Psychological and Physiological Responses to Social Interactions
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Morgan Fishman
CoPIs:
Avi Rothwachs, Catherine Bostian
College:
The College of Health Professions and Human Services
Major:
School and Clinical Psychology
Faculty Research Advisor(s):
Aditi Vijay, Jennifer Block-Lerner, Donald Marks
Abstract:
The societal disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic underscored the importance of interpersonal relationships and social interactions (Long et al., 2022). Social interactions may elicit emotional responses that are further shaped by feedback in the form of validation or invalidation. A validating response communicates that a person’s thoughts, feelings, and/or behaviors are understandable and acceptable given his or her context (Linehan, 1997; Shenk & Fruzzetti, 2011). This legitimizing response, while not synonymous with agreement or appeasement, facilitates emotion regulation, feelings of safety, frustration tolerance, and realistic goal setting (Fruzzetti & Worrall, 2010). An invalidating response instead trivializes or punishes one’s experiences and is associated with negative affect, psychological distress, increased heart rate and skin conductance, and emotion dysregulation (Shenk & Fruzzetti, 2011). Bringing a stance toward one’s emotional experiences characterized by mindful compassion (i.e., kind and curious attention to the present moment) may help one move through difficult experiences, such as those that are invalidating (Neff, 2023). In the present study, we hypothesize that adopting a mindful and/or compassionate stance toward one’s emotions may protect against the harmful emotional effects and physiological changes associated with invalidation, especially in the face of social rejection. To assess this, undergraduate students will be exposed to moderate levels of social ostracization via a computerized challenge task (i.e., Cyberball) in a 2x2 factorial design to 1) examine the effects of validation and invalidation on emotional experience and ways of relating to it; 2) assess whether mindful compassion mitigates the maladaptive effects of invalidation; and 3) pilot the use of the near infrared neuroimaging (NIN) scan (NINscan) device (Strangman et al., 2018) to explore autonomic data (e.g., skin conductance, electrocardiogram, electromyography) and functional near-infrared spectroscopic cortical data for each of the four conditions (i.e., mindful compassion/validation; mindful compassion/invalidation; control induction/validation; control induction/invalidation). The findings will inform future research on the use of mindful compassion-based interventions for invalidating circumstances and act as a model for the use of a non-invasive, ambulatory neuroimaging device (i.e., the NINscan) to monitor cortical tissue hemodynamics that reflect neural activity in a broad range of psychological studies.