Negative Social Expectations Research Articles

Depressive symptoms and the processing of unexpected social feedback: Differences in surprise levels, feedback acceptance, and "immunizing" cognition.

Negative social expectations are a key symptom of depression. It has been suggested that individuals with depressive symptoms tend to maintain these expectations by devaluing new experiences that do not fit prior expectations. However, our understanding of the role of such "immunizing" cognition in response to unexpected social feedback in depression, as well as the cognitive mechanisms involved, remains limited. This study investigated the association between depressive symptoms and the cognitive processing of unexpected positive or negative social feedback using a novel, video-based approach featuring naturalistic social stimuli in a subclinical online sample (N = 155). We also examined how surprise levels, feedback acceptance and immunizing cognition relate to other cognitive processes, such as attributional style and rumination, using cross-sectional network analyses. Robust multiple linear regression analyses revealed that depressive symptoms were associated with higher surprise levels (R2adj. = .27), lower feedback acceptance (R2adj. = .19), and higher levels of immunizing cognition (R2adj. = .09) in response to unexpected positive social feedback, but only partially to unexpected negative social feedback. The network analysis suggested that self-efficacy expectations for coping with negative feelings and acceptance of positive social feedback had the strongest expected influence on the different cognitive processes. Our study highlights the challenges that individuals with depressive symptoms face in utilizing positive social feedback to modify negative expectations. For clinicians, our findings suggest the importance of promoting acceptance of positive social feedback, while simultaneously inhibiting immunizing cognition and avoiding the use of overly positive feedback.

Factors Associated With Loneliness Among Chinese Patients With Cancer: A Cross-sectional Study.

Loneliness has a significant impact on the physical and psychological well-being of patients with cancer. However, the specific factors contributing to loneliness among patients with cancer within the context of Chinese culture remain poorly understood. The objective of this study was to identify the factors associated with loneliness among patients with cancer in China. A cross-sectional study was conducted using convenience sampling, involving a sample of 205 patients with cancer from a tertiary hospital in Guangzhou, China. Participants completed several validated questionnaires, including the Cancer Loneliness Scale (CLS), Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), Cancer-Related Negative Social Expectations Scale (C-rNSES), and Social Support Rating Scale (SSRS). Multiple linear stepwise regression analysis was employed to explore the relationships between loneliness and psychosocial factors. The median score for loneliness among patients with cancer was 13, with an interquartile range of 8. The multiple linear stepwise regression analysis revealed that negative social expectations, social support, and depression were significantly associated with loneliness in this population. Collectively, these factors accounted for 50.1% (R2 = .501) of the variance in loneliness. The findings of this study highlight the importance of addressing negative social expectations and depression and improving social support to prevent or reduce loneliness among patients with cancer. Health care providers should consider these factors when developing interventions aimed at preventing or alleviating loneliness in this population.

Response to unexpected social inclusion: A study using the cyberball paradigm.

BackgroundDysfunctional expectations are considered core characteristics of Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) and should be focused in psychotherapy. Dysfunctional expectations are especially pronounced in the interpersonal area (social expectations). In the present study, we examine the effect of unexpected social inclusion (expectation violation) on the change of generalized and specific depression-typical social expectations.MethodWe conducted an online study to investigate the impact of social inclusion after a period of social exclusion (unexpected social inclusion) on social expectation change (sample size 144) in a non-clinical sample. Depressive symptoms were assessed via self-reporting. Participants took part in two rounds of the online ball-game Cyberball. In the first round, all participants were socially excluded by their two co-players (acquisition of negative social expectations). In the second round, participants were either once more excluded (expectation confirmation) or included equally (expectation violation) by the same co-players. Specific and generalized social expectations were assessed after each round.ResultsSpecific and generalized social expectations increased following expectation violation. Even though depressive symptoms were related to lower levels of social expectations, we found that depressive symptoms did not moderate expectation change after positive expectation violations.ConclusionsIn the present experimental setup including the use of the online ball-game Cyberball, the establishment and change of social expectations can be experimentally manipulated. Under the given circumstances and in a non-clinical sample, negative expectations can be updated after unexpected positive experiences regardless of the number of depressive symptoms. The results are discussed in the context of current models of Major Depressive Disorder (MDD), expectation change, and cognitive behavioral therapy.

Історія майбутнього як футурологія в дискурсі сучасної китайської фантастики

Introduction. The article considers the historical, philosophical and ideological implications of the concept of the history of the future in the context of the development of modern Chinese fiction. The history of the future is interpreted as a conceptual tool for influencing culture and mass consciousness in the context of transformations of modern history and historiography. Fiction is seen as the development of social expectations in the field of mass culture and collective consciousness. The urgency of the article. The relevance of the article is due to the formation of the latest paradigm of historical narrative and discourse in modern information culture and their impact on the mass consciousness and correlation with ideology. The aim of the study. The aim of the article is to study the peculiarities of the interpretation of the functioning of the concept of the history of the future in modern historical narrative and discourse, as well as to clarify the intentionality of this process and its effects on mass consciousness and ideology. Methods used in the study: textual analysis of sources, historical and philosophical analysis, analytical and hermeneutical methods in combination with contemporary history of ideas and culturological approach. The results research is based on the following considerations. The concept of the history of the future in the context of the research topic is interpreted not only as a form of representation and translation of historical knowledge and ideas, but also as a marker of the meaning-generating potential of the philosopher of history within the picture of the human world and his life (lebenswelt). Chinese fantasy discourse is interpreted not only as a part of literature and culture, but also as a necessary structural element of ideological constructions and the basis for the formation of worldview knowledge in the modern media space. The ambivalent nature of the instrumental humanism of modern Chinese fiction and its affinity with the ideology of transhumanism are emphasized. Particular attention is paid to fantastic discourse as a space for formalizing negative social, environmental and security expectations. There is a well-founded connection between the peculiarities of modern Chinese fiction and the mythology of the collective ancestral consciousness, which is inherent in the Eastern tradition in general. The ethical and ontological ambivalence of the ideological approach to history as the history of the future is formalized. It also points to the paradoxical nature of futurological prognosis in the latest Chinese fiction discourse, associated with the critique of Western anthropocentrism, which may justify the superiority of the total approach to social reality and the devaluation of fundamental humanistic values. The originality and novelty of the study is based on the interpretation of the concept of future history as a marker of transformations of modern history, philosophy of history and historiography, as well as the impact of these transformations on mass consciousness and culture, social ideology. Conclusion. The effectiveness of the concept of the history of the future as a cognitive tool and at the same time a marker of ontologization of the narrative of literature and culture in general is determined by the methodological foundations of the latest theoretical historical research. Liu Qixing’s Futurological and Social Problems in Memory of the Earth’s Past (2006-2010) and Contemporary Chinese Fiction in general cultivate a kind of non-anthropocentric humanism that can be greatly simplified and reduced to a set of social imperatives and ideological clichйs. In our opinion, such a critique of anthropocentrism can reduce the problem of choosing the future to agnostic-fatalistic worldviews. In the social dimension, this could mean the inevitable crisis of the model of democracy in societies and socio-political formations of cosmic proportions and those that have gone beyond the planetary cradle.

Brain structure correlates of expected social threat and reward

Prospection (mentally simulating future events) generates emotionally-charged mental images that guide social decision-making. Positive and negative social expectancies—imagining new social interactions to be rewarding versus threatening—are core components of social approach and avoidance motivation, respectively. Interindividual differences in such positive and negative future-related cognitions may be underpinned by distinct neuroanatomical substrates. Here, we asked 100 healthy adults to vividly imagine themselves in a novel self-relevant event that was ambiguous with regards to possible social acceptance or rejection. During this task we measured participants’ expectancies for social reward (anticipated feelings of social connection) or threat (anticipated feelings of rejection). On a separate day they underwent structural MRI; voxel-based morphometry was used to explore the relation between social reward and threat expectancies and regional grey matter volumes (rGMV). Increased rGMV in key default-network regions involved in prospection, socio-emotional cognition, and subjective valuation, including ventromedial prefrontal cortex, correlated with both higher social reward and lower social threat expectancies. In contrast, social threat expectancies uniquely correlated with rGMV of regions involved in social attention (posterior superior temporal sulcus, pSTS) and interoception (somatosensory cortex). These findings provide novel insight into the neurobiology of future-oriented cognitive-affective processes critical to adaptive social functioning.

Validity and Reliability of The Cancer Loneliness and The Cancer-Related Negative Social Expectations Scale

There is a need for cancer-specific tools to evaluate loneliness and cancer-related negative social expectations before developing interventions for cancer patients. The purpose of this study was to examine the reliability and validity of the Cancer Loneliness and the Cancer-related Negative Social Expectations Scale. Data were collected from 300 cancer patients registered to an oncology outpatient clinic of a University Hospital for this methodological study. In the data collection, Patient Information Form, Cancer Loneliness Scale and Cancer-related Negative Social Expectations Scale and the General Loneliness Scale were used. The Cronbach’s Alpha coefficient of the Cancer Loneliness Scale was found to be .88, Spearman-Brown correlation value was found to be .81, CFI, .98, GFI, .96, 𝑋2/SD, 2.99 and RMSEA .08. As for the Negative Social Expectations Scale, Cronbach alpha value was found as .82, Spearman-Brown correlation value .86, CFI 1.00, GFI 1.00, 𝑋2/SD 1.33 and RMSEA .02. The study revealed those both scales were highly reliable and indices of fit showed perfect fit. These scales are highly valid and reliable instruments for the Turkish society.

Loneliness as a mediator of the relationship of social cognitive variables with depressive symptoms and quality of life in lung cancer patients beginning treatment.

Loneliness, or the discrepancy between perceived and desired level of social connectedness, is an understudied but important psychosocial factor in cancer patients. The current study investigated the relationship between loneliness, depressive symptoms, quality of life, and social cognitive variables (eg, stigma, social constraint, and cancer-related negative social expectations), and explored loneliness as a mediator of the relationship between social cognitive variables and depressive symptoms and quality of life in lung cancer patients beginning treatment. Patients within 3months of beginning treatment for lung cancer completed measures of loneliness, depressive symptoms, quality of life, and social cognitive variables. Correlational, chi-square, and hierarchical regression analyses evaluated relationships among variables. Bias-corrected bootstrapping methods estimated the indirect effect and 95% confidence interval for mediation models. Participants (n=105, M=65.5years, 55% female) endorsed low to moderate levels of loneliness. Greater loneliness was associated with greater depressive symptoms and worse quality of life (P's<.001), and loneliness explained unique variance in depressive symptoms (F=10.18, P<.001, ΔR2 =.06, Total R2 =.35) and quality of life (F=19.55, P<.001, ΔR2 =.05, Total R2 =.52) after controlling for significant covariates. Greater stigma, social constraint, and cancer-related negative social expectations were associated with greater loneliness and depressive symptoms and worse quality of life (P's<.001). Loneliness partially mediated the relationship of social cognitive variables with depressive symptoms and quality of life. Beyond its direct impact on clinically relevant outcomes, the experience of loneliness may be a mechanism by which social cognitive factors influence depressive symptoms and quality of life in lung cancer patients.

Effects of Relative Deprivation on Intention to Rebel: A Multiple Mediation Model

This study examined the mediating effects of future social expectations and interpersonal distrust on the relationship between individual relative deprivation and intention to rebel. Data were gathered from 807 people from multiple occupational backgrounds in a municipality in southwest China. Structural equation modelling showed that individual relative deprivation predicted intention to rebel directly and also that it predicted intention to rebel indirectly via negative future social expectations, interpersonal distrust, and a chain mediating effect of negative future social expectations and interpersonal distrust. These results highlight the importance of the associations between future social expectations and interpersonal distrust with intention to rebel in people who report relative deprivation. The findings also indicate that prevention and intervention programs related to relative deprivation and intention to rebel in China are worthy of further research.

Individual and interpersonal emotion regulation among adults with substance use disorders and matched controls.

Self-report studies show that negative emotional states and ineffective use of emotion regulation strategies are key maintaining factors of substance use disorders (SUD). However, experimental research into emotional processing in adults with SUD is in its infancy. Theoretical conceptualizations of emotion regulation have shifted from a focus on individual (internal) processes to one that encompasses social and interpersonal functions - including the regulation of facial expression of emotion. The purpose of this study was to examine the individual and interpersonal emotion regulation capacity of 35 adults in residential treatment diagnosed with a SUD compared to 35 demographically matched controls (both samples Mage =25years; 37% females). Participants completed a facial emotion expression flexibility task while viewing emotive images, as well as the Difficulties of Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS) and the Social (Emotion) Expectancy Scale (SES). Adults in SUD treatment experienced significantly more emotion regulation difficulties on all DERS subscales than controls. They also reported higher levels of negative self-evaluation and social expectancies not to feel negative emotions (anxiety and depression) compared to controls. Moreover, when viewing emotive images, the treatment sample showed significantly less flexibility of their emotional expression compared to the control sample. These findings demonstrate that the awareness, expression, and regulation of emotions are particularly difficult for people with SUD and this may maintain their substance use and provide an important target for treatment. Compared to matched controls, adults with substance use disorders self-report significantly more difficulties with emotional awareness and regulation. Compared to matched controls, adults with substance use disorders report significantly greater expectancies not to show depression and anxiety. When viewing positive and negative images, adults with substance use disorders are significantly less flexible in their facial expression of emotion than matched controls in response to regulatory instructions. Emotion regulation should be measured and addressed as part of substance use disorder treatment.

The Cancer Loneliness Scale and Cancer-related Negative Social Expectations Scale: development and validation.

Loneliness is a known risk factor for poor mental and physical health outcomes and quality of life in the general population, and preliminary research suggests that loneliness is linked to poorer health outcomes in cancer patients as well. Various aspects of the cancer experience contribute to patients feeling alone and misunderstood. Furthermore, loneliness theory suggests that negative social expectations, which may specifically relate to the cancer experience, precipitate and sustain loneliness. Cancer-specific tools are needed to assess key constructs of this theory. In the current study, we developed and tested measures of (1) loneliness attributed to cancer (i.e., cancer-related loneliness) and (2) negative social expectations related to cancer. First, we developed the items for the measures based on theory, prior research, and expert feedback. Next, we assessed the measures' psychometric properties (i.e., internal consistency and construct validity) in a diverse sample of cancer patients. The final products included a 7-item unidimensional Cancer Loneliness Scale and a 5-item unidimensional Cancer-related Negative Social Expectations Scale. Evidence of excellent reliability and validity was found for both measures. The resulting measures have both clinical and research utility.

Getting What You Expect: Negative Social Expectations in Early Adolescence Predict Hostile Romantic Partnerships and Friendships Into Adulthood.

Adolescents' negative expectations of their peers were examined as predictors of their future selection of hostile partners, in a community sample of 184 adolescents followed from ages 13 to 24. Utilizing observational data, close friend- and self-reports, adolescents with more negative expectations at age 13 were found to be more likely to form relationships with observably hostile romantic partners and friends with hostile attitudes by age 18 even after accounting for baseline levels of friend hostile attitudes at age 13 and adolescents' own hostile behavior and attitudes. Furthermore, the presence of friends with hostile attitudes at age 18 in turn predicted higher levels of adult friend hostile attitudes at age 24. Results suggest the presence of a considerable degree of continuity from negative expectations to hostile partnerships from adolescence well into adulthood.

The self-fulfilling prophecy of adolescent social expectations

Adolescents’ negative social expectations of their peers were examined as long-term predictors of problematic self-reported social functioning. Early adolescent negative expectations were hypothesized to predict risk-averse functioning in late adolescence that would ultimately contribute to confirmation of those expectations. Utilizing observational data and friend- and self-reports from a community sample of 184 adolescents followed from ages 13 to 25, adolescents with more negative expectations were found to have become increasingly submissive with friends over time and were rated as less romantically appealing by late adolescence (after controlling for baseline levels of these variables, baseline friend-rated social competence and self-reported depressive symptoms). In turn, submissiveness and romantic appeal predicted problematic self-reported social functioning well into adulthood and mediated the relationship between adolescent negative expectations and problematic self-reported adult social functioning. These findings support the possibility of a self-fulfilling social process unfolding from early adolescence to adulthood.

Student-, classroom-, and school-level risk factors for victimization

The purpose of this study was to simultaneously investigate student-, classroom-, and school-level risk factors for victimization. Both peer nominations and students' self-reports of victimization were utilized. The sample consisted of 6731 Finnish elementary school students (3386 girls and 3345 boys) nested in 358 classrooms in 74 schools. The participants were from Grades 3, 4, and 5 (mean age 11years). The results of multilevel analyses indicated that there was considerable variability in, and distinctive risk factors associated with, both peer- and self-reported victimization at all the three levels investigated. Social anxiety and peer rejection synergistically predicted victimization at the student level. At the classroom level, negative social outcome expectations of defending the victim were associated with an increased risk of a student being bullied. Victimization was also common in classrooms and schools where students perceived their teachers to have less disapproving attitudes toward bullying. Furthermore, the effects of the student-level predictors were found to vary across classrooms, and classroom size moderated the effects of social anxiety and peer rejection on victimization. By identifying the risk factors at the multiple levels, and looking into cross-level interactions among these factors, research can help to target interventions at the key ecological factors contributing to victimization, making it possible to maximize the effectiveness of interventions.

A Comparison of Friendship Quality and Social Functioning Among Children With Perinatally Acquired HIV, Children With Persistent Asthma, and Healthy Children of HIV-Positive Mothers

To examine the friendships and social expectations of children with perinatally acquired HIV and compare them to children with moderate to severe persistent asthma and healthy children of HIV-positive mothers. 70 children (ages 8-14 years) were recruited from pediatric allergy and immunology multidisciplinary clinics and hospital-based HIV-support programming. Children completed measures of friendship quality and interpersonal functioning. Caregivers completed a measure of child psychosocial functioning. Children with asthma, not HIV, demonstrated poorer indicators of friendship and the most negative social expectations of the three groups. Children with HIV maintained best friendships and rated themselves as socially well-adjusted. Comprehensive multidisciplinary services and ancillary supports may have buffered against stressors and facilitated positive psychosocial outcomes in children with HIV. Children with asthma displayed higher disease activity, possibly contributing to poorer outcomes. Results suggest a need to better understand the protective factors that enhance social functioning in children with HIV.

Social outcome expectations regarding delayed sexual debut among adolescents in Mankweng, South Africa

To describe outcome expectations related to delayed sexual transition, to examine the dimensionality and internal consistency of such expectations, and to examine variations in social outcome expectations across subgroups defined by demographic variables, indicators of socioeconomic status and predictors related to school and educational ambitions. Data stem from a survey among school students (grades 8-12) in Mankweng, Limpopo, South Africa (n = 5,697). A five-item scale of outcome expectations was analysed with frequency and percentage distributions, principal components analysis, Cronbach's alpha, and general linear model procedures, while controlling for the cluster nature of the sample (school classes). Four items formed a component on negative social outcome expectations (SOE) related to delayed sexual transition. The internal consistency of the SOE scale proved adequate. Negative SOEs increased with age, were higher among males than females, and decreased with father's education. Negative expectations were high among students who had repeated a school year due to failing exams, among those who did not expect to complete schooling up until grade 12, and among students who reported absence from school. Negative social outcome expectations related to delayed sexual transition have elsewhere been shown to be important in predicting actual transition. The present study shows that there is considerable room for positive changes in such expectations. Negative SOEs may contribute to explaining demographic and socioeconomic variations in sexual transition. Social outcome expectations deserve more attention in programmes aimed at promoting sexual- and reproductive health.

Social Anxiety and Peer Relations in Early Adolescence: Behavioral and Cognitive Factors

This study investigated factors associated with social anxiety during early adolescence using multiple informants, including self and peer perspectives, teacher ratings, and direct observations. Negative social performance expectations, maladaptive coping strategies, and social skill deficits were examined as correlates of social anxiety and mediators linking social anxiety with poor peer relations. Participants were 84 middle school students (47 girls, 37 boys) over-sampled for elevated social anxiety. Analyses revealed correlations linking social anxiety with decreased peer acceptance and increased peer victimization. Path analysis indicated that negative social performance expectations and social withdrawal-disengagement accounted for the association between social anxiety and decreased peer acceptance. Social anxiety, self-directed coping strategies, and social withdrawal-disengagement were each directly linked with increased peer victimization for boys. The results replicate findings based on clinical samples, extend understanding of cognitive, social, and behavioral factors associated with social anxiety in middle school, and provide new information regarding gender differences in the correlates of social anxiety.

Social anxiety in stuttering: measuring negative social expectancies

Much research has suggested that those who stutter are likely to be anxious. However, to date, little research on this topic has addressed the role of expectancies of harm in anxiety, which is a central construct of anxiety in modern clinical psychology. There are good reasons to believe that the anxiety of those who stutter is related to expectancies of social harm. Therefore, in the present study, 34 stuttering and 34 control participants completed the Fear of Negative Evaluation (FNE) Scale and the Endler Multidimensional Anxiety Scales-Trait (EMAS-T). The FNE data showed a significant difference between the stuttering and control participants, with a large effect size. Results suggested that, as a group, a clinical population of people who stutter has anxiety that is restricted to the social domain. For the EMAS-T, significant differences between groups were obtained for the two subtests that refer specifically to people and social interactions in which social evaluation might occur (Social Evaluation and New/Strange Situations) but not for the subtests that contained no specific reference to people and social interactions (Physical Danger and Daily Routines). These results were taken to suggest that those who stutter differ from control subjects in their expectation of negative social evaluation, and that the effect sizes are clinically significant. The findings also suggest that the FNE and the EMAS-T are appropriate psychological tests of anxiety to use with stuttering clients in clinical settings. The clinical and research implications of these findings are discussed, in terms of whether social anxiety mediates stuttering or is a simple by-product of stuttering. Possible laboratory explorations of this issue are suggested, and potential Cognitive Behavior Therapy packages for stuttering clients who might need them are discussed. Educational objectives: The reader will be able to: (1) explain why expectancy of social threat or harm may be associated with stuttering; (2) name and describe two psychological tests that are suitable for assessment of the social threat or harm that may be associated with stuttering; and (3) explain how findings for the EMAS-T test in the present results suggest that expectancy of social threat or harm, but not other kinds of negative expectancy, are associated with stuttering.

Social expectancies and self-perceptions in anxiety-disordered children

The link between anxiety and negative social expectancies was examined by comparing 47 anxiety-disordered children with 31 nonanxiety-disordered controls on social expectancies, social anxiety, and self-perceived social competence. Participants were exposed to a videotape of confederate children playing a game, being told the children were next door. In anticipation of joining the play, social expectations were assessed via thought-listing and a questionnaire. Parent, teacher, and child measures of sociability were completed prior to the experimental session. Results indicated that anxiety-disordered children reported significantly more negative social expectations, lower social self-competence, and higher levels of social anxiety than controls. Parents and teachers each rated the anxiety-disordered children as significantly more socially maladjusted than controls. Social anxiety was the best predictor of social expectancies. Given the importance of healthy peer relations, treatment implications for anxiety-disordered children are highlighted.