些焦虑地期待被拒绝的人会以导致他们最糟糕的恐惧实现的方式行事。我们的方法是由这样一种观点指导的，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。我们建议，高RS个人预期拒绝的情况下，激活防御性动机系统（DMS），一个通用的系统进化，以指导快速和激烈的反应，危险的威胁。DMS使生物体做好准备，以检测与威胁相关的线索，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。这一观点导致了对RS动态的以下预测，这些预测指导了应用程序的具体目标：目标1是测试RS是一个防御动机系统的假设，该系统由拒绝相关刺激引起。我们将通过确定在拒绝相关的背景下，RS高的个体是否表现出惊吓反应的增强，这是DMS激活的一个强有力的指标。目的2是研究是否，当DMS被激活的拒绝的可能性，高RS个人表现出更高的倾向，以检测人际消极性，并解释为个人拒绝这种消极性。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到拒绝。目标3是测试处于这种防御状态是否会引发积极的努力来防止拒绝，这涉及通过自我沉默和过度的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对和沮丧的过度反应。

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.