The Effects of Ostracism and Performance Anxiety on Impulsivity
Abstract
Anxiety disorders are a prevalent mental health issue that affects millions of Americans. Individuals who suffer from anxiety tend to be behaviorally withdrawn or inhibited. More specifically, previous research has shown an inverse relationship between symptoms of anxiety and impulsivity. However, this research is mixed, as it has been found that anxiety is present in impulse control disorders. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to further explore the relationship between anxiety and impulsivity. This was done by inducing anxiety in two different studies that both incorporated the context of social interactions, in order to see their effect on impulsive responding. The social contexts that were examined included the situation of being socially ostracized (social exclusion), and the other incorporated the act of giving a public speech (social performance). In the first experiment, ostracism was induced with the Cyberball task. Additionally, neural brain-wave activity was examined using electroencephalogram (EEG). The second experiment induced anxiety through the performance-task of giving a speech. Both experiments also collected measures of perceived emotional childhood invalidation to further examine the influence these interactions may have on impulsive responding and anxiety. Impulsivity was examined in both experiments with the flanker attention task as was viewed on a spectrum, with slower responding indicating inhibition and faster responding indicating…
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