The Inhibition of Socially Rejecting Information Among People with High Versus Low Self-Esteem: The Role of Attentional Bias and the Effects of Bias Reduction Training

In two studies, we examined the inhibition of rejection information. In Study 1, we developed a Rejection Stroop task with the purpose of measuring an attentional bias to rejection words hypothesized to characterize individuals with low self-esteem. Results indicated that people with low self-esteem experienced significantly more interference on rejection words than on acceptance words, whereas for people with high self-esteem there was no such difference. In Study 2, we developed a task to train the response of inhibiting rejection information by repeatedly identifying the smiling/accepting face in a 4 × 4 matrix of frowning faces. Results showed that after this inhibition training, people with chronic low self-esteem experienced significantly less interference on rejection words on the Rejection Stroop than their counterparts in the control condition. People with high self-esteem, on the other hand, did not exhibit different amounts of interference on rejection or acceptance words between conditions. The present findings suggest that it is possible to measure people’s attentional bias to rejection and teach people skills that help them deal with negative social information.

[1]  R. McNally,et al.  Cognitive processing of personally relevant information , 1995 .

[2]  D. Wentura,et al.  Automatic vigilance: the attention-grabbing power of approach- and avoidance-related social information. , 2000, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[3]  J. G. Holmes,et al.  Self-esteem and the quest for felt security: how perceived regard regulates attachment processes. , 2000, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[4]  J. Dovidio,et al.  Racial Prejudice and Stereotype Activation , 1998 .

[5]  D. Cole,et al.  Using the Personal Stroop to Detect Children's Awareness of Social Rejection by Peers , 2000 .

[6]  J. Dovidio,et al.  Just say no (to stereotyping): effects of training in the negation of stereotypic associations on stereotype activation. , 2000, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[7]  David Coyle,et al.  Personal Investigator: A therapeutic 3D game for adolecscent psychotherapy , 2005, Interact. Technol. Smart Educ..

[8]  G. Downey,et al.  Rejection sensitivity as a mediator of the impact of childhood exposure to family violence on adult attachment behavior , 1994, Development and Psychopathology.

[9]  G. Downey,et al.  The self-fulfilling prophecy in close relationships: rejection sensitivity and rejection by romantic partners. , 1998, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[10]  A. Mathews,et al.  Emotionality and interference with color-naming in anxiety. , 1993, Behaviour research and therapy.

[11]  Michael C. Anderson,et al.  Suppressing unwanted memories by executive control , 2001, Nature.

[12]  S. Ishihara.  TESTS FOR COLOUR BLINDNESS , 1952 .

[13]  C. H. Hansen,et al.  Finding the face in the crowd: an anger superiority effect. , 1988, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[14]  J. H. Neely.  Semantic priming effects in visual word recognition: A selective review of current findings and theories. , 1991 .

[15]  A. Dijksterhuis,et al.  I like myself but I don't know why: enhancing implicit self-esteem by subliminal evaluative conditioning. , 2004, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[16]  F. edridge-green.  Tests for Colour-Blindness , 1895, Nature.

[17]  M. Lorr,et al.  Two EITS Manual for the Profile of Mood States (1971 & 1992) , 1971 .

[18]  D. J. Lee.  Society and the Adolescent Self-Image , 1969 .

[19]  S. Segerstrom.  Optimism and Attentional Bias for Negative and Positive Stimuli , 2001 .

[20]  G. Downey,et al.  Regulating the interpersonal self: strategic self-regulation for coping with rejection sensitivity. , 2000, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[21]  M. Baldwin,et al.  Self-esteem and "if…then" contingencies of interpersonal acceptance. , 1996 .

[22]  M. Baldwin,et al.  Self-esteem and "if . . . then" contingencies of interpersonal acceptance. , 1996, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[23]  K. Main,et al.  Social Anxiety and the Cued Activation of Relational Knowledge , 2001 .

[24]  M. Leary,et al.  Self-esteem as an interpersonal monitor: The sociometer hypothesis. , 1995 .

[25]  O. John,et al.  Automatic vigilance: the attention-grabbing power of negative social information. , 1991, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[26]  J. Stroop.  Studies of interference in serial verbal reactions. , 1992 .

[27]  T. Heatherton,et al.  Development and validation of a scale for measuring state self-esteem. , 1991 .

[28]  M. Rosenberg.  Society and the adolescent self-image , 1966 .

[29]  Shelley E. Taylor,et al.  Illusion and well-being: a social psychological perspective on mental health. , 1988, Psychological bulletin.

[30]  R. Wiers,et al.  How to Change Implicit Drug Use-Related Cognitions in Prevention: A Transdisciplinary Integration of Findings from Experimental Psychopathology, Social Cognition, Memory, and Experimental Learning Psychology , 2004, Substance use & misuse.

[31]  D. Dozois,et al.  Sociotropic personality and information processing following imaginal priming: A test of the congruency hypothesis , 2000 .

[32]  D. Packer,et al.  Increasing Implicit Self-Esteem Through Classical Conditioning , 2004, Psychological science.

[33]  T. Dalgleish,et al.  The emotional Stroop task and psychopathology. , 1996, Psychological bulletin.

[34]  Constantine Sedikides,et al.  Narcissism, Self-Esteem, and the Positivity of Self-Views: Two Portraits of Self-Love , 2002 .