scholarly journals Behavioral and neural dissociation of social anxiety and loneliness

Author(s):  
Jana Lieberz ◽  
Simone G. Shamay-Tsoory ◽  
Nira Saporta ◽  
Alisa Kanterman ◽  
Timo Esser ◽  
...  

Loneliness is a public health concern with detrimental effects on physical and mental well-being. Given phenotypical overlaps between loneliness and social anxiety, cognitive behavioral interventions targeting social anxiety might be adopted to reduce loneliness. However, it is still elusive whether social anxiety and loneliness share the same underlying neurocognitive mechanisms. The current study aimed at investigating to what extent known behavioral and neural correlates of social avoidance in social anxiety are evident in loneliness. We used a pre-stratified approach involving 42 participants with high and 40 control participants with low loneliness scores. During functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), the participants completed a social gambling task to measure the subjective value of engaging in a social situation and responses to positive and negative social feedback. Uni- and multivariate analyses of behavioral and fMRI data replicated known task effects across groups. However, although lonely participants were characterized by increased social anxiety, loneliness was associated with a response pattern clearly distinct from social anxiety. Specifically, Bayesian analyses revealed moderate evidence for equal subjective values of engaging in social situations and comparable amygdala responses to social decision-making and striatal responses to positive social feedback in both groups. Conversely, lonely participants showed significantly altered behavioral responsiveness to negative feedback and opposing striatal brain activity and connectivity compared to controls. Our findings suggest that loneliness is associated with altered emotional reactivity to social situations rather than behavioral tendencies to withdraw from social interactions. Thus, established interventions for social anxiety should be adjusted when targeting loneliness.

eLife ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johannes Schultz ◽  
Tom Willems ◽  
Maria Gädeke ◽  
Ghada Chakkour ◽  
Alexander Franke ◽  
...  

Social interactions have a major impact on well-being. While many individuals actively seek social situations, others avoid them, at great cost to their private and professional life. The neural mechanisms underlying individual differences in social approach or avoidance tendencies are poorly understood. Here we estimated people’s subjective value of engaging in a social situation. In each trial, more or less socially anxious participants chose between an interaction with a human partner providing social feedback and a monetary amount. With increasing social anxiety, the subjective value of social engagement decreased; amygdala BOLD response during decision-making and when experiencing social feedback increased; ventral striatum BOLD response to positive social feedback decreased; and connectivity between these regions during decision-making increased. Amygdala response was negatively related to the subjective value of social engagement. These findings suggest a relation between trait social anxiety/social avoidance and activity in a subcortical network during social decision-making.


Author(s):  
María C. Martínez-Monteagudo ◽  
Beatriz Delgado ◽  
Cándido J. Inglés ◽  
Raquel Escortell

Cyberbullying is a common social maladjustment that has negative repercussions on the wellbeing and development of adolescents, but numerous questions remain as to the relationship between cyberbullying and social anxiety in adolescence. This study analyzes cyberbullying profiles (screening of harassment among peers) and assesses whether these profiles vary with respect to the level of social anxiety (social anxiety scale for adolescents). The sample consisted of 1412 Spanish secondary education students aged 12 to 18 (M = 14.36, SD = 1.65). Latent class analysis and ANOVA were performed. Analyses revealed three profiles: high cyberbullying (high victimization, aggression, and aggression-victimization), low cyberbullying (moderate victimization, aggression, and aggression-victimization), and non-cyberbullying. The cyberbullying patterns varied significantly for all social anxiety subscales. Students with the high cyberbullying profile (bully–victims) presented high scores on social avoidance and distress in social situations in general with peers, whereas these students presented lower levels of fear of negative evaluation and distress and social avoidance in new situations as compared to the low cyberbullying (rarely victim/bully) and non-involved student profiles. Implications for psychologists and educational counselors and cyberbullying preventive interventions are discussed.


2006 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-76 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Durell Johnson ◽  
Renae Mcnair ◽  
Alex Vojick ◽  
Darcy Congdon ◽  
Jennifer Monacelli ◽  
...  

Previous research suggests many of the qualities necessary for successful well-being are masculine in nature. However, masculinity and femininity have been considered related constructs as opposed to being distinctly different sex-role characterizations. Therefore, this study examined the hypothesized associations between sex-role orientation and reports of well-being by looking at the combined and separate contributions of masculinity and femininity reports. Responses from 286 college undergraduates to the BEM Sex Role Inventory (Bem, 1974) and measures of well-being (i.e., loneliness (UCLA Loneliness Scale, revised by Russell, Peplau, & Cutrona, 1980), personal discomfort (Personal Discomfort Subscale of the Multiphasic Personality Inventory, Social Introversion-Extroversion Scale, Graham, Schroeder, & Lilly, 1971), self-esteem (Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, Rosenberg, 1965), and social anxiety and avoidance (Social Anxiety and Social Avoidance Scale, Franke & Hymel, 1984) indicated both categorical and continuous measures of sex role were associated with well-being. Examination of sex-role categories revealed participants with masculine and androgynous orientations reported higher well-being scores than did those with feminine and undifferentiated orientations. Further, examination of separate femininity and masculinity scores indicated that masculinity was positively – and femininity was negatively – associated with participant reports of well-being. Findings are discussed in terms of considering masculinity and femininity as separate measures of sex-role orientation when examining the association between sex roles and well-being.


2017 ◽  
Vol 121 (4) ◽  
pp. 669-689 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca A. Blackie ◽  
Nancy L. Kocovski

Post-event processing refers to negative and repetitive thinking following anxiety provoking social situations. Those who engage in post-event processing may lack self-compassion in relation to social situations. As such, the primary aim of this research was to evaluate whether those high in self-compassion are less likely to engage in post-event processing and the specific self-compassion domains that may be most protective. In study 1 ( N = 156 undergraduate students) and study 2 ( N = 150 individuals seeking help for social anxiety and shyness), participants completed a battery of questionnaires, recalled a social situation, and then rated state post-event processing. Self-compassion negatively correlated with post-event processing, with some differences depending on situation type. Even after controlling for self-esteem, self-compassion remained significantly correlated with state post-event processing. Given these findings, self-compassion may serve as a buffer against post-event processing. Future studies should experimentally examine whether increasing self-compassion leads to reduced post-event processing.


2001 ◽  
Vol 88 (1) ◽  
pp. 227-235 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Durell Johnson ◽  
Joseph C. LaVoie ◽  
Mary C. Spenceri ◽  
Molly A. Mahoney-Wernli

Failure to resolve peer conflict is associated with children's reports of loneliness, social anxiety, and social avoidance. Although these relationships are well established, researchers have not examined the association between the avoidance of peer conflict and various adjustment characteristics. The current study examined the association between avoidance of conflict and measures of loneliness, social anxiety, and social avoidance for 59 pupils in Grade 4 (31 boys and 28 girls) and 47 in Grade 8 (22 boys and 25 girls). Volunteers indicated that conflict avoidance based on autonomy, e.g., independence issues, and interpersonal issues, e.g., closeness and cohesion, was associated with scores on loneliness for boys and girls, respectively. Conflict avoidance for emotional and physical well-being and fear of punishment was associated with increased reports of loneliness and social anxiety for children in Grade 4.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Doorley ◽  
Fallon Rachael Goodman ◽  
David Disabato ◽  
Todd Barrett Kashdan ◽  
Jennifer S. Weinstein ◽  
...  

Understanding how individuals with varying levels of social anxiety respond to daily positive events is important. Psychological processes that increase positive emotions are being widely used as strategies to not only enhance well-being but reduce the symptoms and impairment tied to negative emotional dispositions and conditions, including excessive social anxiety. At present, it is unclear whether/how levels of social anxiety impact the psychological benefits derived from momentary positive events. We used ecological momentary assessment (EMA) to examine the impact of trait social anxiety on momentary changes in emotions, sense of belonging, and social approach versus avoidance motivation following positive events in daily life. Over the course of a week, people with elevated social anxiety experienced greater momentary anxiety and social avoidance motivation and lower momentary happiness and sense of belonging on average. Despite these impairments, individuals with elevated social anxiety experienced greater psychological benefits – in the form of less anxiety and motivation to avoid social situations, and a greater sense of belonging– following positive events during the past hour that were ranked as particularly intense. Findings failed to show specificity to social anxiety, with evidence of similar effects for other forms of internalizing psychopathology (general anxiety and depression). These observations detail circumstances in which individuals with social anxiety, and other emotional disturbances, can thrive – creating potentially important targets for intervention.


2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 14
Author(s):  
Aygül Çağlayan Tunç ◽  
Mehibe Akandere

The aim of this study is to examine the effects of social anxiety and subjective well-being levels of university students. Totally 600 students from the University of Konya, Konya, Turkey. Social Anxiety and subjective well-being tests are applied on participants. The statistical package program Spss 16.0 is used in order to analyze the data. The t test and variance analyzer (ANOVA) is used for independent groups while Tukey's test was used as multiple comparison tests for differences. The relationship between consistent data is being tested via pearson. Well-being scores of male or female students who do not do sports (P <0.05). Being criticized scores of men are not doing sports (P <0.05). Social avoidance scores were higher than boys (P <0.05). Consequently, it is seen as a self-being level.


2022 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcia A. Saul ◽  
Xun He ◽  
Stuart Black ◽  
Fred Charles

Social anxiety disorder has been widely recognised as one of the most commonly diagnosed mental disorders. Individuals with social anxiety disorder experience difficulties during social interactions that are essential in the regular functioning of daily routines; perpetually motivating research into the aetiology, maintenance and treatment methods. Traditionally, social and clinical neuroscience studies incorporated protocols testing one participant at a time. However, it has been recently suggested that such protocols are unable to directly assess social interaction performance, which can be revealed by testing multiple individuals simultaneously. The principle of two-person neuroscience highlights the interpersonal aspect of social interactions that observes behaviour and brain activity from both (or all) constituents of the interaction, rather than analysing on an individual level or an individual observation of a social situation. Therefore, two-person neuroscience could be a promising direction for assessment and intervention of the social anxiety disorder. In this paper, we propose a novel paradigm which integrates two-person neuroscience in a neurofeedback protocol. Neurofeedback and interbrain synchrony, a branch of two-person neuroscience, are discussed in their own capacities for their relationship with social anxiety disorder and relevance to the paradigm. The newly proposed paradigm sets out to assess the social interaction performance using interbrain synchrony between interacting individuals, and to employ a multi-user neurofeedback protocol for intervention of the social anxiety.


2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana Muthesius ◽  
Susanne Hölzer ◽  
Anna Farina Grothey ◽  
Jirko Rubruck ◽  
Kai Vogeley ◽  
...  

Abstract A core symptom of schizophrenia is a deficit in social cognition. Furthermore, many patients suffer from relevant social anxiety. How social anxiety relates to social avoidance in schizophrenia is, however, still unclear. To address this question empirically, 30 participants with schizophrenia were compared to individually matched controls in a recently developed experimental task. In each trial, participants chose between a monetary gamble with a human partner providing social feedback and a defined monetary amount that varied across trials. The tendency to avoid the interaction under acceptance of monetary loss served as a measure of social avoidance. Patients showed higher levels of social anxiety assessed using the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale (LSAS) than controls, took longer to decide whether to engage in the social interaction and rated social feedback as less intense. Despite making rational decisions, patients surprisingly showed no social avoidance. We assume that the lack of experimentally induced social avoidance in contrast to the well-known social avoidance behavior in everyday life, also reflected by elevated self-rated LSAS scores, was due to a partial compensation of delayed social information processing in the absence of the time constraints in our task. This additional time may have allowed rational decisions and masked potential social avoidance behavior. We conclude that social anxiety in schizophrenia may have different characteristics than in individuals without schizophrenia, namely avoidance of negative feedback caused by prolonged social processing instead of fear of supposed negative feedback. Treatment strategies for social anxiety in schizophrenia may benefit from considering these differences.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (7) ◽  
pp. 48-58
Author(s):  
Karina Sanko ◽  

The article studies the importance of emotional intelligence in various social situations. It emphasizes that a person’s behaviour is determined both by personal traits and a social situation. The foreign experience in studying the influence of social situations on emotional intelligence manifestations and its components is analysed. The foreign view takes into account, in fact, not the characteristics of the social situation experienced by a person, but the characteristics (context) of the social environment. The article presents also national scientists’ views on this issue, according to which a social situation and its role is considered via "emotionogenicity" of the situation for the individual, and also the question appears on classification of social situations. Manifestations of emotional intelligence and its components should be studied theoretically and empirically in the context of a person’s emotional experience and "physical living" in difficult life circumstances. The author defines the qualitative indicators of emotional intelligence and its components that can become certain markers of the psychological quality of difficult situation experiencing. A person’s psychological well-being, adaptability and subjective success can be such qualitative indicators revealing understanding by a person of experienced difficult life circumstances. Namely, these psychological indicators indicate the quality of the situation experiencing and the role of the emotional intelligence components in adaptability, ensured psychological well-being and a sense of subjective success. The empirical analysis of the proposed indicators give an understanding of whether a person is fully psychologically and qualitatively living the circumstances and what the role of emotional intelligence is. The theoretical model of emotional intelligence influence on the psychological indicators of a person’s life quality, depending on a social situation, is presented. The model demonstrates the influence of emotional intelligence and its components on adaptability, psychological well-being and subjective success depending on social situations, and vice versa. This model should be applied for the empirical study on the mutual influence of emotional intelligence on the above indicators; its novelty and importance for understanding of the social context is emphasizes. The constructed regression models are examined to determine connections and assert that the feelings of psychological well-being, adaptability and subjective success in a difficult situation are determined by the corresponding components of emotional intelligence, in particular, during the pandemic. In such difficult life situation as the pandemic, emotional intelligence ensures adaptability, psychological well-being and subjective success. The constructed regression models indicate that emotional intelligence components influence differently on particular characteristics during the pandemic, in particular, adaptability is ensured indirectly by controlling emotions and developed interpersonal emotional intelligence; psychological well-being depends on such emotional intelligence components as understanding one’s emotions, empathizing with unhappiness, and control over expressions; the feeling of subjective success during the pandemic is mediated by understanding of one’s own emotions and empathizing with unhappiness. In such difficult life situation as the pandemic, the components ensuring both psychological well-being and subjective success are the understanding of one’s own emotions and empathy for unhappiness, which indicates the importance of a contact with one’s own emotions and collective inclusion into the difficult situation. And the resulting regression model for adaptability includes completely different components of emotional intelligence, namely, emotional management and interpersonal emotional intelligence, which shows the focus on interpersonal interaction.


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