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Social Affiliation: a Model of Anxiousv a Oidance in Women University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln Theses, Dissertations, and Student Research: Department of Psychology Psychology, Department of 5-2013 Social Affiliation: A Model of Anxiousv A oidance in Women Milena Stoyanova University of Nebraska-Lincoln, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/psychdiss Part of the Clinical Psychology Commons Stoyanova, Milena, "Social Affiliation: A Model of Anxiousv A oidance in Women" (2013). Theses, Dissertations, and Student Research: Department of Psychology. 58. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/psychdiss/58 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Psychology, Department of at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses, Dissertations, and Student Research: Department of Psychology by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. SOCIAL AFFILIATION: A MODEL OF ANXIOUS AVOIDANCE IN WOMEN By Milena Stoyanova A DISSERTATION Presented to the Faculty of The Graduate College at the University of Nebraska In Partial Fulfillment of Requirements For the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Major: Psychology Under the Supervision of Professor Debra A. Hope Lincoln, Nebraska May, 2013 SOCIAL AFFILIATION: A MODEL OF ANXIOUS AVOIDANCE IN WOMEN Milena Stoyanova, Ph.D. University of Nebraska, 2013 Adviser: Debra A. Hope There is substantial evidence demonstrating that women experience greater anxiety and fear compared to men. However, our understanding of specific factors accounting for women’s greater vulnerability remains rather limited. Taylor and colleagues (2000) proposed that women may have a different biobehavioral response to stress, which has evolved to protect and nurture offspring. The tend-and-befriend model provides new opportunities to explore underlying processes that may contribute to women’s greater anxiety and fear. The present study examined women’s stress response combined with the absence of positive social contact as it relates to the presentation of fear and anxiety. One hundred and seven women completed a battery of questionnaires and following a conversation with other participants were informed that no one had chosen to work with them for the next task. Following the initial social rejection, we manipulated social contact by providing bogus feedback based on their personality profiles informing them that they are likely to have a lonely future (future alone), or that they will have many fulfilling relationships (future belonging), or did not give any information about their future (control). Then, participants completed a behavioral approach task (BAT), which entailed approaching a live tarantula. Self-reported affect and salivary cortisol were measured throughout the experiment, and subjective anxiety and behavioral avoidance was assessed during the BAT. Surprisingly, there was no effect on cortisol secretion following the social rejection and the future social contact condition, although there were significant differences in self-reported affect following the social stressors. The social rejection resulted in elevated negative affect and participants in the future alone condition displayed an increase in negative affect compared to participants in the future belonging and control conditions following the future social contact manipulation. Contrary to our expectation, the manipulation about future social contact did not have an effect on avoidance behavior or subjective anxiety during the BAT. Limitations, future directions, and implications of the current findings are discussed. i DEDICATION To my family – my brother, Pantcho, my partner, Iliian, and my parents, Lilly and Peio. I am grateful for their endless love and support. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am grateful for all the mentors and supervisors I have had in the last six years. Most notably, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my advisor, Dr. Debra Hope, for her dedicated mentorship. Her brilliance as a teacher, researcher, and clinician has greatly influenced my professional development. I would also like to thank Dr. Jeffrey French for providing significant guidance and support on the physiological portion of this project, and for conducting the cortisol assay. The members of my dissertation committee, Drs. Sarah Gervais, Dennis McChargue, and Meghan Davidson, deserve a special recognition for their involvement, guidance, and thoughtful feedback on this project. Many thanks to my research assistance for sacrificing their afternoons and weekends to make this project successful: Kate Brungardt, Cassandra Fisher, Kayla Glesinger, Brianne Peterson, Emilee Sadler, and Sydney Vanderheiden. Enormous thanks to Christian Elowsky for lending his expertise and three tarantulas for this project. I would like to thank Dr. Scott Stoltenberg and his graduate student, Christa Christ, for providing on-campus freezer space to store saliva samples. I would also like to thank my parents, Lilly Rousseva-Stoyanova and Peio Stoyanov, for the enormous source of support that has allowed me to undertake my academic endeavors with confidence. Your bright outlook, wisdom, and passion have helped shape my personal and professional goals. My brother, Pantcho Stoyanov, deserves special recognition for the encouragements along the way and for reminding me to stay focused on the bigger picture. Last but not least, I am extremely grateful for my partner, Iliian Roussev, who provided unwavering support and patience throughout the entire process. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS DEDICATION……………………………………………………………………...i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ……………………………………………………... ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ……………………………………………………... iii LIST OF MULTIMEDIA OBJECTS ……………………………………………... v CHAPTER ONE: LITERATURE REVIEW………………………………………1 Introduction ……………………………………………………………... 1 Fear and Anxiety ……………………………………………... 3 Etiological Factors for Anxiety in Women ……………………………... 3 Genetic and Other Vulnerability Factors ……………………... 3 Genetic influence ……………………………………... 4 Temperamental characteristics ……………………... 7 Gender Socialization Patterns ……………………………………... 10 Social Stress and Trauma ……………………………………... 14 Response Bias ……………………………………………………... 18 Summary of Etiological Factors ……………………………... 20 Behavioral Avoidance ……………………………………………………... 21 Summary ……………………………………………………... 24 Physiology of Stress ……………………………………………………... 25 Cortisol and Stress ……………………………………………... 26 Biobehavioral Response to Stress: Women Specific ……………... 27 Social Support and Stress Response ……………………………... 30 Implications of the Tend-and-Befriend Response for Women and Anxiety ……………………………………………………... 32 Purpose of Dissertation Study ……………………………………... 33 Specific Aims and Corresponding Hypotheses ……………... 35 CHAPTER TWO: METHODS ……………………………………………... 36 Sample……………………………………………………………………... 36 Design ……………………………………………………………………... 36 Measures ……………………………………………………………... 38 Self-report Measures ……………………………………………... 38 Caffeine and alcohol intake ……………………………... 38 Daily hassles ……………………………………………... 39 Positive and negative affect ……………………………... 39 Fear of spiders ……………………………………………... 40 Subjective anxiety ……………………………………... 41 Post experimental feedback ……………………………... 41 Behavioral Measure ……………………………………………... 42 Behavioral approach task (BAT) ……………………... 42 Physiological Assessment ……………………………………... 43 Cortisol ……………………………………………... 43 Assay Procedures ……………………………... 44 Study Material ……………………………………………………... 45 iv Phobic stimulus for BAT ……………………………... 45 Procedures ……………………………………………………………... 45 Statistical Design and Analyses ……………………………………... 54 CHAPTER THREE: RESULTS ……………………………………………... 56 Test of Normalcy ……………………………………………………... 56 Attrition ……………………………………………………………... 57 Manipulation Check ……………………………………………………... 60 Preliminary Analyses ……………………………………………………... 61 Zero-order Correlations ……………………………………………... 63 Hypothesis Driven Analyses ……………………………………………... 68 Effect of Future Feedback Condition ……………………………... 68 Menstrual cycle phase and oral contraceptives ……... 74 Daily hassles, medications, and testing time ……………... 75 Percent change in cortisol ……………………………... 76 Area under the curve ……………………………………... 78 Effect of Future Feedback Group on BAT ……………………... 79 CHAPTER FOUR: DISCUSSION ……………………………………………... 83 Effect of Future Social Contact on Anxiety and Avoidance ……………... 83 Social Rejection ……………………………………………………... 85 Manipulation of Future Relationships ……………………………... 87 Limitations and Future Directions ……………………………………... 94 Implications of Present Results ……………………………………... 97 References ……………………………………………………………………... 99 Appendices ………………………………………………………………........... 128 Appendix A: Photograph of phobic stimulus ……………………………... 128 Appendix B: Future Social Contact Chart ……………………………... 129 Appendix C: Experimental Procedures Manual ……………………... 130 Appendix D: Questionnaire Packet ……………………………………... 143 Appendix E: PANAS ……………………………………………………... 152 Appendix F: SUDS ……………………………………………………... 153 Appendix G: BAT Steps ……………………………………………... 154 Appendix H: Feedback – Future Belonging ……………………………... 155 Appendix I: Feedback – Future Alone ……………………………... 156 Appendix J: Feedback – Control ……………………………………... 157 v LIST OF MULTIMEDIA OBJECTS TABLES Table 2.1 Descriptive Information for Entire Study Sample ……………... 38 Table 2.2 Reliability Coefficients for all Self-report Measures ……... 41 Table 3.1 Indices of Normality for Study Measures ……………………... 59 Table 3.2 Correlations between Self Reported Affect and Cortisol ……... 65 Table 3.3 Correlations between
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