Graduation Year

2024

Document Type

Thesis

Degree

M.A.

Degree Name

Master of Arts (M.A.)

Degree Granting Department

Psychology

Major Professor

Geoffrey Potts, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Ruthann Atchley, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Rottenberg Jon, Ph.D.

Keywords

Affect, Electroencephalography, Event-Related Potential, Flanker, Inhibition, N200

Abstract

Rejection sensitivity indexes individual differences in the expectation of, reaction to, and interpretation of possible rejection. Research on mechanisms underlying these individual differences have identified a reduction in top-down emotion regulatory processes in those exhibiting heightened rejection sensitivity. Most of these studies utilize rejection-specific affective stimuli. This study examined the relationship between rejection sensitivity score, calculated from the 18-question RSQ, and the recruitment of higher level inhibition resources, as indexed by the conflict N2, on three novel Flanker tasks. In order to further examine previously identified patterns in affective inhibition across differing levels of rejection sensitivity, and to determine whether these patterns hold when affective stimuli do not contain social components, the present study utilized three novel flankers, two of which used affective stimuli: a social-affective flanker utilizing smiling and contemptuous faces, an asocial affective flanker utilizing human-free affective images, and a neutral flanker utilizing normed fractal images. Individuals who were highly rejection sensitive displayed reduced N2 amplitude when Flankers were negatively valanced, an effect which was strongest when these flankers were faces. They also showed reduced accuracy on incongruent trials regardless of flanker block. Individuals who are high in Rejection Sensitivity display reduced ability to recruit higher level inhibition only in affective context, however global inhibition differences are present in behavioral data, suggesting an additional aspect of inhibition outside of recruitment is associated with Rejection Sensitivity differences.

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