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Social anxiety and depression: interpersonal behavior and reactions

The present study examined the self-disclosure of socially anxious and
depressed-mood women students within the context of a face-to-face dyadic
interaction. It also examined the influence of the interaction on their
levels of affect, physiological arousal, and acceptance of their partners.
The impact of the interaction on their partners' affect and acceptance was
also explored. The results showed that anxious and depressed-mood subjects
exhibited different, and specific patterns of inappropriate disclosure. The
socially anxious subjects exhibited reduced amounts of nonreciprocal
disclosure which was best characterized as moderate in nature. The depressed-mood
subjects displayed increased amounts of overly intimate, negatively
valanced disclosure. The results also indicated that before the interaction
the subjects varied on the measures of affect and arousal as a function of
their status on the subject selection variables and that the interaction had
different effects on the different types of subjects. The socially anxious
subjects were characterized by lower preinteraction levels of positive affect
and higher levels of negative affect. The interaction had a negative effect
on them, it maintained their low levels of positive affect, high levels of
negative affect, and increased their levels of physiological arousal. The
depressed mood subjects were characterized by lower preinteraction levels of
positive affect, and higher levels of negative affect and physiological
arousal. The interaction was positive for them, however, as they experienced
increases in their positive affect and decreases in their negative affect.
The socially anxious subjects were rejected by their partners but induced
neither positive nor negative affect in them. The depressed-mood subjects
were not rejected by their partners but created an ambivalent emotional
reaction in them. The results are discussed within an interpersonal framework
and suggest that a reinterpretation of Coyne's (1976) model provides a good
conceptual framework to explain these, and other recent results. The possible
developmental framework for maladaptive interpersonal behaviours is explored
within a modification of Arkin's (1981) social motivational model. The
results of this study are also discussed in the context of a tripartite model
of anxiety and depression and provide partial support for that model.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:BVAU.2429/8728
Date05 1900
CreatorsMeleshko, Kenneth George Andrew
Source SetsLibrary and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeElectronic Thesis or Dissertation
RelationUBC Retrospective Theses Digitization Project [http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/retro_theses/]

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