Stuttering and social anxiety

The aim of the present study was to investigate the presence of social anxiety in adults who stutter. This was done by administering the Inventory of Interpersonal Situations (IIS) (Van Dam-Baggen & Kraaimaat, 1999), a social anxiety inventory, to a group of 89 people who stuttered and 131 people who did not stutter. Two components of social anxiety were measured by the ISS, the extent to which emotional tension or discomfort is perceived in social situations and the frequency with which social responses are executed. The people who stuttered displayed significantly higher levels of emotional tension or discomfort in social situations. They also reported a significantly lower frequency of social responses compared to their nonstuttering peers. In addition, about 50% of the scores of the people who stuttered fell within the range of a group of highly socially anxious psychiatric patients. The results of the study suggest that the measurement of social anxiety is an important element in the assessment of adults who stutter. EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES: The reader will learn about and be able to describe (1) the IIS as an assessment procedure for evaluating social anxiety, (2) the level of discomfort expressed by adult stutterers in social situations, and (3) the effect of social anxiety on stutterers' responsiveness in social situations.     

The moderating effect of humor style on the relationship between interpersonal predictors of suicide and suicidal ideation

This study investigated how positive and negative humor styles relate to suicidal ideation, thwarted belongingness, and perceived burdensomeness. Analyses indicated that affiliative and self-defeating humor style moderated the relationships between thwarted belongingness and suicidal ideation as well as perceived burdensomeness and suicidal ideation when controlling for depression. The clinical importance of assessing and tracking humor styles as potential coping mechanisms against suicidal thinking is discussed.     

The Interpersonal Model of Health Anxiety: Testing predicted paths and model specificity

Health anxiety involves persistent worry about one’s health and is characterized by dysfunctional interpersonal processes such as excessive health-related reassurance-seeking and feelings of alienation from others. Cognitive-behavioral models largely ignore cyclical, interpersonally averse behaviors and social cognitions observed amongst health anxious individuals. The Interpersonal Model of Health Anxiety (IMHA) proposes health anxiety is maintained through activated anxious attachment insecurities, which drive frequent, but ineffective, health-related reassurance-seeking from others. Such excessive health-related reassurance-seeking leads to health-related alienation and beliefs others are unconcerned about one’s perceived health problems. Feeling alienated from others fuels further health-related worry, resulting in continued self-defeating attempts at health-related reassurance-seeking. The present study offers the first comprehensive articulation and test of the IMHA. Using a cross-sectional design and 107 undergraduates, path analysis supported five of six hypothesized paths in the model; all paths except that from anxious attachment to health-related reassurance-seeking were significant and in the expected direction. Specificity tests suggested anxious attachment was more central than avoidant attachment to the IMHA. The present test of the IMHA as a single, coherent model provides a conceptual foundation for future research on interpersonal processes in health anxiety. Clinical implications are discussed.     

The exemplary social emotion guilt: Not so relationship-oriented when another person repairs for you

Guilt is considered by many researchers to be the hallmark social emotion. Guilt theories perceive guilt to be a negative emotion with positive interpersonal consequences, and empirical research has shown guilt to motivate prosocial behaviours aimed at restoring the relationship with one's victims. The current research questions the relationship-oriented nature of this emotion. Five experiments reveal that when a person repairs the transgressor's damage caused to a victim, the transgressor's guilt feelings, reparative intentions, and prosocial behaviour decrease. These findings suggest that it is not the relationship with the victim that is important in the regulation of guilt feelings, but rather the reparative actions that have been undertaken. Implications for theory and behavioural research on guilt are discussed.     

An ironic effect of monitoring closeness

Most theories of goal pursuit underscore the beneficial consequences of monitoring progress towards goals. However, effects of affect labelling and dissociations between experience and meta-consciousness suggest that monitoring may not always facilitate goal pursuit. We predicted that in the case of pursuing interpersonal closeness, intense monitoring of progress would have a detrimental effect. We tested this hypothesis with the intimate conversation procedure, adapted from Aron, Melinat, Aron, Vallone, and Bator (1997). Participants in the closeness-monitoring condition asked themselves every five minutes in the course of a 45-minute interaction with a partner whether they felt any closer to their partner, whereas participants in the control condition monitored the room temperature. As predicted, intense monitoring interfered with achieving a feeling of closeness, as measured by sitting distance between pair members following the intimate conversation procedure. We discuss the possibility that monitoring would also be detrimental for achieving other goals that are internal states.     

Collective Efficacy as a Mediator of the Trustworthiness – Performance Relationship in Computer-Mediated Team-based Contexts

The current study investigated the role of trustworthiness perceptions at the individual level and collective efficacy at the team level on team performance in computer-mediated teams using multi-level structural equation modeling (MSEM). It was hypothesized that trustworthiness perceptions and collective efficacy would predict team performance, and collective efficacy would partially mediate the trustworthiness – performance relationship in computer-mediated teams. Sixty-four teams (five participants each) engaged in a computer-mediated task across two experimental sessions. Trustworthiness measured after session 1, collective efficacy measured after sessions 1 and 2, and team performance measured of sessions 1 and 2 were used to build the MSEM. The half longitudinal model for assessing mediation was used to examine the influence of trustworthiness perceptions on performance through collective efficacy over time. Results demonstrated support for the hypothesized model, such that trustworthiness perceptions demonstrated indirect effects on performance through collective efficacy. These findings extend past research by identifying an emergent mechanism by which trustworthiness is important for team performance in computer-mediated teams.     

Argument disrupts interpersonal synchrony

Research on interpersonal convergence and synchrony characterizes the way in which interacting individuals come to have more similar affect, behaviour, and cognition over time. Although its dynamics have been explored in many settings, convergence during conflict has been almost entirely overlooked. We present a simple but ecologically valid study comparing how different situational contexts that highlight affiliation and argument impact interpersonal convergence of body movement and to what degree emotional states affect convergence in both conversational settings. Using linear mixed-effect models, we found that in-phase bodily synchrony decreases significantly during argument. However, affective changes did not significantly predict changes in levels of interpersonal synchrony, suggesting that differences in affect valences between affiliation and argument cannot solely explain our results.     

“Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater!” Interpersonal strain at work and burnout

Interpersonal strain represents the feeling of discomfort and disengagement in the relationships with people at work resulting from exceeding social requests and pressures. This article has three aims: (1) to introduce the Interpersonal Strain at Work scale (ISW), (2) to examine its construct validity and reliability, and its relationship with the Maslach Burnout Inventory exhaustion and cynicism; and (3) to test the generalizability of the ISW across different work settings. Multilevel CFA on two samples of call centre agents (5407) and hospital professionals (753), nested in 191 and 43 units, respectively, confirmed the good psychometric properties of the ISW and its distinctiveness from established burnout dimensions. The generalizability of ISW was also supported. Interpersonal strain at work seems to be a promising construct to recapture the interpersonal nature of the burnout syndrome that was lost when the concept of burnout was extended beyond the human services.     

Testing relations between group cohesion and satisfaction in project teams: A cross-level and cross-lagged approach

Based on a two-dimensional perspective of group cohesion, this study examines the emergence of task cohesion and interpersonal cohesion in project teams and their roles in changes in members’ individual satisfaction with the team. Specifically, we tested a direct-effect and mediation model of the cross-level relationship between team task and interpersonal cohesion and individual satisfaction with the team over time. With a sample of 74 newly created project teams, the hypotheses were tested using a two-wave panel design. Results indicate that task cohesion emerges more strongly than interpersonal cohesion during the first stages of work in project teams. Moreover, the cross-lagged relationship between team interpersonal cohesion and individual satisfaction with the team was mediated by team task cohesion.     

When victims become culprits: The role of subordinates’ neuroticism in the relationship between abusive supervision and workplace deviance

Drawing upon the General Aggression Model, we examined the role of subordinates’ neuroticism in strengthening the relationship between abusive supervision and workplace deviance. Results revealed that Time 1 abusive supervision was positively related to Time 2 personnel records of workplace deviance measured 18 months later. Further, subordinates’ neuroticism moderated this relationship. Specifically, there was a stronger positive relationship between abusive supervision and workplace deviance for employees with high as opposed to low levels of neuroticism. These findings highlight the need to account for the role of individual differences in influencing subordinates’ responses to supervisor hostility. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.