Individuals who fear or undergo social rejection show increased attention to social cues.
In this movie, the girl eating the banana has been rejected by her peers because she is an early bloomer and gets much more attention because of her appearance. Even though she receives a lot of sexual attention from the boys in her class, it is obvious throughout the movie that she's not ready for that attention, and is very sensitive to others' perceptions of her sexuality.
In this clip, one of her peers accuses her of sleeping around, and she responds by furthering their opinion of her. She seems aware of the context of the conversation from the beginning, and also acknowledges the giggling girls behind her at the scene's end. The other girls' responses to her (the giggling, gossip, and accusations) prime her reaction to them, leading her to further ostracize herself from their community, and search for an actual friend (the girl at the end of the clip). This interaction illustrates how social rejection can increase attention to social cues in eliciting a response that leads one to avoid socially perilous situations. Furthermore, Bernstein's article argues that increased attention to social cues is beneficial in directing resources away from the rejectors, and towards those giving off valid, positive social cues.
In the social status manipulation, were the experimenters actually manipulating social status and socially rejecting peers in the writing exercise? Could the findings actually be due to a priming effect?
While the experimenters argue that response to social rejection can be positive in directing attention away from adverse social interactions, couldn't this response have negative social implications in enabling the ostracism of the rejected individual?
What types of emotions characterize the rejection-response interaction? Are these purely social emotions?
-Erin Griffin
In the experiment the researchers "manipulate" the participants by asking them to write a story of rejection or acceptance to measure their level of "social rejection."
ReplyDeleteHow could we account for this in a different way? What other levels of indicators could we use to measure social rejection in possibly a more accurate way? (Number of previous encounters with rejection, amount of friends they have, etc.)
What psychological histories do socially rejected individuals have? Do they have similar experiences as children, adolescents, adults?
What are some of the outside factors (Socioeconomic status, gender, etc.) and do they effect the amount of social rejection a person sees?
In the article Bernstein, et al. state that "people are sensitive to cues that indicate potential rejection" citing an article by Picket & Gardner from 2005. They go on to indicate that such subjects identify facial expressions and vocal tones as such cues. Although stating this fact, Bernstein et al. do not mention specifics of traits of such cues that might elicit detection. What characteristics of those cues do ostracized subjects pick up on? Do all ostracized people cross-culturally pick up on the same characteristics of vocal tones, facial expressions, etc.?
ReplyDeleteBernstein et al. state that socially rejected individuals have a "strong desire to be accepted, which leads them toward interaction partners with whom they might affiliate." While this must be the case for the vast majority of individuals it certainly cannot be all encompassing. What sort of traits would individuals who are socially rejected but do not respond to facial expressions exhibit? Also, some cultures appear to elicit more of a sense of individuality than others who support a sense of community. Would the degree of reaction be different between such cultures?
- Guillermo Wippold (gmw399)
In regards to the original post, I agree in that her reactions, while pushing off the negative reactions, could ostracize herself more. She is ignoring those that are already rejecting her, which feels like she is just leading into that rejection. However, in the Bernstein, et al. paper she did do what they thought would happen; she did pick up the cues and she did respond to them by ignoring them and moving onto something better, the girl who was not snickering or giggling.
ReplyDeleteAlso, in regards to these just being social emotions, I think they are completely social emotions because these are social situations. So you respond to other people’s social emotions as well as displaying your own. Is there any way that this could be a non-social emotion that is taking place to create such ostracism?
In the Bernstein et al. article, if people are being socially rejected by their peers how do they find people who do accept them? If this is through people who are socially rejected, we have all been socially rejected at one time or another. Then we find people who accept us for who we are and join a group and are no longer socially rejected. How long must a socially rejected person be socially rejected before these findings can take place? Are they saying that through life’s social rejections we all become more attuned to facial expressions and social cues?
-Meredith Lohn-Wiley