7.2 Flashcards
The study examined developmental and gender differences in sensitivity to peer rejection across transition into adolescence. Results indicated:
cardiac slowing to unexpected peer rejection in 11-14 year olds. This was most pronounced in girls. This suggests that an increase in sensitivity to peer rejection after transition into adolescence and that social rejection may be particularly salient in adolescent girls.
The transition from childhood to adolescence co-occurs with
- a shift in social orientation from parents to peers.
- Seeking to gain independence from parents results in increased need of peer acceptance.
- Thus, adolescents are likely to experience more peer-related stress and at the same time, show a heightened sensitivity to social rejection.
- Changes in social behavior have been linked to a remodeling of brain regions. More specifically the limbic brain regions involved in social and affective processing characterize adolescent development.
- These changes leads to an intensification of emotional and motivational experiences.
social-judgement task
participants view photographs of unfamiliar others and are asked to predict whether they think the other person would like them or not. They then receive rigged feedback indicating that they are liked (acceptance) or disliked (rejection) by the other person. Adults were found to be better at regulating the impact of negative thoughts or feelings.
Psychophysiological research demonstrated that negative feedback is associated with
a transient heart-rate slowing that is more pronounced compared to positive feedback. Cardiac deceleration is believed to be a manifestation of a neural system including the anterior cingulate cortex (implicated in in processing of social exclusion and physical pain). Social rejection processing is associated with cardiac slowing.
The transient slowing of heart rate is believed
to be mediated by the parasympathetic NS, which is involved in self-regulatory processes facilitating adaptive and flexible behaviors. Social rejection is especially salient in adolescent females and that sex differences in social behavior become more accentuated during adolescence.
It was confirmed that heightened sensitivity to peer rejection after transition into adolescence would result in larger cardiac slowing to unexpected peer rejection in
11- to 14-year-olds relative to 8- to 10-year-olds, that would be most pronounced in adolescent girls.
Heart rate recovery was specifically delayed for
social rejection following a positive expectation of social evaluation: However, 11-14 year olds did not repost higher levels of negative expectations related to evaluation.
Heart rate generally slowed following the presentation of the feedback followed by an acceleratory recovery baseline, which reflects the typical heart rate pattern associated with feedback processing. This return to baseline was specifically delayed in
response to unexpected social rejection.
Short-latency decreases in heart rate are believed to be a manifestation of
“orienting” that is mediated by the parasympathetic NS. Parasympathetic regulation of cardiac activity may facilitate adaptive social and emotional behavior. Cardiac slowing to unexpected social rejection could be interpreted as a response of the central autonomic network facilitating the processing of significant social information.
heightened sensitivity in girls operates in a context-sensitive manner:
heart rate as specifically delayed for unexpected rejection and not for expected rejection. This shows that girls are particularly sensitive to peer-related rejection feedback that urgently alerts the to adjust future actions rather than being hypersensitive to any type of negative feedback.
Greater emotional reactivity to peer rejection among adolescents is associated with
lower feelings of social connectedness in daily life and an increases risk for depression.
rejection sensitivity model
states that people who are high in rejections sensitivity show a heightened tendency to expect, readily perceive ad overreact to social rejection.
