Social anxiety and empathy
department or school: Arts, Faculty of
department or school: Psychology, Department of
data provider: DSpace
degree campus: UBCV
creator: Auyeung, Karen Wei
issued: 2013-08-31T00:00:00
issued: 2012
related degree: Master of Arts - MA
degree grantor: University of British Columbia
description: Individuals with high levels of social anxiety often have difficulty developing and maintaining interpersonal relationships (Alden & Taylor, 2004). Researchers have uncovered many of the negative cognitive and behavioural processes that mediate the relationship between social anxiety and relationship difficulties (e.g., Baker & Edelmann, 2002; Stopa & Clark, 1993) however, relatively little research has investigated the relationship between social anxiety and the basic social and emotional processes that facilitate positive relational functioning (Lochner et al., 2003; Schneier et al., 1994). One such factor is the ability to empathize with the emotional and cognitive experience of others. The link between social anxiety and empathy has not been examined. In this study, 121 undergraduate participants observed videos of individuals discussing high school events in which they were either socially included or excluded. Participants rated the positive and negative emotions the target individuals were feeling while discussing the events. The absolute discrepancy between participants’ and targets’ emotion ratings was used as a measure of empathic accuracy. This study produced preliminary evidence that socially anxious individuals demonstrate greater accuracy at empathizing with others’ negative affect. This finding however, appears to be specific to negative social experiences such as exclusion, and only occurs when the viewer themselves is experiencing a degree of social pain or social scrutiny. There was also partial evidence that socially anxious individuals perceive more negative affect in comparison to how others’ rate themselves. This result was only found in participants in the social threat experimental condition, suggesting that negative cognitive biases may be activated when socially anxious individuals feel anxious and/or socially scrutinized. These results provide continuing support for research on empathy gaps for social pain.
aggregated CHO: https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/43008
note: SOCIAL ANXIETY AND EMPATHY by Karen Wei Auyeung B.A., Queen’s University, 2009 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in The Faculty of Graduate Studies (Psychology) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) August 2012 © Karen Wei Auyeung, 2012 ii Abstract Individuals with high levels of social anxiety often have difficulty developing and maintaining interpersonal relationships (Alden & Taylor, 2004). Researchers have uncovered many of the negative cognitive and behavioural processes that mediate the relationship between social anxiety and relationship difficulties (e.g., Baker & Edelmann, 2002; Stopa & Clark, 1993) however, relatively little research has investigated the relationship between social anxiety and the basic social and emotional processes that facilitate positive relational functioning (Lochner et al., 2003; Schneier et al., 1994). One such factor is the ability to empathize with the emotional and cognitive experience of others. The link between social anxiety and empathy has not been examined. In this study, 121 undergraduate participants observed videos of individuals discussing high school events in which they were either socially included or excluded. Participants rated the positive and negative emotions the target individuals were feeling while discussing the events. The absolute discrepancy between participants’ and targets’ emotion ratings was used as a measure of empathic accuracy. This study produced preliminary evidence that socially anxious individuals demonstrate greater accuracy at empathizing with others’ negative affect. This finding however, appears to be specific to negative social experiences such as exclusion, and only occurs when the viewer themselves is experiencing a degree of social pain or social scrutiny. There was also partial evidence that socially anxious individuals perceive more negative affect in comparison to how others’ rate themselves. This result was only fo…
has type: Thesis/Dissertation
date issued: 2012-11
is shown at: 10.14288/1.0073038
language: eng
degree discipline: Psychology
provider: Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
publisher: University of British Columbia
rights: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
rights URI: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
scholar level: Graduate
type: Text
identifier URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/43008