Social anxiety and emotion regulation in daily life: spillover effects on positive and negative social events

To minimize the possibility of scrutiny, people with social anxiety difficulties exert great effort to manage their emotions, particularly during social interactions. We examined how the use of two emotion regulation strategies, emotion suppression and cognitive reappraisal, predict the generation of emotions and social events in daily life. Over 14 consecutive days, 89 participants completed daily diary entries on emotions, positive and negative social events, and their regulation of emotions. Using multilevel modeling, we found that when people high in social anxiety relied more on positive emotion suppression, they reported fewer positive social events and less positive emotion on the subsequent day. In contrast, people low in social anxiety reported fewer negative social events on days subsequent to using cognitive reappraisal to reduce distress; the use of cognitive reappraisal did not influence the daily lives of people high in social anxiety. Our findings support theories of emotion regulation difficulties associated with social anxiety. In particular, for people high in social anxiety, maladaptive strategy use contributed to diminished reward responsiveness.     

Putting the relationship between social anxiety and alcohol use into context: A daily diary investigation of drinking in response to embarrassing events

The goal of this study was to clarify mixed findings regarding the association between dispositional social anxiety and drinking among college students by using a daily diary method to examine whether a within-person social-contextual event moderated the relationship between social anxiety and alcohol use. College students (n = 476) completed a measure of dispositional social anxiety and then for 30 days reported whether they experienced an embarrassing event in public and the amount of alcohol they drank each day. We examined whether experiencing an embarrassing event moderated the relationship between dispositional social anxiety and alcohol use for same-day, same-evening, next-day, and next-evening drinking. While there was a positive relationship between dispositional social anxiety and alcohol use on evenings when an embarrassing event occurred earlier that day, this appeared to be driven by a reduction in drinking among those low in social anxiety. Individuals with high social anxiety drank in the evening regardless of embarrassing event occurrence. Results suggest that people with low social anxiety show an adaptive response to embarrassing events by lowering drinking on such evenings, while those with high social anxiety may drink to reduce their already high levels of anxiety independent of daily social events.     

Social support as a moderator of day‐to‐day relationships between daily negative events and daily psychological well‐being

Every day for 3 weeks, a sample of college students described the events that occurred each day and provided measures of their self‐esteem, depressogenic thinking and mood. They also provided measures of depressive symptoms and the social support they perceived from friends and family members. A series of multilevel random coefficient modelling analyses found that daily well‐being was positively related to the number of positive events that occurred each day and was negatively related to the number of negative events. Relationships between well‐being and positive events were stronger for more than for less depressed participants and relationships between well‐being and negative events were weaker for participants who perceived more support from friends than for those who perceived less support. Depression was unrelated to the strength of relationships between negative events and well‐being, and the social support from friends was unrelated to relationships between positive events and well‐being. Surprisingly, relationships between negative events and well‐being were stronger for participants who perceived more support from family members than for those who perceived less support. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Expanding the topography of social anxiety. An experience-sampling assessment of positive emotions, positive events, and emotion suppression

The relation between social anxiety and hedonic activity remains poorly understood. From a self-regulatory perspective, we hypothesized that socially anxious individuals experience diminished positive experiences and events on days when they are unable to manage socially anxious feelings adequately. In this 21-day experience-sampling study, we constructed daily measures of social anxiety and emotion regulation. Greater dispositional social anxiety was associated with less positive affect and fewer positive events in everyday life. Among individuals defined as socially anxious from their scores on a global self-report measure of social anxiety, the number of positive events was lowest on days when they both were more socially anxious and tended to suppress emotions and highest on days when they were less socially anxious and more accepting of emotional experiences. Irrespective of dispositional social anxiety, participants reported the most intense positive emotions on the days when they were both least socially anxious and most accepting of emotional experiences. Possible clinical implications are discussed.     

Effects of Self-Consciousness and Social Anxiety on Self-Disclosure among Unacquainted Individuals: An Application of the Social Relations Model

Recent research has demonstrated a positive relationship between private self-consciousness and the tendency to self-disclose. These studies have relied exclusively upon self-reports of disclosure. In the present study, Kenny's Social Relations Model (Kenny & La Voie, 1984) was employed to examine the relationship between a subject's self-reports and others' reports of a subject's level of self-disclosure and the relationship of these reports to private self-consciousness, as well as the other traits measured by the self-consciousness scale: public self-consciousness and social anxiety. Unacquainted college women (N = 102) participated in one-on-one interactions in a round-robin design. Subject's self-reports of disclosure and their levels of private self-consciousness correlated positively. The partners' reports of an individual's disclosure, however, were not related to the individual's level of private self-consciousness. The discrepancy between these correlations emphasizes the necessity to ground research in personal relationships on interacting pairs and not only on the self-reports of one member. Future research that would explore this difference is discussed. The examination of the self- and partner reports and subjects' levels of public self-consciousness and social anxiety demonstrated that these two traits significantly influence the acquaintance process. Public self-consciousness related positively to subjects' beliefs that they had created consistent impressions upon their partners. Social anxiety correlated negatively with partners' reports of a subject's dyadic involvement and openness.     

Day-to-Day Variability in Empathy as a Function of Daily Events and Mood

Despite broad agreement that understanding a personality construct requires integrating trait and state levels of analysis, few studies have explicitly attempted such an integration. The present study did this by examining the relationships between trait and state measures of empathy. State measures were taken daily, with a focus on the day level (within-person) covariation between empathy and daily mood and events. Twice a week for up to 10 weeks, 103 participants provided measures of their daily empathy and mood (NA and PA) and described the events that occurred each day. Multilevel random coefficient modeling analyses found that daily empathy covaried positively with the impact of daily positive and negative social events and with daily positive and negative affect. Empathy did not covary with achievement-related events. Analyses that simultaneously included empathy, mood, and events suggested that daily NA mediated relationships between daily empathy and daily negative social events. Although mean daily empathy was positively related to trait empathy, trait empathy did not moderate relationships between daily empathy and events nor between daily empathy and mood. Moreover, daily empathy did not covary with daily depressogenic thinking, need for cognition, nor self-esteem, suggesting that empathy is distinct from these constructs. Possible mechanisms linking social events and empathy, such as emotional contagion, are discussed.     

Relations among Social Anxiety,Eye Contact Avoidance,State Anxiety,and Perception of Interaction Performance during a Live Conversation

There is building evidence that highly socially anxious (HSA) individuals frequently avoid making eye contact, which may contribute to less meaningful social interactions and maintenance of social anxiety symptoms. However, research to date is lacking in ecological validity due to the usage of either static or pre-recorded facial stimuli or subjective coding of eye contact. The current study examined the relationships among trait social anxiety, eye contact avoidance, state anxiety, and participants’ self-perceptions of interaction performance during a live, four-minute conversation with a confederate via webcam, and while being covertly eye-tracked. Participants included undergraduate women who conversed with same-sex confederates. Results indicated that trait social anxiety was inversely related to eye contact duration and frequency averaged across the four minutes, and positively related to state social anxiety and negative self-ratings. In addition, greater anticipatory state anxiety was associated with reduced eye contact throughout the first minute of the conversation. Eye contact was not related to post-task state anxiety or self-perception of poor performance; although, trends emerged in which these relations may be positive for HSA individuals. The current findings provide enhanced support for the notion that eye contact avoidance is an important feature of social anxiety.     

Effects of social anxiety and depressive symptoms on the frequency and quality of sexual activity: a daily process approach

Diminished positive experiences and events might be part of the phenomenology of social anxiety; however, much of this research is cross-sectional by design, limiting our understanding of the everyday lives of socially anxious people. Sexuality is a primary source of positive experiences. We theorized that people with elevated social anxiety would have relatively less satisfying sexual experiences compared to those who were not anxious. For 21 days, 150 college students described their daily sexual episodes. Social anxiety was negatively related to the pleasure and feelings of connectedness experienced when sexually intimate. The relationship between social anxiety and the amount of sexual contact differed between men and women—it was negative for women and negligible for men. Being in a close, intimate relationship enhanced the feelings of connectedness during sexual episodes for only individuals low in social anxiety. Depressive symptoms were negatively related to the amount of sexual contact, and the pleasure and feelings of connectedness experienced when sexually intimate. Controlling for depressive symptoms did not meaningfully change the social anxiety effects on daily sexuality. Our findings suggest that fulfilling sexual activity is often compromised by social anxiety.     

Self-enhancement by social comparison: a prospective analysis

A longitudinal investigation showed that self-enhancement by social comparison (assessing whether people perceive themselves more positively than they perceive others) was prospectively related to an increase in self-reported adjustment, controlling for the effects of narcissism. Better adjustment, including higher self-esteem, was not prospectively related to an increase in self-enhancement. The investigation also included a diary period, allowing the assessment of intrasubject covariation between daily reports of self-esteem and daily reports of perceived challenge and daily events (positive or negative). High (compared to low) self-enhancers were less likely to report lower self-esteem under higher challenge and less likely to report higher self-esteem under positive events.     

Aggression, alcohol dependency, and self-consciousness among high school students of divorced and nondivorced parents.

134 high school students from a small high school in north central Kansas completed the MacAndrew Alcoholism Scale, Fenigstein, et al.'s Self-consciousness Scale, and Zaks' Aggression Scale. Analyses of variance showed significant differences between boys and girls but not among grades. On the aggression and alcohol measures boys scored higher than girls, but lower on public self-consciousness. Youth of divorced parents scored significantly higher than those of nondivorced parents on aggression, private self-consciousness, and general self-consciousness. Aggression scores were significantly and positively correlated with those on the alcohol and private self-consciousness scales. When students' alcoholism scores indicate problems with alcohol, their scores on aggression indicate greater aggression and their private self-consciousness scores indicate sensitivity toward events in their environment, then having concerns about inner self can inhibit the action required for change. MacAndrew scores correlated significantly and negatively with scores on social anxiety about self-consciousness. When MacAndrew scores indicated problems with alcohol, the students' scores on social anxiety about self-consciousness suggested confidence in social settings, being at ease interacting with people. The present study involved students from a single rural district so increased understanding will require more extensive research if strategies for prevention and intervention are to be developed and utilized.     

Capturing the biases of socially anxious people by addressing partner effects and situational parameters

To expose biases in self-perceptions of people high in social anxiety, information is needed on actual and perceived informant reports following social situations. We measured trait social anxiety (SA) in 90 college students arranged in pairs for “getting acquainted” conversations. Half participated in a small-talk task, where they took turns answering superficial questions; half participated in a closeness-generating task, where questions required gradual increases in self-disclosure. Afterward, students rated themselves and their partner on positive and negative attributes and how they think their partner viewed them. People with high SA judged themselves more negatively and less positively than their partner did (accuracy); when interacting with a partner endorsing low SA, they possessed enhanced negativity biases about how they expected to be viewed (meta-accuracy), and believed their partner's judgments were less positive than their own low self-judgments (perceived dissent). Conversely, people with low SA showed evidence of a self-enhancement bias about the impression they made on low SA strangers. Other moderators of the social cognitions of people with high SA included gender and the social situation (distortions being amplified in men and small-talk conversations). Our findings suggest that the study of SA cannot be understood using decontextualized approaches, instead requiring consideration of the synergy among the person, partner, and situation.     

Relationships Between Meaning in Life,Social and Achievement Events,and Positive and Negative Affect in Daily Life

Research on meaning in life has generally focused on global meaning judgments. This study examined how people's daily experiences, represented by events that occur in daily life, influence their perceived sense of meaning on a daily basis. One hundred sixty‐two college students completed daily reports for 2 weeks. We examined the relationships among daily social and achievement events, daily positive and negative affect, and daily meaning in life. In addition, we tested the possible moderating influence of depressive symptoms on these relationships. Positive daily social and achievement events were related to greater daily meaning, above and beyond the contributions of daily positive and negative affect. Negative social and achievement events were related to less daily meaning, and negative achievement events covaried with daily meaning above and beyond positive and negative affect. Depression moderated the relationships between positive events and meaning, such that people who reported more depressive symptoms had greater increases in daily meaning in response to positive social and achievement events than individuals who reported fewer symptoms. These findings suggest the important role that daily events may play in fluctuations in people's affective experiences and sense of meaning in life.     

Cognitive processes in social anxiety: the effects of self-focus, rumination and anticipatory processing

We examined three cognitive processes hypothesized to contribute to biases in judgments about and memory for social events: self-focused attention, post-event rumination, and anticipatory processing. Socially anxious (N = 58) and nonanxious (N = 58) subjects participated in a social interaction and then completed measures of self-focused attention and anxiety-related physiological sensations and behavior. The next day, subjects completed measures that assessed frequency of post-event processing and recall of the interaction. The results indicated that selective attention to negative self-related information led to biases in social judgments and recollections and that post-event processing contributed to the recall of negative self-related information. No evidence was found for selective retrieval of negative self-related information prior to a second social interaction. The results reconcile inconsistent previous findings related to memory bias in social anxiety.     

Social anxiety and posttraumatic stress in combat veterans: relations to well-being and character strengths

There are few studies examining the relationship between psychopathology and positive experiences and traits. Although initial studies suggest persons with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are at increased risk for excessive social anxiety, there have been no studies to date evaluating how these conditions might interact to affect positive experiences and traits. Using self-report scales, informant ratings, and experience-sampling methodologies, we examined the association of social anxiety with well-being and character strengths in veterans with and without PTSD. Controlling for PTSD and trait negative affect, social anxiety was negatively related to global ratings of well-being and character strengths. Social anxiety also accounted for incremental variance in day-to-day well-being (i.e., daily affect balance, percentage of pleasant days, positive social activity, self-esteem, gratitude) over a 14-day assessment period. Although veterans with PTSD reported lower levels of global and daily well-being and character strengths than veterans without PTSD, a diagnosis of PTSD failed to exhibit unique relationships with these constructs. Building on a growing body of work, these data suggest that social anxiety is uniquely associated with disturbances in positive experiences, events, and traits. Our findings support the value of directly addressing social anxiety in the study and treatment of PTSD.     

日常情绪的社会分享对情绪的影响

日常情绪的社会分享对情绪有怎样的影响,以往研究结论并不一致。本研究从社会分享的信息层面和感受层面以及当天情绪体验等方面收集了47名大学生和研究生被试7天共314份日志记录,使用多层线性模型进行分析,结果表明：（1）积极分享和消极分享都能显著正向预测当日的积极情绪,但是不能预测当日的消极情绪;（2）感受的分享（包括积极感受和消极感受）显著正向预测当日的积极情绪,信息的分享不能预测当日的积极情绪;（3）性别、抑郁水平和消极事件分享倾向会影响分享消极感受的水平对积极情绪的正向预测。结论：无论是积极感受分享还是消极感受分享都能提升积极情绪,但是不能改善负性情绪;消极感受分享对积极情绪的提升作用存在个体差异。     

Life stress,social support,and locus of control during early adolescence: Interactive effects

Examined the relationships between negative events, locus of control, social support, and psychological adjustment in an early adolescent sample. Of interest were the potential stress-buffering effects of social support and the conjunctive effects of social support and locus of control upon adjustment. Family support was positively related to adjustment in several domains, whereas school support was only related to school competence. Peer support was positively related to peer competence and anxiety, and negatively related to school competence. Examination of the buffering hypothesis suggested that both family and school support served to moderate the relationship between negative events and school competence. Conjunctive effects were also detected in that school support buffered number of negative events best for those individuals with an internal locus of control for successes.     

Romantic relationships: do socially anxious individuals benefit?

Psychological health and interpersonal functioning mutually influence each other. Social anxiety has a pervasive effect on interpersonal functioning, resulting in smaller social networks, increased likelihood of being single or divorced, and less intimacy in relationships. However, little is known about how relationships affect socially anxious individuals in return. We utilized a structured interview to assess how romantic relationships were perceived as influencing three aspects of psychological health (well-being, social anxiety and comfort in social situations) and whether these patterns differed as a function of social anxiety in an undergraduate sample. The perceived importance of several reasons for these effects, including those that could be characterized as both protective and harmful, was also assessed. Relationships were perceived as having contributed positively in each domain. However, when positive and negative reasons were examined separately, socially anxious individuals reported benefiting more from the positive reasons and being harmed more by negative reasons. Further, social anxiety was associated with endorsing certain reasons as important.     

How do I appear to others? Social anxiety and processing of the observable self

Two information processing biases that could maintain social anxiety were investigated. High and low socially anxious individuals encoded positive and negative trait words in one of three ways: public self-referent, private self-referent, and other-referent. Half were then told they would soon have to give a speech. As predicted, compared to low socially anxious individuals, high socially anxious individuals recalled less positive public self-referent words, but only when both groups were anticipating giving a speech. No memory biases were observed for private self-referent or other-referent words. Next all participants gave a speech. Correlational analyses suggested that high socially anxious individuals may use the somatic concomitants of anxiety to overestimate how anxious they appear and underestimate how well they come across.     

Integrating personality, daily life events and emotion: Role of anxiety and positive affect in emotion regulation dynamics

We investigated the roles of anxiety and positive affect in emotion regulation, looking simultaneously at personality, daily life events, and affects. We hypothesized that individual differences in the temporal dynamics of affective experience related to trait anxiety would manifest themselves both in affective responsiveness to life events and in homeostatic regulatory forces. Data were collected from 49 adults, who rated their affective state three times a day over a 40-day period. Data were analyzed using a dynamical system model and graphical representations in the form of vector fields. Results showed that anxiety chiefly interacted with home base (attractor) positions as a function of life events. It also influenced the shape of positive affectivity trajectories in response to negative events.     

Public and private self-consciousness and social phobia

The relationship between public and private self-consciousness and self-report questionnaires, clinician ratings, and various measures derived from an individualized simulation of an anxiety-provoking situation was examined in a sample of men and women seeking treatment for social phobia. As predicted, public, not private, self-consciousness was generally related to self-report and naive observer ratings of anxiety and to behavioral disruption during the simulation. The predicted relationship between public self-consciousness and how accurately subjects evaluated their performance in the anxiety-provoking situation was marginally supported. Hypotheses regarding the relationship between private self-consciousness and self-reported anxiety during an anxiety-provoking situation, and between private self-consciousness and the correspondence between physiological assessment and self-report, were not supported. The discussion focuses on methodological issues and the theoretical implications of the relationship between self-consciousness and social anxiety.