Training approach-avoidance of smiling faces affects emotional vulnerability in socially anxious individuals

A survey with 172 students was conducted at a large southern research university to examine how unwillingness-to-communicate in interpersonal communication influences gratifications sought and gratifications obtained from Facebook use. The study investigated the relationship between two dimensions of unwillingness-to-communicate (approach-avoidance and reward) and different motives of Facebook use. In addition, it examined the relationship between unwillingness-to-communicate and the behavioral and attitudinal outcomes of Facebook use (e.g., the number of hours spent on Facebook, duration of use, the number of Facebook friends, satisfaction with Facebook). Results of multiple regression analysis revealed that respondents who felt anxiety and fears in their face-to-face communication used Facebook to pass time and feel less lonely more than other respondents, but they had fewer Facebook friends. Overall, this paper finds evidence that people who are involved in online relationships are those who are willing to communicate in real life, rather than the opposite. Such results seem to justify the rich-get-richer hypothesis, which states that the internet primarily benefits extraverted individuals. Our results are in contrast to findings that socially anxious individuals are more likely to form relationships online.

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Anticipation of Social Interaction Changes Implicit Approach-Avoidance Behavior of Socially Anxious Individuals

Cognitive Therapy and Research ◽

10.1007/s10608-011-9408-5 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 36 (6) ◽

pp. 740-749 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

M. J. Voncken ◽

M. Rinck ◽

A. Deckers ◽

W.-G. Lange

Keyword(s):

Social Interaction ◽

Avoidance Behavior ◽

Socially Anxious ◽

Implicit Approach ◽

Approach Avoidance

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Oral Approach Avoidance

Experimental Psychology (formerly Zeitschrift für Experimentelle Psychologie) ◽

10.1027/1618-3169/a000458 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 66 (5) ◽

pp. 355-360 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Sandra Godinho ◽

Margarida V. Garrido ◽

Oleksandr V. Horchak

Keyword(s):

Native Speakers ◽

Writing System ◽

Oral Movements ◽

Motivational States ◽

Oral Approach ◽

Approach Avoidance ◽

Abstract Words ◽

European Family

Abstract. Words whose articulation resembles ingestion movements are preferred to words mimicking expectoration movements. This so-called in-out effect, suggesting that the oral movements caused by consonantal articulation automatically activate concordant motivational states, was already replicated in languages belonging to Germanic (e.g., German and English) and Italic (e.g., Portuguese) branches of the Indo-European family. However, it remains unknown whether such preference extends to the Indo-European branches whose writing system is based on the Cyrillic rather than Latin alphabet (e.g., Ukrainian), or whether it occurs in languages not belonging to the Indo-European family (e.g., Turkish). We replicated the in-out effect in two high-powered experiments ( N = 274), with Ukrainian and Turkish native speakers, further supporting an embodied explanation for this intriguing preference.

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Instruction-Based Approach-Avoidance Effects

Experimental Psychology (formerly Zeitschrift für Experimentelle Psychologie) ◽

10.1027/1618-3169/a000282 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 62 (3) ◽

pp. 161-169 ◽

Cited By ~ 31

Author(s):

Pieter Van Dessel ◽

Jan De Houwer ◽

Anne Gast ◽

Colin Tucker Smith

Keyword(s):

Implicit Association Test ◽

Avoidance Training ◽

Social Groups ◽

Implicit Association ◽

Approach And Avoidance ◽

Evaluative Priming ◽

Blacks And Whites ◽

Approach Avoidance ◽

Implicit And Explicit ◽

Explicit Measures

Prior research suggests that repeatedly approaching or avoiding a certain stimulus changes the liking of this stimulus. We investigated whether these effects of approach and avoidance training occur also when participants do not perform these actions but are merely instructed about the stimulus-action contingencies. Stimulus evaluations were registered using both implicit (Implicit Association Test and evaluative priming) and explicit measures (valence ratings). Instruction-based approach-avoidance effects were observed for relatively neutral fictitious social groups (i.e., Niffites and Luupites), but not for clearly valenced well-known social groups (i.e., Blacks and Whites). We conclude that instructions to approach or avoid stimuli can provide sufficient bases for establishing both implicit and explicit evaluations of novel stimuli and discuss several possible reasons for why similar instruction-based approach-avoidance effects were not found for valenced well-known stimuli.

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