Marijuana-related problems and social anxiety: the role of marijuana behaviors in social situations

Individuals with elevated social anxiety appear particularly vulnerable to marijuana-related problems. In fact, individuals with social anxiety may be more likely to experience marijuana-related impairment than individuals with other types of anxiety. It is therefore important to determine whether constructs particularly relevant to socially anxious individuals play a role in the expression of marijuana-related problems in this vulnerable population. Given that both social avoidance and using marijuana to cope with negative affect broadly have been found to play a role in marijuana-related problems, the current study utilized a new measure designed to simultaneously assess social avoidance and using marijuana to cope in situations previously identified as anxiety-provoking among those with elevated social anxiety. The Marijuana Use to Cope with Social Anxiety Scale (MCSAS) assessed behaviors regarding 24 social situations: marijuana use to cope in social situations (MCSAS-Cope) and avoidance of social situations if marijuana was unavailable. In Study 1, we found preliminary support for the convergent and discriminant validity and internal consistency of the MCSAS scales. In Study 2, we examined if MCSAS scores were related to marijuana problems among those with (n = 44) and without (n = 44) clinically elevated social anxiety. Individuals with clinically meaningful social anxiety were more likely to use marijuana to cope in social situations and to avoid social situations if marijuana was unavailable. Of importance, MCSAS-Cope uniquely mediated the relationship between social anxiety group status and marijuana-related problems. Results highlight the importance of contextual factors in assessing marijuana-related behaviors among high-risk populations.     

Sex role perceptions and social anxiety in opposite-sex and same-sex situations

The relationship between perceived sex role characteristics and self-rated anxiety and self-efficacy in both opposite-sex and same-sex interactions was evaluated. Forty-five male and 45 female undergraduates were administered the Bem Sex Role Inventory, and male or female versions of the Survey of Heterosexual Interactions, the Interpersonal Interaction Survey, and a Same Sex Interaction Inventory developed for the study. For both male and female subjects, reported discomfort in both opposite-sex and same-sex situations was significantly negatively related to masculinity, and unrelated to femininity. Congruently, self-efficacy ratings were positively related to masculinity and unrelated to femininity. Androgynous and masculine subjects did not differ in reported social discomfort or self-efficacy in either type of situation. These results suggest that social difficulties are associated with a deficit in some of the characteristics associated with the masculine sex role and add to a growing body of literature finding that only masculinity is associated with mental health and adjustment. Ratings in opposite-sex and in same-sex situations were strongly correlated with each other for both male and female subjects, suggesting that dating anxiety may be part of a broader pattern of social difficulty for both men and women.This report is based on part of a doctoral dissertation submitted by the author to the State University of New York at Stony Brook. The author gratefully acknowledges the contributions of the members of the dissertation committee: Marvin Goldfried, Ruth Hamill, Marcia Johnson, and John M. Neale, and the assistance of Cory Newman and Mike Peters in data collection.     

Effects of gender role self-discrepancies and self-perceived attractiveness on social anxiety for women across social situations

Background and objectives: Psychosocial factors, such as gender role norms, may impact how social anxiety disorder (SAD) is experienced and expressed in different social contexts for women. However to date, these factors have not been examined via experimental methodology. Design: This was a cross-sectional, quasi-experimental controlled study. Methods: The current study included 48 highly socially anxious (HSA) women (70.9% meeting criteria for SAD) and examined the relationships among psychosocial factors (i.e. gender role self-discrepancies and self-perceived physical attractiveness), self-perceived social performance, and state anxiety, across two in vivo social tasks (i.e. conversation and opinion speech). Results: On average, participants reported belief that they ought to be less feminine for the speech task and more masculine for both the conversation and speech tasks. Also, for the conversation task, only lower self-rated attractiveness predicted poorer self-perceived performance and greater post-task state anxiety, above gender role self-discrepancies and confederate gender. For the speech task, only greater self-discrepancy in prototypical masculine traits predicted poorer performance ratings, and it was related to greater state anxiety in anticipation of the task. Conclusion: For HSA women, psychosocial factors may play different roles in social anxiety across social contexts.     

The explanatory role of consistency requirements

Synthese - Is epistemic inconsistency a mere symptom of having violated other requirements of rationality—notably, reasons-responsiveness requirements? Or is inconsistency irrational on its...     

The effects of self-monitoring and self-reported consistency on the consistency of personality judgments made by strangers and intimates

How consistent are strangers' and intimates' judgments of stimulus people's personalities, and how is this interjudge consistency affected by stimulus persons' assessed self-monitoring and self-reported behavioral consistency? To answer these questions, 38 stimulus subjects rated themselves on the personality dimensions of extraversion and anxiety and also rated their cross-situational consistency on these dimensions. Strangers, friends, mothers, and fathers of stimulus persons also rated them on extraversion and anxiety. The results indicated that: For judgments of anxiety there was lower interjudge consistency for high than for low self-monitoring stimulus subjects. For judgments of extraversion there was no difference in interjudge consistency for low and high self-monitoring stimulus subjects. The results also showed that anxiety was a more “private” trait in that intimates' but not strangers' judgments correlated with stimulus subjects' self-reported anxiety (r = .50 and r = .11, respectively), while extraversion was a more “public” trait in that both intimates' and strangers' judgments correlated with stimulus subjects' self-reported extraversion (r = .42 and r = .51, respectively). These results suggest that self-monitoring of stimulus persons affects interjudge consistency of peroonality judgments particularly for “private” traits such as anxiety, which are most subject to expressive control and inhibition.     

The role of planning for intention-behavior consistency

Two studies investigated how planning affects intention-behavior consistency. In Study 1 an experimental group and control group which each consisted of 14 undergraduates were requested in computerized interviews to indicate which activities they intended to perform on the following day. Subjects in the experimental group were also requested in a second phase of the interviews to specify when and where they intended to perform the activities. The results showed that activities for which time and place had been specified were more likely to be performed. In Study 2 another 75 undergraduates volunteered to participate in an experiment in which they were requested to perform an activity (reporting mood effects of reading a prose excerpt) by themselves on one of three following days. One group of subjects only agreed to perform the activity, another group agreed to perform the activity as well as indicated when and where they would do it, and a third group in addition to this indicated which other activities they would perform on the same day. In support of the hypothesis that planning an activity increases the likelihood that it will be performed, the results showed that subjects who indicated other activities more frequently performed the target activity. More efficient time management resulting from planning may account for the findings, although further research is needed to show this conclusively.     

The role of shyness and self-focused attention for attribution of reactions in social situations to internal and external causes

The hypothesis that shyness would be associated with attribution of emotional reactions to stable internal causes rather than to less stable internal and external causes was tested in Study 1 (N = 60). In Study 2 (N= 112) the hypothesis that the explanatory power of shyness would decrease once the effect of self-focused attention on attribution to stable internal causes had been controlled for was tested. The results confirmed both hypotheses. Shyness correlated positively with attribution to stable internal causes, but non-significant with attribution to less stable internal and external causes. Shyness explained a lesser portion of the variance in attribution to both of the internal causes when controlling for self-focus. Even though the findings indicate that self-focus is central to the social cognitive processes of shy individuals, they also suggest that self-focus cannot fully explain attribution to internal causes in general and shy individuals' attributional pattern in particular.     

Primary control and the consistency of interpersonal behaviour across different situations

Recent findings from person–situation studies suggest that primary control is a major factor underlying cross-situational consistency of individual behaviour. To provide evidence, we studied behaviour reflecting primary control in two modes: self-reports and observations of overt behaviour. Study I examined self-reports of 147 Ss in 15 interpersonal situations. In study II, 25 Ss were observed during role playing in five situations. The analysis focused on the degree to which Ss maintain consistent patterns of behaviour across different situations. Both studies revealed considerable degrees of consistency, thus confirming our conjecture. In the discussion attention is paid to the dispositional nature of primary control and the connections with secondary control. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The role of causal attributions in competitive situations

Previous data have shown that successful women are judged to have masculine characteristics [J. A. Doyle (1989), The Male Experience(2nd ed.), Dubuque, IA: Wm. C. Brown; D. L. Gill (1986), Psychological Dynamics of Sport,Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics; D. J. Murphy (1988), “Sport and Gender,” in W. M. Leonard II (Ed.), A Sociological Perspective of Sport(3rd ed.), New York: Macmillan; P. Willis (1994), “Women in Sport in Ideology,” in S. Birrell and C. L. Cole (Eds.), Women, Sport, and Culture,Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics]. Two experiments were conducted to test two different explanations for this effect, the appraisal and attribution hypotheses. In Experiment 1, male participants who lost to a female confederate on a masculine-relevant task rated her as having more masculine and fewer feminine characteristics than when the task was described as feminine-relevant. However, heart rate and blood pressure data failed to support the appraisal hypothesis that these reactions were due to the stress of losing to the female, or defensiveness. The alternative hypothesis that these ratings were due to standard attributional processes was more consistent with the data. Consequently, this hypothesis was tested in Experiment 2 using an attributional paradigm. Consistent with Experiment 1, the attribution hypothesis fared better than did the appraisal hypothesis.     

Comparability of methods of observation for global ratings of heterosexual social skill and anxiety: A generalizability study

This research examined the degree to which skill and anxiety ratings vary as a function of audio, video, or live rating conditions. The question was addressed through a generalizability analysis which indicated that ratings of skill may generalize across audio, video, or live rating modes and across judges within a mode. However, results for anxiety show that while one can generalize across modes, there is a lack of comparability across judges within modes. This finding indicates the need for more judges in order to obtain acceptable levels of reliability for anxiety. Additional validity analyses suggest that the use of videotapes for ratings of skill maximizes the information obtained from role-play techniques for the assessment of heterosexual social performance.Appreciation is expressed to Jan Wallander, Betsy Firth, Dave Ward, Susan Keane, and Judy Dygdon, without whom this project could not have been completed.     

The effect of dimension content on observation and ratings of job performance

Recent theory and research in the performance appraisal area (e.g., Denisi, Cafferty, & Meglino, 1984; Feldman, 1986; Ilgen & Feldman, 1983; Williams, Denisi, & Blencoe, 1985) have suggested that providing information regarding the performance dimension to be rated will cause raters to select appropriate observational schemata and, as a result, produce higher quality ratings. A study was conducted to determine if giving raters dimension-relevant information prior to performance observation would affect their attention processes and rating quality. Prior to watching a videotape of an instructor giving a lecture, 156 subjects were given either: 1) correct information, 2) incorrect information, or 3) no information regarding dimensions of performance they would subsequently be asked to rate. The results indicated that giving prior information regarding dimension content affected subjects' attention processes. Further, raters receiving no information and those receiving misinformation prior to performance observation produced less accurate ratings compared to expert raters. Ratings produced by subjects receiving correct information did not differ significantly from experts' ratings. These results are discussed in terms of both their practical and theoretical implications.