Nobody likes to feel left out; it hurts and you might wonder if you did something wrong or if you will always be rejected. On the other hand, imagine being included and feeling a sense of impending abandonment. In this week's meme Overly Attached Girlfriend is exhibiting that problem as she spends time with her partner:
Gutz, Renneberg, Roepke, and Niedeggen (2015) investigated how three populations respond to being included and then rejected. Along with healthy controls, or average people for comparison, their experiment included people in treatment for Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) and a separate group in treatment for Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). Individuals with Social Anxiety Disorder are terrified that they are going to come across as awkward losers when they interact with others. This fear comes from a distorted perception that other people are more negative and judgmental than they really are, which leads to avoiding social situations and having very few social connections. When these situations cannot be avoided, people with SAD are hardest on themselves after the fact: they go over what happened in their minds and imagine how their behaviors left bad impressions. People with Borderline Personality Disorder have an intense fear of being rejected and also view others as more negative and judgmental than they really are. This is complicated for people with BPD because they lack a solid sense of self and tend to derive some identity through the attention given to them in relationships. At the start of relationships they treat people as if they can do no wrong, but as they grow closer this bond becomes a risk - they might lose their source of self! Based on a distorted perception of reality and motivated by fear they turn against the people closest to them: accusing and blaming; projecting their own faults; exploding with over-the-top emotional reactions; or making threats of self-harm. These behaviors are scary and hurtful to receive from somebody who used to treat you so well, so eventually many of these relationships end. This further reinforces a fear of rejection. Gutz et al. were interested in how the three groups would react to being included and being excluded. To provoke these situations they used a rigged video game called Cyberball: in this game you can "toss" a ball to two other players and they can choose to "toss" the ball to you. The participants are tested individually and they believe that they are playing online against two other people. However, they are actually just playing with a computer program and what occurs in the game is not by accident. In the first trial the program sends the ball to the participant and the two pretend players equally (33%) of the time; this should give participants a feeling of being included. In the second trial the program sends the ball to the participant less (16%) of the time compared to the pretend players; this should give participants a feeling of being excluded or rejected. In addition to participants' ratings of their fear, expectation, and experience of rejection, the authors collected biological data in the form of brain activity during both trials. This was measured by electrical changes on the scalp known as an "event related brain potential" or ERP. The ERP of interest was P3b: this change occurs when a person has to reevaluate a situation - when something unexpected happens (and should not be confused with the dehydrated peanut butter PB2). In prior studies using Cyberball, average people exhibited this electrical change when they received the ball in the exclusion trial because this is an unexpected event.
The results of the present experiment confirmed differences between the healthy controls and the two clinical populations: overall the healthy controls rated themselves as lower in anxiety about being rejected and on expectations of rejection. In the exclusion trial, all three groups felt left out but the two
clinical groups felt more threatened by this than did the healthy
controls. This is evidence that rejection is felt more strongly by people diagnosed with SAD and BPD.
Differences between the clinical groups also occurred: Borderline participants rated themselves as higher in rejection expectancy than did the participants with Social Anxiety Disorder. Likewise, while there was little difference between healthy controls and participants with SAD, the participants in treatment for BPD always reported a higher experience of being left out, even in the inclusion trial. In fact, whereas the other two groups were accurate, at all times participants with BPD underestimated how many times the ball was tossed to them: they overestimated how much they were left out. P3b activity confirmed these self-reports: only the participants with Borderline Personality Disorder demonstrated a P3b event, in fact a large P3b change, during the inclusion trial. Because this is associated with unexpected events, this means that these participants were expecting to be left out even when they were being included. Further evidence can be found in a statistical analysis: self-reports of rejection expectancy explain the largest difference in the P3b changes between the three groups. Gutz et al. explain the significance of these findings: ...this negative perception bias might cause situation-inappropriate overreactions in daily life, and consequently prompt expectation-confirming rejection behavior by others. A recent study indicated that it is the negative perception of others that triggers elevated negative affect and quarrelsome behavior in patients with BPD (p. 428). If Overly Attached Girlfriend struggles with BPD she may assume that any relationship puts her at risk for abandonment. An evening hanging out with her partner would not be interpreted as being accepted, but instead as a situation of likely rejection. The meme is funny because we can see the distortion in her thinking. In real life it would not be any fun: instead it might start a fight or even lead to a break-up. Further Reading: The Gutz et al. (2015) article can be accessed through your local college library. If you or somebody you care about are dealing with anxiety or personality disorders, you can find helpful resources on the National Alliance on Mental Illness website. Dr. Marsha Linehan, who created a therapy for Borderline Personality Disorder, made news by announcing that she, too, struggles with this psychological problem. Read the New York Times article about her "coming out." Dr. Kipling Williams, one of the originators of the Cyberball game, has an updated version available on his website. This site also includes a gif that shows an image that is similar to what is seen when participating in Cyberball experiments. BONUS: None of us would need to fear rejection if Ryan Gosling were our partner (or lab partner). Enjoy the statistics humor!
A pet peeve of mine is when news articles make it sound like parents can completely control their children's behaviors by simply saying the right thing. One gift from our children is the lesson that we cannot control everything - even if we do everything "right." This confounding behavior comes in part from children's low self-control. Even if we tell them not to do something it is very hard for them to stop themselves from doing it anyway.
However children differ in the their abilities to delay gratification, their abilities to fight temptation. Classic research by Mischel and colleagues in the 1960s and 70s outlined a protocol that is often referred to as "The Marshmallow Test." In these studies preschool children were tested individually by a familiar adult experimenter. The child chose a preferred treat (along with marshmallows, animal cookies, pretzels, and other treats were choices) and then the experimenter said that he or she could eat that one piece of treat now, OR wait until the experimenter returned in 15 minutes to get two pieces. The children differed in how long they were able to wait: some only lasted a few moments and gobbled down the single treat; while others distracted themselves or literally sat on their hands until the 15 minutes was up to claim the double treat. Follow-up studies demonstrated that the children who waited the longest grew up to have better grades in school and show other markers of success. This work is still cited today to show the importance of self-control and is sometimes compared to the modern concept of grit. Through the years some have raised questions about The Marshmallow Test. For example, Duckworth, Tsukayama, and Kirby (2013) asked if it really tests for self-control or if there is a third variable, another quality, that drives both the longer waiting time and higher grades. Based on past research, it could be that children who are higher in intelligence prefer to wait for a larger reward and tend to get higher grades than children who are lower in intelligence. Likewise, children's behavior in The Marshmallow Test and their achievement in school may be reflect how much they are tempted by reward: some children are more tempted by treats while others have little temptation. It may be that children who have low temptation do not have to work very hard to control their impulses - which allows them to wait and to do better in school. To clarify this issue Duckworth et al. conducted two studies. Study 1 included 56 local 5th graders (average age 10) who participated in a modified version of The Marshmallow Test: the waiting time was extended to 30 minutes and the students completed a survey about what they like eating before the delay of gratification test began. On a separate occasion the children participated in two tests of intelligence, and answered questions related to temptation. The questions addressed: how excited they get when a reward is offered; how actively they seek out the reward; and the extent that getting in trouble impacts them. Teachers rated each child on self-control (as it relates to schoolwork) and reported end of year grades.
The results demonstrated that the children who waited longer were also rated as having more self-control. Although grades were marginally related to waiting time, intelligence and temptation by reward were not related to waiting time in The Marshmallow Test. However, Duckworth et al. note that the children did not differ very much from each other - especially on the variable of intelligence. Because the first study involved a small sample lacking in diversity, Study 2 analyzed a data set from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development that covered a broader sample of 966 children. These participants had completed The Marshmallow Test at age four (in this version, the experimenter would return after a maximum of seven minutes) and were tested using two age-appropriate measures of intelligence. At that time, their parents and preschool teachers rated them on two measures of self-control: their abilities to concentrate and their abilities to control their behaviors. As well their mothers rated them on their temptation by reward: how excited they became when offered a reward.
When these children were in eighth and ninth grade, the students' grades were included in the data set. In ninth grade the participants also indicated how often they engaged in "risky behaviors" as a measure of impulsiveness.
The results demonstrated that the children who waited longer were higher in intelligence and higher in self control at age four: they received higher ratings on their abilities to concentrate and to control their behaviors. To a lesser extent, children who waited longer were also less tempted by rewards. The authors then used sophisticated statistical methods to separate out the
influences of self-control, intelligence, and temptation by reward.
In line with past research, the children who waited longer at age four were more likely to become
adolescents with higher grades and fewer reported risky behaviors. Analyses revealed that level of self-control beat intelligence as a better predictor of the associated high grades. However, unlike high self-control, being less tempted by reward did not predict grades or behaviors in adolescence.
Taken together, these studies support the long-assumed notion that The Marshmallow Test is a good test of self-control. Self-control was the most reliable predictor of the higher grades associated with longer waiting times in The Marshmallow Test; intelligence and temptation by reward were less effective or failed as predictors. We can only assume that Mischel would be pleased with this confirmation that his famous protocol is a valid test of self-control. Considering that he had to wait more than four decades for this news, I would say that he has passed the "ultimate" marshmallow test (too bad he doesn't like the taste of marshmallows)! Further Reading: A pdf of the Duckworth et al. (2013) article can be read online courtesy of the University of Pennsylvania.
Watch Walter Mischel explain delay of gratification to Stephen Colbert on the comedy news show, The Colbert Report. Very entertaining! BONUS: If kids totally lose their cool waiting for an extra
marshmallow, imagine their reactions to enormous
portions of their favorite foods! Watch what happens in this BuzzFeed
video:
In the United States we have higher rates of teen pregnancy than in many other Western countries. We also know that our teenagers are at high risk for STIs, sexually transmitted infections. To combat these problems, we often require teens to participate in sexual education programs. However, the type of program that is most effective is still debated. This week's meme offers a humorous suggestion:
Because even the most mature adult parents can be worn down by incessant crying and endless repetition, the joke implies that if teenagers experienced these things it would be unforgettable and they would abstain from sex. The joke also implies that teaching statistics like, "six week old babies spend 30% of their awake time crying," is not necessary; instead teenagers will remember a take home message like, "babies cry a lot." This emphasis on gist, or take home message, over specific quantitative facts is applied more formally to sexual education by Reyna and Mills (2014). These authors investigated if concepts from Fuzzy Trace Theory could make a pre-existing sex ed. curriculum more effective. Past research on Fuzzy Trace Theory suggests that better memory of ideas and better decision-making comes from understanding the the gist, the take home message, as opposed to weighing the pros and cons based on detailed facts or figures that are more forgettable. Because these gist-based thoughts are related to one's emotions and values, they allow for very rapid decision-making. Their experiment followed more than 700 adolescents, ages 14-19, during a 16 session intervention period and for one year after its completion. The participants were randomly assigned to three types of interventions: an existing sexual education program called Reducing the Risk (RTR); a version of Reducing the Risk that had been modified to add ideas from Fuzzy Trace Theory (RTR+); a Control group focusing on communication skills unrelated to sexuality. Reducing the Risk (RTR) teaches teens how to recognize situations of sexual risk, how to resist pressure to have sex, and how to reduce risk of pregnancy with contraception and infection by using condoms. Teens enrolled in this program should come to realize that they are personally at risk and that they possess the ability to avoid or reduce sexually related risk. The sessions usually include a factual presentation by an adult leader followed by activities such as guided role playing. For example, the leader might present detailed factual data like, "60% of teenagers report that they used condoms during their most recent sexual experience," followed by guided role play of how to reason with a partner who does not want to use a condom. This program is considered to be effective at delaying first sexual experiences and increasing the use of birth control and infection protection. However, Reyna and Mills note that there is little evidence to show if these effects are lasting. Because Fuzzy Trace Theory predicts that gist thinking should have a lasting effect on decision making, the authors modified RTR with ideas from this theory to create RTR+. This version is identical to RTR with two additions that emphasize gist. First, at the end of every lesson students are presented with one line summaries of the take home ideas of risk from the lesson. For example, "You should use a condom every time you have sex." Second, the participants in RTR+ receive a checklist of possible values, such as, "I will use condoms every time I have sex," that they are asked to rate themselves on after every lesson. Because gist related decision making is closely influenced by our values, asking students to repeatedly clarify their values should also provoke attention to generalized risks related to sex. All participants' sexual experience, and beliefs about sex and disease prevention were measured during the intervention, and at three months, six months, and 12 months after the intervention ended. The results demonstrated that the teenagers who had been randomly assigned to RTR and RTR+ showed overall lower risk in their behavior and beliefs than the teenagers who had been assigned to the Control condition. When the results from RTR and RTR+ were compared, overall RTR+ was considered to be more successful. RTR+, that included Fuzzy Trace Theory's emphasis on gist, was related to: *a lower rate of students who started having sex during that 12 month period. *the lowest increase in the number of sexual partners during that 12 month period. *the smallest increase in positive attitude toward sex (thinking that having sex at this age is a good idea). *the smallest increase in beliefs that parents and peers think sex was okay for them to experience at this age. *the highest belief that they were at risk for generalized (take home message) risks associated with sex. This is a measure of gist thinking - so it is not surprising that the teens in RTR+ demonstrated more of this. *the highest knowledge of sex related risks lasting up to six months after the intervention. *the highest recognition of warning signals of sexual risk. On the other hand, RTR, the original sexual education program, was related to: *more favorable attitudes toward condom use during that 12 month period. *more agreement with gist-based summaries of sexual risk as measured three months after the intervention. This is another measure of gist thinking - so it IS surprising that the teens in RTR demonstrated more of this The results were further influenced when the participants' races were taken into account. Reyna and Mills compared results from the three most prominent groups represented in their sample: African American; Hispanic; and White. Curiously, the authors decided to add data from Asian participants into the category White because the responses from those groups were similar. So data reported in relation to White participants should be understood as White and Asian. However, an improvement to this study would have been to further diversify the sample so that Asian adolescents were properly represented. How did race influence the results? For example, RTR+: *initially improved African American participants' attitudes toward condoms, but that effect disappeared after the intervention was over. *increased White participants' beliefs that they could successfully use condoms. *was related to higher sexual risk knowledge for Hispanic and White teens. *increased African American and White participants' belief that they were at risk for generalized (take home message) risks associated with sex. This is a measure of gist thinking - so it is not surprising that some teens in RTR+ demonstrated more of this. However, it is surprising that Hispanic participants did not demonstrate more of this in RTR+. Race also influenced the results of the other intervention. For example, RTR: *increased Hispanic and White participants' belief that parents and peers think condoms should be used when having sex. *increased Hispanic and White participants' belief that they were at risk for generalized (take home message) risks associated with sex. This is a measure of gist thinking - so it IS surprising that some of the teens in RTR demonstrated more of this. Taken together, the results suggest that including an emphasis on the gist of sex related risks could be a positive addition to sexuality education if we want to encourage teenagers to delay sexual experience and to use condoms to prevent infection. This statement is based on results that reached statistical significance, meaning that the differences between teens assigned to RTR and RTR+ were not simply due to chance. Some of these differences seem substantial. For example, Reyna and Mills note that being enrolled in RTR+ was 84% more effective at delaying the start of sexual activity when compared to the Control condition. At the same time some the differences were often very small even though they reached statistical significance. For example, teens assigned to RTR+ had fewer sexual partners than teens assigned to the regular RTR program. This result seems less impressive when you read that the teens in RTR+ reported an average of 2.15 partners while the teens in RTR reported an average of 2.21. In terms of a practical difference that would be of interest to parents and educators, this is almost nothing: both groups had about two sexual partners during that year. Another issue is that interventions need to be tailored to the characteristics of the audience to be effective. The influence of race in the present study is especially important to note because teenagers from different racial groups differ in: how old they are when they start having sex; their risk of pregnancy (or getting somebody pregnant); and their risk of contracting a sexually transmitted infection (STI). Reyna and Mills also acknowledge that further research needs to focus on how and why concepts from Fuzzy Trace Theory may impact the sexual behaviors and beliefs of adolescents from diverse backgrounds. Further Reading:
Watch a lecture by Dr. Valerie Reyna (one of the authors of this week's article) on "Risky Decision Making in Adolescence." This talk, given at Cornell University, covers, "...developmental differences in the way adolescents make decisions and
reviews her research regarding why adolescents perceive risks and
benefits and yet take more risks."
If you are interested in decreasing adolescent pregnancy and STIs, The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy website includes statistics (state and national) and an excellent comparison of effective programs aimed at decreasing these problems. BONUS: The Reyna and Mills (2014) article includes a particularly cringe-worthy example used in RTR (and RTR+) as a warning sign that, "...unsafe sex may be imminent...": "being alone with a significant other, lights low and soft music playing..." (p. 1631). As goofy as that might sound to a modern teenager, I suppose that we do have evidence of its truth from the classic 1955 Disney film, "Lady and the Tramp."
On social media I have seen a lot of posts about introverts and extraverts (or extroverts): things they want us to know; their everyday struggles; things we can do for them. These traits have been around for a long time and comprise one of the Big Five aspects of personality. In short, introverts get energized by alone time whereas extraverts are energized by time with others. This difference is demonstrated by our meme featuring Introvert Cat:
This meme implies that introverts would prefer to eat alone rather than go out to eat with people they like. It also implies that introverts enjoy solitude more than socializing. However, past research suggests that both introverts and extraverts get more enjoyment from socializing than they do from being alone. If everyone has more fun acting extraverted, why might Introvert Cat shy away from such an opportunity? One suggestion is highlighted in research done by Zelenski, Whelan, Nealis, Besner, Santoro, and Wynn (2013). In a preliminary study they asked introverts and extraverts to imagine themselves in different scenarios: some scenarios would require them to act introverted whereas the other scenarios would require them to act extraverted. For each scenario 97 undergraduate participants, who had been classified as introverted or as extraverted, rated themselves on a list of positive and negative adjectives based on how they thought they would feel: this was a measure of their affective forecasting. The results demonstrated that when introverts imagined themselves acting extraverted, they were more likely than extraverts to predict negative emotions and feeling self-conscious, and less likely than extraverts to predict positive emotions and enjoyment. However, these results cannot tell us what either group's emotional experiences would be in a real-world situation that calls for them to act one way or the other. To get closer to that answer, Zelenski et al. conducted four follow-up experiments from which the results were combined. Thus 495 undergraduate students, who had been classified as introverted or extraverted, were randomly assigned to act either introverted or extraverted while interacting with others in a laboratory setting. In each experiment the participants were given instructions on how they should act, then asked to imagine how they will feel once the interaction begins - again, they rated themselves on adjectives to measure their affective forecasting. Next, they interacted with others in one of four ways: taking part in a group discussion with other participants; being interviewed by a confederate; planning a day's activities or building with blocks while partnered with a confederate; putting together a timed puzzle with other participants. At the end of each experiment, the participants rated how they had actually felt during the activity. The measures of affective forecasting demonstrated that introverts were especially likely to have low predictions of positive emotions when preparing to act extraverted. In addition, introverts were especially likely to have high predictions of negative emotions and self-consciousness when preparing to act extraverted. However, there was little difference between introverts and extraverts on their predictions of how "pleasant" the experience of acting extraverted would be.
Measures of the participants' ratings of their actual experiences demonstrate that all participants who had been assigned to act extraverted experienced more positive emotion and less negative emotion than the participants who had been assigned to act introverted. Additionally, the level of positive emotions was higher and the level of negative emotion was lower than they had predicted beforehand. As well, all participants overestimated how self-conscious they would feel; this was especially true for the participants who were preparing to act extraverted. So we see that both introverts and extroverts had a more positive experience than they thought they would have and that this effect was most pronounced when their behavior was extraverted. Zelenski et al. compared participants' predictions with their reports of the experience to estimate how accurate introverts and extraverts are in predicting their emotional experiences. They found that introverts were comparatively less accurate: introverts were more likely to overestimate negative emotional reactions and that this was especially true when introverts were planning on acting extraverted. Likewise, introverts were more likely than extraverts to inaccurately over-estimate their degree of self-consciousness when asked to act in an extraverted way. These findings may have some limitations, as one's experience in a laboratory may be different than in real life. For example, in real life you are not instructed to act introverted or extraverted, although one could argue that acting extraverted may be rewarded in American culture. Another limitation that was not addressed by the authors is that 70% of the participant were women. Past research suggests that women are less likely than men to be introverted, so it is not clear if the introverted and extraverted participants were equally represented by male and female students. If they were, one could ask if the introverted females were somehow different than average females - a question that could influence how well the results would generalize to the population at large. Nevertheless, Zelenski et al. conclude that part of what may drive Introvert Cat to decline a dinner invitation could be an error in his affective forecasting: he would have enjoyed himself more than he realized. If introverts underestimate the enjoyment and over-estimate the pain of social situations, they may mistakenly say, "no" to experiences that would increase their happiness. On the other hand, this is not to imply that all introverts should try to be extraverts! On the contrary, the authors write:
Despite our speculations about acting extraverted..., we feel compelled to explicitly state that we do not view introverts as inferior or in need of psychological change. (Many of us have pronounced introverted tendencies of our own!) Some introverts might desire the potential happiness boost that an acting extraverted exercise might provide. We believe that studying the potential of such a tool and providing accurate information about its effects may ultimately produce hedonic benefits for some, but we have no interest in forcing it on anyone" (p. 1105)."
Further Reading: The Zelenski et al. (2013) article can be accessed through your local college library. Find out if you are an introvert or an extravert by taking this Psychology Today quiz. If you end up scoring in the middle, you may be an ambivert - find out about yourself in this Wall Street Journal article. Is Western culture biased against introverts? In this TED talk, writer and lawyer, Susan Cain, argues that introverts have overlooked positive qualities that should be valued.
