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Social anxiety (SA) is characterized by anxious symptomology and fear during social situations, but recent work suggests that SA may not necessarily be associated with negative interpersonal and intrapersonal outcomes in support contexts. The current research investigates the discrepancies between self‐perceptions, behavior, and physiological responses associated with SA in social support conversations with close friends. Specifically, we examined the associations between SA and positive and negative affect, perceptions of demands and resources, and responsiveness. Additionally, we used the biopsychosocial model of challenge and threat to understand the physiological responses associated with SA. Participants (79.9% White, 9.8% Black or African American, 10.3% Multiple races or other; 78.7% Female), totaling 172 undergraduate friend dyads, completed self‐report measures and had physiological responses recorded while they discussed a problem unrelated to the friendship. Trained coders rated responsive behaviors exhibited during the conversation. Results revealed that greater SA was associated with greater negative perceptions of social interactions (greater negative affect, fewer perceived resources, and greater perceived demands). However, cardiovascular reactivity and behavioral responses within the conversation, as well as perceptions of partners' behavior after the conversation, contrasted with these negative perceptions. Indeed, greater SA was associated with greater sympathetic arousal (indicative of greater task engagement), but not with greater challenge or threat, and SA was not associated with perceived partner responsiveness or responsive behaviors. These results add to the growing body of research that suggests people with greater SA show inconsistencies between their conscious appraisals of social situations and their physiological responses. Our research uses the biopsychosocial model of challenge and threat and the intimacy process model to examine key intra‐ and inter‐personal correlates of social anxiety. Combining evidence from a combination of physiological, self‐report, and observational measures, our research suggests that social anxiety may be associated with discrepancies between self‐reports (cognitive and affective) and physiological responses in social support conversations with close friends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Four classes of first-grade children at a Christian school took pre- and post-tests measuring humility. Two intervention classes had devotional lessons on humility and two comparison classes did not. For one week, devotional lessons featured humility-related children's literature, cognitively appropriate discussions, writing about humility, and teacher-reinforced behaviors of humility. Intervention classes showed a slight increase in humility relative to comparison classes. After statistical control for personality traits of Agreeableness and Conscientiousness, increases in humility disappeared; personality could be a mediator of humility assimilation. This research provides feasibility of teaching and measuring humility in young Christian school children.

Power, the capacity to influence others while resisting their attempts at influence, has implications for a wide variety of individual‐ and relationship‐level outcomes. One potential mechanism through which power may be associated with various outcomes is motivation orientation. High power has been linked to greater approach‐oriented motivation, whereas low power has been linked to greater avoidance‐oriented motivation. However, current research has mostly relied on artificially created relationships (and the power dynamics therein) in the lab to assess the associations between power and motivation orientations. Utilizing the Biopsychosocial Model of Challenge and Threat framework, the current study examined how power is related to physiological responses indicative of psychological challenge (i.e., approach) and threat (i.e., avoidance) during discussions of problems outside of the relationship between romantic partners. The primary hypothesis that higher power would be associated with more approach‐oriented challenge and less avoidance‐oriented threat was supported via self‐reports, but not via physiological assessments. Instead, physiological assessments revealed that for those disclosing problems to high‐power partners, greater power was associated with reactivity consistent with more avoidance‐oriented threat and less approach‐oriented challenge. This is the first research to examine associations between power and in vivo indices of challenge and threat during interactions between romantic partners. It advances our understanding of how power elicits motivation orientations and influences the stress response system by highlighting the importance of situational attributes (e.g., role during a conversation) that may undermine power during disclosures with a high‐power partner. This study incorporates the Biopsychosocial Model of Challenge and Threat with the Approach‐Inhibition Theory of Power using a dimensional, dyadic approach to assess power in pre‐existing relationships. We highlight the importance of co‐examining self‐report and physiological markers of stress. Despite self‐reports suggesting people high in power appraised a conversation as challenging, physiological findings revealed a specific context during which greater power was unexpectedly associated with physiological markers of threat. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Co-rumination is an interpersonal emotion regulation strategy characterized by extensive, cyclical conversations regarding the causes and consequences of problems and associated negative emotions. Theory posits that over time, interpersonal benefits of co-rumination such as emotional intimacy reinforce the behavior, outweighing the resulting negative impacts on mental health. However, our understanding of how co-rumination is perpetuated within conversations is limited. This study (conducted in 2019-2020) aims to assess perceptions of partner co-rumination and responsiveness as factors that perpetuate co-rumination to better understand the intra- and interpersonal processes that influence how co-rumination unfolds within conversations. To do this, we utilized an observational paradigm with primarily White, female, young adult friendship dyads wherein one individual (the discloser) disclosed and discussed an extradyadic problem with a close friend (the responder). Using an empathic accuracy paradigm, participants reported their own and their partner's co-rumination and responsiveness for every 30-s epoch. Results revealed biased estimations of partner co-rumination that may facilitate reciprocity of co-ruminative conversation within the dyad. Additionally, while greater perceptions of partner co-rumination were perceived as responsive by disclosers and elicited responsive behavior from responders, perceived partner responsiveness did not perpetuate co-rumination within the conversation. Together, these findings enhance our understanding of the intra- and interpersonal processes that influence how co-rumination unfolds within conversations between close friends, but they also draw attention to unanswered questions in the field regarding partner contributions to co-rumination, the nature of problems discussed, and generalizability of these findings as well as those of other extant co-rumination research. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Co-rumination is a form of interpersonal emotion regulation wherein dyads engage in extensive, cyclical conversations regarding the causes and consequences of problems and associated negative emotions. In the present investigation, we leveraged the biopsychosocial model of challenge and threat to elucidate the intrapersonal costs and interpersonal benefits of co-rumination. To do so, we developed the first direct experimental manipulation of co-rumination using a multimethod, dyadic approach to test the effects of co-rumination on both dyad members. Friend dyads ( N = 172) engaged in conversation during which one dyad member (i.e., the discloser) divulged and discussed their most stressful, extradyadic problem with their friend (i.e., the responder). Dyads either engaged in co-rumination or talked about the problem as they would naturally. Validating the experimental paradigm, results revealed a pattern of intrapersonal costs (stressed/upset feelings and rumination) and interpersonal benefits (perceived partner responsiveness) of co-rumination that replicated and extended past research. Regarding challenge and threat, results indicated that female disclosers in the co-rumination (vs. natural) condition exhibited physiological responses corresponding to greater psychological threat (i.e., greater total peripheral resistance). This research contributes to a growing body of literature identifying co-rumination as a vulnerability factor that exacerbates stress, potentially leading to poor downstream health outcomes. Furthermore, these results highlight the importance of examining co-rumination from a dyadic perspective, as inter- and intrapersonal effects varied as a function of whether individuals were disclosing or responding during the problem talk discussion. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).