Relationship between Self-Esteem, Interpersonal Trust, and Social Anxiety of College Students

This study attempts to disclose the relationship between self-esteem, interpersonal trust, and social anxiety of college students and provide an empirical reference for enhancing their self-esteem, cultivating their interpersonal trust, and reducing their social anxiety. Specifically, 673 college students were randomly sampled and measured against the self-esteem scale (SES), interpersonal trust scale (TS), and interaction anxiousness scale (IAS). The results show that self-esteem does not vary significantly with genders and origins; social anxiety does not vary significantly with origins but differs significantly between genders; the social anxiety of males is much lower than that of females; interpersonal trust differs significantly between genders and between origins. Self-esteem is significantly correlated with interpersonal trust (r = 0.22, p < 0.01). Social anxiety has a significant negative correlation with self-esteem (r = -0.17, p < 0.01) and with social anxiety (r = -0.26, p < 0.01). Interpersonal trust partly mediates the relationship between self-esteem and social anxiety. These findings provide a theoretical basis for enhancing and improving mental health education of college students.

Body Image Distortion Following Social Rejection or Acceptance Cues

Introduction: Body image has been shown to be subject to explicit, body-related feedback influences, yet little attention has been paid to subtle feedback about overall social acceptability. The current study tested competing hypotheses regarding women's body image after being primed with cued social rejection or acceptance. Whereas sociometer theory predicts that women will perceive their bodies more negatively following a social rejection prime, self-enhancement theory predicts the opposite.

Method: A total of 105 female undergraduate students underwent a conditioning procedure in which distinctive tones were paired with signs of social rejection or acceptance. After this, body distortion (measured by a participant-adjusted virtual image), self-reported body satisfaction and affect were measured, while one of the tones sounded repeatedly in the background.

Results: Compared with the acceptance condition, rejection condition participants reported greater state negative affect, F(1, 103) = 4.41, p = .04, greater state positive affect, F(1, 103) = 5.52, p = .02, and perceived their bodies as being smaller, F(1, 103) = 6.53, p = .01, consistent with the expectations of self-enhancement theory.

Discussion: Implications of these findings are discussed regarding improved understanding of body image disturbance as well as development of novel clinical treatments.

Health and Adaptation in a Multiple Self

It has been suggested recently that the self consists of multifaceted aspects which are not reducible to a singular core or entity. It is unclear whether the degree of multiplicity that individuals with significant pathology experience is linked with health and adaptation. Both an excess and a restricted degree of activity among multiple aspects of the self have been associated with pathology. We explore the evidence that the impact of degree of multiplicity of self upon adaptation may be mediated by: (a) the capacity of the various aspects of the self to engage in a dialogue among each other—that is, to discuss, build upon, or argue with one another; and (b) metacognitive capacity, or the ability to think about one’s own thinking and the thinking of others in a nuanced way and to build an integrated view of different aspects of oneself and others. Implications for conceptualizing psychopathology and psychotherapy research are discussed.

Rejection Elicits Emotional Reactions but Neither Causes Immediate Distress nor Lowers Self-Esteem: A Meta-Analytic Review of 192 Studies on Social Exclusion

Competing predictions about the effect of social exclusion were tested by meta-analyzing findings from studies of interpersonal rejection, ostracism, and similar procedures. Rejection appears to cause a significant shift toward a more negative emotional state. Typically, however, the result was an emotionally neutral state marked by low levels of both positive and negative affect. Acceptance caused a slight increase in positive mood and a moderate increase in self-esteem. Self-esteem among rejected persons was no different from neutral controls. These findings are discussed in terms of belongingness motivation, sociometer theory, affective numbing, and self-esteem defenses.

Cognitive factors that maintain social anxiety disorder: a comprehensive model and its treatment implications

Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is a common, distressing and persistent mental illness. Recent studies have identified a number of psychological factors that could explain the maintenance of the disorder. These factors are presented here as part of a comprehensive psychological maintenance model of SAD. This model assumes that social apprehension is associated with unrealistic social standards and a deficiency in selecting attainable social goals. When confronted with challenging social situations, individuals with SAD shift their attention toward their anxiety, view themselves negatively as a social object, overestimate the negative consequences of a social encounter, believe that they have little control over their emotional response, and view their social skills as inadequate to effectively cope with the social situation. In order to avoid social mishaps, individuals with SAD revert to maladaptive coping strategies, including avoidance and safety behaviors, followed by post-event rumination, which leads to further social apprehension in the future. Possible disorder-specific intervention strategies are discussed.

Psychotherapy in light of internal multiplicity

The view that the self has multiple parts and that these appear in people seeking psychotherapy--and people conducting psychotherapy--is shared by clinicians of various orientations and supported by psychological research. It is useful for clinicians to think of patients as multifaceted and pay attention to the changes between facets that occur during therapy. They can thus help hidden parts to surface, facilitate dialogue between parts not in contact with each other, and convince excessively dominant or oppressive parts to make room for other adaptive facets. The authors contributing to this issue of Journal of Clinical Psychology: In Session describe, from their different theoretical perspectives, how they deal with patients' and therapists' inner multiplicity in clinical practice.

Socially anxious adolescents’ perception of treatment by classmates

This study addressed the question if socially anxious adolescents have a negatively biased perception of the way they are treated by their peers. A total of 998 high school students from Grades 8-10 were categorized as socially low, middle, or high anxious on the basis of their SAS-A score. The perceived behavior of classmates was measured using three lists that described class behaviors during oral presentations of students, one list was concerned with the behaviors directed towards the student him/herself and the other two with behaviors directed towards a hypothetical high and low socially anxious peer, respectively. The results indicated that high socially anxious students felt negatively treated by their peers and that the other students too perceived that socially anxious classmates were treated more negatively. This suggests that the perception of the high socially anxious students is not distorted but based on the actual treatment they receive from their classmates.

When ambiguity hurts: social standards moderate self-appraisals in generalized social phobia

Thirty-nine individuals with generalized social phobia (social anxiety disorder) and 39 nonclinical controls performed a public speech after receiving cues about social standards. Using a novel video manipulation paradigm, one third of participants received cues indicating that standards for performance were high, one third received cues that standards were low, and the remaining third were given no explicit information about expected standards (i.e., standards were ambiguous). Individuals with social phobia performed objectively worse than controls in all conditions, but rated their performance as being worse only in the high and ambiguous standards conditions. These results suggest that in social phobia, negative self-perception is context-dependent. Implications for the cognitive model and treatment are discussed.

Self-Criticism and Self-Warmth: An Imagery Study Exploring Their Relation to Depression

When things go wrong for people, those who are self-critical, compared to those who self-reassure, are at increased risk of psychopathology. However, little is known of the internal processes involved in self-criticism and self-reassurance, such as the ease of eliciting critical imagery, and the power, emotion and vividness of self-criticalness and self-reassurance. This study used a self-imagery task to investigate trait self-criticism and trait self-reassurance in relation to the ease and clarity of generating self-critical and self-reassuring images, and the felt power and emotion of self-critical and self-reassuring imagery. We also explored these in relation to depressive symptoms in students. Results suggested that trait self-criticism is associated with ease and clarity in generating hostile and powerful self-critical images, while trait self-reassurance is associated with ease and clarity of generating warm and supportive images of the self. Data analysis using structural equation models also suggests that difficulties in generating self-reassurance and compassionate images about the self with self-directed warmth, may also contribute to depressive symptoms. Thus self-critics may not only suffer for elevated negative feelings about the self but may also struggle to be able to generate self-supportive images and feelings for the self, and these difficulties could be a focus of therapeutic interventions.

The relational self revealed: Integrative conceptualization and implications for interpersonal life

The authors offer a new, integrative conceptualization of the relational self based on a synthesis of recent approaches to the self and significant others. This conceptualization provides a sharper and fuller definition of the relational self than does any existing approach alone and a common framework to interpret findings from separate literatures. The authors then present 5 propositions and evidence to support the thesis that relational selves exert a pervasive influence on interpersonal life. Specifically, relational selves (a) shape a wide range of psychological processes and outcomes, (b) exert their influence automatically, (c) serve basic orientation and meaning functions, (d) provide continuity and context-specific variability in personality, and (e) carry implications for psychological well-being. Discussion focuses on remaining issues and implications for future research.

How do I love thee? Let me count the Js: implicit egotism and interpersonal attraction

From the perspective of implicit egotism people should gravitate toward others who resemble them because similar others activate people's positive, automatic associations about themselves. Four archival studies and 3 experiments supported this hypothesis. Studies 1-4 showed that people are disproportionately likely to marry others whose first or last names resemble their own. Studies 5-7 provided experimental support for implicit egotism. Participants were more attracted than usual to people (a) whose arbitrary experimental code numbers resembled their own birthday numbers, (b) whose surnames shared letters with their own surnames, and (c) whose jersey number had been paired, subliminally, with their own names. Discussion focuses on implications for implicit egotism, similarity, and interpersonal attraction.

Interpersonal processes in social phobia

Social phobia is a condition in which anxiety impairs the person's ability to relate to others. Here, we draw on concepts from interpersonal theory to examine the literature on the role of interpersonal processes in creating and maintaining this disorder. Studies that examine interpersonal interactions with significant others and strangers are reviewed. We next consider topics of particular relevance to relationship impairment, such as the effect of anxiety on cognitive processing of social information, and the social developmental pathways to social phobia. The impact of interpersonal factors on the process and outcome of cognitive-behavioral treatment is also discussed. Finally, we identify emerging themes in the research literature and consider directions for future work. Throughout the paper we highlight topics central to the interpersonal perspective, such as the self-perpetuating interpersonal cycle, interpersonal variability in social phobia, and the relational nature of self-related information.