social and interpersonal relationships Flashcards
what are the 3 aspects of social relationships?
- social anxiety
- shyness
- embarrassment
how has social anxiety disorders helped psychologists?
social anxiety disorder has helped psychologists understand the impact of shyness and embarrassment on everyday functioning
what is social anxiety disorder:
when symptoms interfere with ones everyday tasks or ambitions
- fear of social interactions => skipping lectures
what can attempts of social interactions lead to?
physical symptoms or a panic attack
state- social anxiety, shyness and embarrassment may share symptoms with social anxiety disorder but to a lesser degree
symptoms typically do not interfere with ones functioning
what percent of people will suffer with a social anxiety disorder in their life?
at some point in their life 16% of people will suffer with a social anxiety disorder
what are the 3 parts of the diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (DSM)?
- cognitive
- physical
- behavioural
cognitive
significant and persistent fear of social situations in which embarrassment or rejection may occur
physical
immediate anxiety driven, physical reactions to feared social situations
behavioural
individuals realise that their fears are greatly exaggerated, but feel powerless to do anything about them. avoid the dreaded social situations at any cost
state- generalized social anxiety disorder, non generalized (performance) social anxiety disorder, avoidant personality disorder
what is shyness?
discomfort and/or inhibition in interpersonal situations
what is shyness associated with?
- self consciousness
- seeing oneself as awkward, unfriendly, incompetent
- feeling less physically attractive
- negative memory bias
- low effectiveness dealing with stress
- loneliness and social isolation
- alcohol abuse to relax
state- some people are comfortable and accept their shyness, others do not
dispositional/ trait shyness
persistent tendancy to experience shyness, or lower threshold for experiences state shyness
- personality trait
- level of state shyness may differ across situations
situational/ state shyness
immediate emotional and cognitive experience
- anyone can experience state shyness in various situations
shyness vs introversion
motivation for solitary activities differ (fear vs preference)
shyness vs extraversion
individuals may be privately shy and publicly outgoing, these shy extraverts likely use social skills to participate in familiar situations while not disclosing their true self out of shyness
sociability
just because one is shy, it does not mean they are not sociable, socialability does not help with dealing with social situations
what is behavioural inhibition?
- detectable form an early age
- not shyness such as, but inhibition in many social situations: being among unfamiliar adults, hesitancy to make conversations, hovering at the edge of social gatherings (indicators of shyness)
what is behavioural inhibition linked with?
linked with fight or flight response, greater sensitivity to stressors (flight response)
- but links between behavioural inhibition in early age and shyness in adolescence/adulthood are weak, suggesting that social environment and experiences likely play a role
shyness in development:
preoccupation with evaluation from others develops later in life
fearful shyness
- early in life, may be linked with behavioural inhibition
- may not lead to shyness in adulthood
self-conscious shyness
- assumed to be dependant on “theory of mind” (ability to reflect on ones behaviour)
state- there is very little research in this area that would validate these two forms of shyness and explain any relationships between them
state shyness
an individual finds themselves in an uncertain situation under the attention of others + individual predisposition to feel shy (trait shyness)
shyness and culture
- stanford shyness inventory (henderson and zimbardo, 1998; zimbardo, 1997)
-shyness between 31% (Israel) and 57% (japan) of samples - cultural difference may be explained by how each culture attributes success and failure
- japan: credit for success attributed externally/failure attributed internally
- israel: credit for sucess attributed to self/failure attributed externally
shyness and online behaviour
- clark et al. (2018) the impact of social media use on well-being depends on whether the use promotes social connection
embarrassment
-self conscious feeling when one realizes they have made something bellow their standard, particularly when we care about others opinions/try to impress
sources of embarrassment may be various
what we do, what other people we know do
physiological reactions similar to shyness
embarrassment was long considered as part of shyness/social anxiety
what are the 4 conceptualizations of embarrassment?
- dramaturgic model (as a general reaction to poor public performance)
- social evaluation model (as a result to poor public performance but only if we care about who saw it)
- situational self esteem (as a reaction to loss of self-esteem)
- personal standards model (as a reaction to a failure to meets ones own standards- does not depend on others)
embarrassment measures and personality
ugyhhhhhhhhhh cba fam
state- individuals use social media in different ways
social media use
liu and campbell (2017): how much of social media behaviour can be explained by personality?
- status updates (+openess, +neuroticism)
- posting pics (+opnesness, +extraversion, +agreeableness)
- gaming (+openess, -agreableness, -conscientiousness)
- interaction (+extraversion)
- information seeking (+openess, -conscientiousness)
- total number of friends (+extraversion)
five-factor model:
personality explained 10-15% behavior, mainly extraversion and openness to experience
what can digital media footprint reveal?
- interests
- social networks
- location and movement
- personal details
time spent on digital media and well being
twenge (2019) the relationship between digital-media (including social media) use and well being is not linear
- graph shows that the more hours spent on social media relate to higher levels of anxiety and depression
how can more digital media use cause low well-being?
- abstaining from social media for one week may lead to increased happiness and decreased depressive symptoms (Tromholt, 2016)
- limiting social media to 30 mins may lead to feeling less lonely and less depressed after one week (Hunt et al., 2018)
- interference with sleep quality and duration of sleep
- increasing social comparison may be detrimental for well being
behaviours promoting social connection?
- online social connection with others, self- disclosure, relational closeness, active use
- help fulfil needs for acceptance and belonging, increase intimacy, increase felt connection and perceived social support and social capital
behaviours non promoting social connection:
- online social connection as a compensation for insufficient social networks, isolation, passive views of profiles, social comparison
- do not fulfil needs for acceptance and belonging
online dating
- Freyth and Natinic (2021): dating app use and Bright/Dark personality traits
- “Bright” personality traits: big five (+neuroticism +everyday use)
- “Dark” personality traits (Dark Triad)
- Narcissism +engaging with online dating
- Machiavellianism +use of online dating
- Psychopathy (lacking empathy for others)
- “Dark” personality traits were stronger predictors of online dating behaviour
