Social rejection
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Social rejection occurs when an individual is deliberately excluded from a social relationship or social interaction. The topic includes both interpersonal rejection (or peer rejection) and romantic rejection. A person can be rejected on an individual basis or by an entire group of people. Furthermore, rejection can be either active, by bullying, teasing, or ridiculing, or passive, by ignoring a person, or giving the silent treatment. It is important to note that rejection can be perceived when it is not actually present.
Because humans are social creatures, and because it is impossible to interact with everyone all the time, some level of rejection is an inevitable part of life. Nevertheless, rejection can become a problem when it is prolonged or consistent, when the relationship is important, or when the individual is particularly sensitive to rejection. Rejection by an entire group of people can have especially adverse effects, particularly when it results in social isolation.[1]
The experience of rejection can lead to a number of adverse psychological consequences such as loneliness, reduced self-esteem, aggression, and depression.[2] It can also lead to feelings of insecurity and a heightened sensitivity to future rejection.
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[edit] Need for acceptance
Rejection can be emotionally painful because of the social nature of human beings and our basic need to be accepted in groups. Abraham Maslow and other theorists have suggested that the need for love and belongingness is a fundamental human motivation.[3] All humans, even introverts, require a certain amount of social acceptance and interaction to be psychologically healthy.
Being a member of a group is important for social identity, which is a key component of the self-concept. Mark Leary of Wake Forest University has suggested that the main purpose of self-esteem is to monitor social relations and detect social rejection. In this view, self-esteem is a sociometer which activates negative emotions when signs of exclusion appear.[4]
Social psychological research confirms the motivational basis of the need for acceptance. Specifically, fear of rejection leads to conformity to peer pressure (sometimes called normative influence), and compliance to the demands of others. Our need for affiliation and social interaction appears to be particularly strong when we are under stress.
[edit] Rejection in childhood
Rejection has been measured in children using sociometry and other peer rating methods. Studies typically show that some children are popular, receiving generally high ratings, many are in the middle, with moderate ratings, and a minority of children are rejected, showing generally low ratings. Most research in this area examines children who are generally rejected by the majority of their peers.
Peer rejection, once established, tends to be stable over time, and thus difficult for a child to overcome.[5] Transferring to another school may benefit the child, but there is continued risk of rejection in this new environment.
Rejected children are likely to have decreased self-esteem, and to be at greater risk for internalizing problems like depression.[6] Some rejected children display externalizing behavior and show aggression rather than depression. This research is largely correlational, but there is evidence that aggressive behavior in children precedes and may contribute to subsequent rejection experiences.
An analysis of 15 school shootings between 1995 and 2001 found that peer rejection was present in all but two of the cases (87%). The documented rejection experiences included both acute and chronic rejection and frequently took the form of ostracism, bullying, and romantic rejection. The authors stated that although it is likely that the rejection experiences contributed to the school shootings, other factors were also present, such as depression, poor impulse control, and other psychopathology. [7]
[edit] Rejection in the laboratory
The short-term effects of rejection have been studied in the social psychological laboratory. One common experimental technique is the "ball toss" paradigm, which was developed by Kip Williams and his colleagues at Purdue University.[8] This procedure involves a group of three people tossing a ball back and forth. Unbeknownst to the actual participant, two members of the group are working for the experimenter and following a pre-arranged script. In a typical experiment, half of the subjects will be excluded from the activity after a few tosses and never get the ball again. Only a few minutes of this treatment are sufficient to produce negative emotions in the target, including anger and sadness. This effect occurs regardless of self-esteem and other personality differences.
A computer version of the task known as "cyberball" has also been developed and leads to similar results. Surprisingly, people feel rejected even when they know they are only playing against the computer.
Gender differences have been found in these experiments. In one study, women showed greater nonverbal engagement whereas men disengaged faster and showed face-saving techniques, such as pretending to be uninterested. The researchers concluded that women seek to regain a sense of belonging whereas men are more interested in regaining self-esteem.[9]
Researchers have also investigated how the brain responds to social rejection. A recent experiment using fMRI neuroimaging found that three regions become active when people are exposed to images depicting rejection themes (e.g. paintings by Edward Hopper). These areas are the posterior cingulate, the parahippocampal gyrus, and the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex. Furthermore, individuals who are high in rejection sensitivity (see below) show less activity in the left prefrontal cortex and the right dorsal superior frontal gyrus, which may indicate less ability to regulate emotional responses to rejection. [10]
A recent experiment at the University of California at Berkeley found that individuals with a combination of low self-esteem and low attentional control are more likely to exhibit eye-blink startle responses while viewing rejection themed images. [11] These findings indicate that people who feel bad about themselves are especially vulnerable to rejection, but that people can also control and regulate their emotional reactions.
[edit] Romantic rejection
In contrast to the study of childhood rejection, which primarily examines rejection by a group of peers, some researchers focus on the phenomenon of a single individual rejecting another in the context of a romantic relationship. In both teenagers and adults, romantic rejection occurs when a person refuses the romantic advances of another or unilaterally ends an existing relationship. The state of unrequited love is a common experience in youth, but mutual love becomes more typical as people get older.
Romantic rejection is a painful, emotional experience that appears to trigger a response in the caudate nucleus of the brain, and associated dopamine and cortisol activity. [12] Subjectively, rejected individuals experience a range of negative emotions, including frustration, intense anger, and eventually, resignation and despair.
Men are significantly more likely than women to react with rage and aggression when rejected. Every year over a million American women are stalked, and the majority are stalked by a former boyfriend, husband, or live-in partner. Eight out of ten women are physically attacked by their stalker. Researchers in a variety of countries have demonstrated that stalkers are more likely to be male, and that male stalkers are more likely to become violent.[13]
One reason why romantic rejection is so common in society is a tendency called falling upward. People generally desire mates that are higher than themselves on such characteristics as status and physical attractiveness, but not ones who are lower.[14] When someone falls in love with a person who has aspirations that are higher, that love is less likely to be reciprocated, potentially leading to rejection.
[edit] Rejection sensitivity
Karen Horney was the first theorist to discuss the phenomenon of rejection sensitivity. She suggested that it is a component of the neurotic personality, and that it is a tendency to feel deep anxiety and humiliation at the slightest rebuff. Simply being made to wait, for example, could be viewed as a rejection and met with extreme anger and hostility.[15]
Geraldine Downey of Columbia University later refined the concept of rejection sensitivity and described it as the tendency to anxiously expect, readily perceive, and over-react to social rejection.[16] Downey has demonstrated in the laboratory that, given a high level of rejection sensitivity, an ambiguous social interaction can be perceived as rejection. This can then lead to defensiveness and self-fulfilling prophecies that undermine social relationships.
Individual differences in rejection sensitivity are believed to be the result of previous rejection experiences, particularly childhood experiences with parents and peers. Attachment theory suggests that rejection from parents could lead to rejection sensitivity. Additionally, both retrospective and longitudinal research has found that peer rejection in children is associated with increased rejection sensitivity. [17] [18] Teasing and other forms of bullying appear to be especially likely to cause later difficulties.
Because of the association between rejection sensitivity and neuroticism, there is a likely genetic predisposition that makes people more vulnerable to rejection experiences and more likely to develop rejection sensitivity.
[edit] See also
- Bullying
- Interpersonal relationships
- Shunning
- Social exclusion
- Social psychology
- Sociometry
- Labelling
[edit] References
- ^ Williams, K. D., Forgás, J. P. & von Hippel, W. (Eds.) (2005). The Social Outcast: Ostracism, Social Exclusion, Rejection, & Bullying. Psychology Press: New York, NY.
- ^ McDougall, P., Hymel, S., Vaillancourt, T., & Mercer, L. (2001). The consequences of childhood rejection. In M. R. Leary (Ed.), Interpersonal rejection. (pp. 213-247). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
- ^ Maslow, A. H. (1954). Motivation and personality. New York, NY: Harper.
- ^ Leary, M. R., Downs, D. L., (1995). Interpersonal functions of the self-esteem motive: The self-esteem system as a sociometer. In M. H. Kernis, Efficacy, agency, and self-esteem. New York, NY: Plenum Press, pp. 123-144.
- ^ Cillessen, A., Bukowski, W. M., & Haselager, G. (2000). Stability of sociometric categories. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
- ^ McDougall, P., Hymel, S., Vaillancourt, T., & Mercer, L. (2001). The consequences of childhood rejection. In M. R. Leary (Ed.), Interpersonal rejection. (pp. 213-247). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
- ^ Leary, M. R., Kowalski, R. M., & Smith, L. (2003). Teasing, rejection, and violence: Case studies of the school shootings. Aggressive Behavior, 29, 202-214.
- ^ Williams, K. D., & Sommer, K. L. (1997). Social ostracism by one’s coworkers: Does rejection lead to loafing or compensation? Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 23, 693-706.
- ^ Williams, K. D. & Zadro, L. (2001). Ostracism. In M. R. Leary (Ed.), Interpersonal rejection. (pp. 21-53). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
- ^ Kross, E., Egner, T., Ochsner, K., Hirsh, J., & Downey, G. (2007). Neural dynamics of rejection sensitivity. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 19, 945-956.
- ^ Gyurak, A., & Ayduk, O. (2007). Defensive physiological reactions to rejection: The effect of self esteem and attentional control on startle responses. Psychological Science, 18, 886-892.
- ^ Fisher, H. (2006) Lost Love: The Nature of romantic rejection, In Cut Loose: (mostly) midlife and older women on the end of (mostly) long-term relaionships. Nan Bauer-Maglin (Ed.) New Jersey: Rutgers University Press.
- ^ Meloy, J. R. & Fisher, H. (2005). Some thoughts on the neurobiology of stalking. Journal of Forensic Sciences, 50, 1472-1480.
- ^ Baumeister, R. F. & Dhavale, D. (2001).Two sides of romantic rejection. In M. R. Leary (Ed.), Interpersonal rejection. (pp. 55-72). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
- ^ Horney, K. (1937). The neurotic personality of our time. New York: W. W. Norton and Company.
- ^ Downey, G. & Feldman, S. I. (1996). Implications of rejection sensitivity for intimate relationships. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 70, 1327-1343.
- ^ Butler, J. C., Doherty, M. S., & Potter, R. M. (2007). Social antecedents and consequences of interpersonal rejection sensitivity. Personality and Individual differences, 43, 1376-1385.
- ^ London, B., Downey, G., Bonica, C. & Paltin, I. (2007). Social causes and consequences of rejection sensitivity. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 17, 481-506.
