Elsevier

Biological Psychology

Volume 79, Issue 2, October 2008, Pages 260-267
Biological Psychology

Biopsychosocial responses to social rejection in targets of relational aggression

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsycho.2008.06.006Get rights and content

Abstract

A total of 28 college students participated in a live interpersonal challenge to assess psychosocial and neuroendocrine stress responses to social exclusion in females. Using the tend-and-befriend theory as a model for interpersonal stress response, this study examined how social exclusion is related to social information processing, willingness to affiliate, psychological state affect, and cortisol reactivity in women with a history of relational victimization. Results revealed that cortisol reactivity was associated with better social information processing among women who reported the least relational victimization. Most women, regardless of relational victimization history, were willing to pursue relationships with rejecting female peers. Following the social exclusion stressor, women who reported the most state anxiety were women with the lowest reported levels of relational victimization. Cortisol reactivity was the highest during the luteal phase among females with the most relational victimization. These results offer some support for the tend-and-befriend theory in terms of neuroendocrine and psychosocial responses to interpersonal distress.

Section snippets

Recruitment

Participants were recruited from a pool of 184 male and female participants who completed a larger study (wave one). The purpose of the wave one study was to assess level of relational victimization grouping status (i.e., high or low history of relational victimization) for the current study (wave two). In order to minimize the likelihood that participants identified this goal, participants also completed a series of questionnaires that measured relationship quality and social competence. This

Social information processing, relational victimization, and cortisol reactivity

For the low victimization group, social information processing was positively correlated with post-stressor cortisol levels, r = .83, p < .01 but not with baseline cortisol levels, r = .13, p = .66. Social information processing was positively associated with cortisol reactivity,2 r = . 63, p = .02. There were no statistically significant correlations between cortisol levels and social information processing for the

Discussion

This study found some support for the tend-befriend model (Taylor et al., 2000, Taylor, 2006) as indicated by biological reactivity as well as distinct psychological responses to social exclusion in women. This biobehavioral response was influenced by history of relational victimization; low victimization tended to be associated with unique psychological response whereas high victimization predicted neuroendocrine reactivity to peer rejection.

Although the main goal of the study was to examine

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Stephanie Cammarata, Brittany Handy, Maia Uli, and Irene Rico for their assistance on the administration of this study. This study was supported by a 2006–2007 University of San Diego Faculty Research Grant awarded to the study author.

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