Emotional and physiological reactions to social rejection : the development and validation of the tendency to expect rejection scale and the relationship between rejection expectancy and responses to exclusion

According to the need to belong theory (Baumeister & Leary, 1995), human beings are motivated to avoid exclusion and maximize their chances of inclusion into social groups. Beyond this basic premise, little is known about the immediate and long-term psychological and health consequences of social rejection. In part, the lack of research in these areas is due to limited methodological measurements of rejection. Therefore, the purpose of the present research was to (a) develop a reliable and valid measure of rejection sensitivity and (b) to assess the emotional and physiological responses to hypothetical and actual rejection experiences. Study 1 involved 465 participants, and the objective was to develop a reliable measure of rejection expectancy (Tendency to Expect Rejection Scale; TERS). Classic psychometric tests yielded an 18-item scale, with a mean inter-item correlation of .26 and a coefficient alpha of .86. Study 2 (N = 195) attempted to demonstrate the psychosocial validity of the TERS by comparing scores on the TERS to scores oh other relevant measures of personality. Results supported the validation of the TERS, with scores on the TERS being positively related to scores on other measures of social evaluative concern and inversely related to optimism and spiritual well-being. Study 3 (N = 170) focused on convergent, discriminant, and criterion validity of the TERS with respect to responses to one-item adjectives of affective states, and assessed individuals\u27 responses to hypothetical rejection scenarios in relation to their scores on the TERS and other related measures .. Additional validity was shown in this study, with scores on the TERS being positively correlated with emotional feelings such as depressed, lonely, fearful, and rejected, inversely related to optimistic, satisfied, and included, and unrelated to confident and energetic. Rejection expectancy was also related to severity ratings of eight out of the twelve rejection scenarios. Further, TERS scores were associated with higher severity ratings, regardless of the relationship to the transgressor. Also, it appears that one\u27s level of rejection expectancy is related to severity ratings of hypothetical scenarios for low and high severity transgressions, but not moderately severe events. Study 4 focused on further validation of the TERS through physiological measurements during an actual rejection experience Thirty-eight female participants were rejected by their peers on the basis of personal information. A repeated measures design was implemented to examine the immediate physiological consequences of experiencing rejection. Participants were asked to write personal essays and then choose with whom they would least like to work out of a group of five individuals while physiological measurements were assessed. Participants were then informed that the other members had voted them out of the group. Results indicated that high TERS females experienced greater physiological arousal (SBP) than low TERS females during the tally phase (anticipated rejection) and following rejection. Thus, it appears that there may be psychological as well as immediate health consequences to experiencing exclusion in everyday life. This research attempted to create a reliable and valid measure of rejection expectancy, and provide insight about the psychological and health consequences of being excluded in social situations. The results support the reliability and validation of the new scale, and provide a foundation for the relationship between one\u27s expectations about exclusion in social situations and the health consequences associated with experiencing social rejection

Common ground: Addressing attrition across diverse institutions in higher education

Student attrition is an ongoing concern in American higher education, where institutions are being increasingly held accountable for the success of the students they admit. While differences across diverse institutions exist, research suggests that there are many similarities regarding issues related to student persistence and success. In fact, this common ground presents an opportunity for common solutions. The variety of higher education institutions utilizing knowledge gained through institutional initiatives continues to identify new, better ways of serving students. This article sheds light on the known differences between institution types while recognizing the common goals of improving student persistence. The article further supports the need for additional research in this area to fully understand how the higher education community can best prepare and support students of all types, from all institutions, to reach their educational goals.DOI: 10.18870/hlrc.v4i2.20

Quality Assurance, Meet Quality Appreciation: Using Appreciative Inquiry to Define Faculty Quality Standards

Objectives: This study outlines the journey of an online university to evaluate faculty performance standards, key performance indicators, and systems for quality assurance using an appreciative inquiry summit model. The study reveals the power of quality appreciation as an approach that elicits a shared vision for quality definitions and standards and serves as a historical marker in the higher education shift from data-driven faculty performance approaches to strengths-based, inclusive methods. Method: The retrospective business case outlines one university’s 2018 Appreciative Inquiry Summit, 5D (define, discover, dream, design, destiny/deliver) approach, resulting deliverables, lessons learned, and conclusions. Results: The summit and subsequent quality appreciation processes laid a foundation for inclusive leadership and inclusive teaching and learning. Quality appreciation was observed to be a third component to quality enhancement that had heretofore included quality control and quality assurance mechanisms. Quality appreciation, based on appreciative inquiry (AI) approaches, is a method for uncovering the positive core of an organization that results in ideal quality standards, definitions, and desires for ongoing quality creation. Conclusions: This case provides a view of one university’s building upon data-driven methods for faculty performance evaluation. The use of appreciative inquiry to advance a quality appreciation agenda and human-centered approaches served as a stepping-stone toward a vision for inclusive, strengths-based quality enhancement. Implication for Theory and/or Practice: Quality control mechanisms and systems for quality assurance are supported by quality appreciation. In this case, faculty quality appreciation is the integration of AI practices with ongoing evaluation and identification of faculty and classroom quality standards. Quality Appreciation leads to strengthened definitions of quality that are values-driven and founded in the heart and soul of the university’s teaching and learning

Beyond the Social Determinants of Learning™ A Walden University Position Paper

The Social Determinants of Health (SDOH), presented by the World Health Organization (WHO) and a cross-organizational global commission in the early 2000s, provide an understanding of health status of individuals and communities. SDOH consider societal forces and conditions such as housing, work conditions, environment, and education (Braveman & Gottlieb, 2014; WHO, 2021). The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (n.d.) launched a “Healthy People 2030” initiative, addressing five key social determinants of health and offering a framework from which organizations can build strategy: 1. Healthcare access and quality 2. Education access and quality 3. Social and community context 4. Economic stability 5. Neighborhood and built environment As leaders in preparing provisioners of healthcare, Walden’s nursing and healthcare programs operate from the Social Determinants of Health & Healthcare (SDOH&H) framework (emphasizing both health and healthcare) and address the SDOH&H in every course

Investigating hyper-vigilance for social threat of lonely children

The hypothesis that lonely children show hypervigilance for social threat was examined in a series of three studies that employed different methods including advanced eye-tracking technology. Hypervigilance for social threat was operationalized as hostility to ambiguously motivated social exclusion in a variation of the hostile attribution paradigm (Study 1), scores on the Children’s Rejection-Sensitivity Questionnaire (Study 2), and visual attention to socially rejecting stimuli (Study 3). The participants were 185 children (11 years-7 months to 12 years-6 months), 248 children (9 years-4 months to 11 years-8 months) and 140 children (8 years-10 months to 12 years-10 months) in the three studies, respectively. Regression analyses showed that, with depressive symptoms covaried, there were quadratic relations between loneliness and these different measures of hypervigilance to social threat. As hypothesized, only children in the upper range of loneliness demonstrated elevated hostility to ambiguously motivated social exclusion, higher scores on the rejection sensitivity questionnaire, and disengagement difficulties when viewing socially rejecting stimuli. We found that very lonely children are hypersensitive to social threat

Increased Number of Cerebellar Granule Cells and Astrocytes in the Internal Granule Layer in Sheep Following Prenatal Intra-amniotic Injection of Lipopolysaccharide

Chorioamnionitis is an important problem in perinatology today, leading to brain injury and neurological handicaps. However, there are almost no data available regarding chorioamnionitis and a specific damage of the cerebellum. Therefore, this study aimed at determining if chorioamnionitis causes cerebellar morphological alterations. Chorioamnionitis was induced in sheep by the intra-amniotic injection of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) at a gestational age (GA) of 110 days. At a GA of 140 days, we assessed the mean total and layer-specific volume and the mean total granule cell (GCs) and Purkinje cell (PC) number in the cerebelli of LPS-exposed and control animals using high-precision design-based stereology. Astrogliosis was assessed in the gray and white matter (WM) using a glial fibrillary acidic protein staining combined with gray value image analysis. The present study showed an unchanged volume of the total cerebellum as well as the molecular layer, outer and inner granular cell layers (OGL and IGL, respectively), and WM. Interestingly, compared with controls, the LPS-exposed brains showed a statistically significant increase (+20.4%) in the mean total number of GCs, whereas the number of PCs did not show any difference between the two groups. In addition, LPS-exposed animals showed signs of astrogliosis specifically affecting the IGL. Intra-amniotic injection of LPS causes morphological changes in the cerebellum of fetal sheep still detectable at full-term birth. In this study, changes were restricted to the inner granule layer. These cerebellar changes might correspond to some of the motor or non-motor deficits seen in neonates from compromised pregnancies

Impact of Optimized Breastfeeding on the Costs of Necrotizing Enterocolitis in Extremely Low Birthweight Infants

To estimate risk of NEC for ELBW infants as a function of preterm formula and maternal milk (MM) intake and calculate the impact of suboptimal feeding on NEC incidence and costs

Self-Forgiveness in Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia Nervosa

This study investigated whether low levels of self-forgiveness were associated with eating disorder symptomatology. Participating women (N = 51) had diagnoses of anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, or no eating disorder diagnosis. They completed 3 measures of self-forgiveness. Women with eating disorders had lower levels of self-forgiveness compared with control participants. Results suggest that incorporating self-forgiveness interventions into current eating disorder treatments should be evaluated in future research as they might enhance clinical outcomes