Socially Rejected Individuals

498 Words1 Page
bulb-icon

Recommended: What are the effects of social influence on developing or modifying behaviour

Humans have an innate need to assimilate into society. An individual’s desire for things, such survival and reproduction, creates a motivation for social acceptance. This universal motive leads to the formations of relationships, groups, clubs, and communities. However, one of the consequences of social living is that an individual may sometimes feel like she or he has been socially excluded. When an individual feels socially rejected, it affects how he or she perceives others and one’s self. For example, socially rejected participants who read and recalled journal entries about the self, exhibited poorer memory for social events (Hess & Pickett, 2010). The researchers concluded that individuals withdraw from the self after experiencing social rejection. …show more content…

These findings align with past research, which revealed that socially rejected individuals—in comparison to non-socially rejected individuals—were more adept at deciphering social cues, such as facial expression and vocal tone (Pickett et al., 2004). Furthermore, socially rejected individuals were more accurate in discerning fake from real smiles than individuals who were socially accepted or in the neutral condition (Bernstein, et al., 2008). Together, these experiments suggest socially rejected individuals experience a heightened awareness for social information.
Similar to the socially rejected, lonely individuals have an increased sensitivity to the behaviors of others. Compared to non-lonely individuals, lonely individuals demonstrated enhanced recall abilities for positive and negative social information (Gardner, Pickett, Jefferies, & Knowles, 2005). Consequently, the fewer friends an individual reported to have, the more perceptive he or she was in interpreting vocal cues and emotional facial

Show More
Related

  • Maslow vs Tiger Woods

    686 Words  | 2 Pages

    Humans need to feel a sense of belonging and acceptance, whether it comes from a large

    Read More

  • Outcasts: The Untold Stories of Society's Rejects

    703 Words  | 2 Pages

    An outcast is a person who has been rejected by society or a social group, an outsider. Many times outcasts are rejected, isolated, and judged. However, what gives us that right to isolated, reject, and judge other people? When in fact you may not even know the person whom you are showing this impoliteness to. Djuna Barnes was an outcast. She has been rejected, isolated judged yet, she figuratively took the word outcast and made it her own. She speaks for those who can’t speak for themselves.

    Read More

  • Why People Are Shunned

    982 Words  | 2 Pages

    Shunned persistently avoid, ignore, or reject (someone or something) through antipathy or caution and also can be the act of social rejection, or emotional distance. In a religious context, Shunning is a formal decision by a denomination or a congregation to cease interaction with an individual or a group, and follows a particular set of rules The reasons people were shunned in the 17th century A lack of (christian) religious faith back in this time period everybody was very religious they followed by the bible for example the 10 commandments ‘’You shall have no other gods before Me.’’ it means to love something more than God You should worship God instead of Your clothes , shoes , computer or TV. You should read the Bible more, ”You shall

    Read More

  • How People Respond to Interpersonal Rejections

    2243 Words  | 5 Pages

    The desire for positive social relationships is one of the most fundamental and universal human needs. This need has a deep root in evolutionary history in relation to mating and natural selection and this can exert a powerful impact on contemporary human psychological processes (Baumeister & Leary 1995). Failure to satisfy these needs can bear devastating consequences on the psychological well being of an individual. These needs might not be satisfied as rejection, isolation, and ostracism occurs on a daily basis to people. Although being ignored and excluded is a pervasive circumstance present throughout history across species, and humans of all ages and cultures i.e the use of Ostracism (the feeling of isolation and exclusion) has been observed in modern cultures (Woods 1978) Schools and academic institutions (Heron 1987) and interpersonal relationships (Williams 2000). Although ostracism can be seen as a social norm the effect this can have on an individual has the potential of being detrimental to individuals including extreme feelings of hurt. Individuals can respond to rejection in different ways ranging from psychologically to behaviourally. Both psychological and behavioural responses to interpersonal rejection posit theories based on the various paradigms used to stimulate ostracism in experimental settings resulting in s the creation of models by the likes of Williams (2007) and Leary (2009).

    Read More

  • Social Exclusion in Relation to Disability and Gender

    881 Words  | 2 Pages

    Social exclusion is the exclusion of an individual from the current social system, their individual rights and privileges. This is usually a result of a person living in poverty due to circumstances he or she has no control over, or their own human error. Becoming socially excluded can also be the result of the individual belonging to a minority social group. Social exclusion refers to individuals whom are excluded from certain aspects of social life such as employment and social relations. This can be due to reasons such as whether or not the individual would like to participate in social activities, or whether he or she is unable to participate in social activities for reasons which are beyond their control, such as a disability (Burchandt et al. 2002). Social exclusion can be a major problem, studies have shown that being socially excluded from a group/s in fact activates particular areas of the brain, areas which would usually only be activated by physical pain (Eisenberger et al, 2003). Not only can social exclusion have negative effects on an individuals mental health and wellbeing, but it can also cause exploitation, oppression and marginality. Social exclusion also prevents equality, fairness and social justice.

    Read More

  • Conformity and Obedience in Society

    939 Words  | 2 Pages

    The desire to be accepted and belong to a group is an undeniable human need. But how does this need affect an individual? Social psychologists have conducted numerous experiments and concluded that, through various forms of social influence, groups can change their members’ thoughts, feelings, and behavior.

    Read More

  • Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

    1899 Words  | 4 Pages

    "Social Acceptance and Rejection: The Sweet and the Bitter." Association for Psychological Science RSS. Association for Psychological Science, 12 Aug. 2011. Web. 10 Apr. 2014. .

    Read More

  • Communication Apprehension

    2933 Words  | 6 Pages

    Phillips, G.M. (1984). A Perspective on Social Withdrawal. In J.C. McCroskey & J.A. Daly (Eds.). Avoiding communication: shyness, reticence, and communication apprehension. (pp. 51-66). London: Sage Publications Inc.

    Read More

  • What is Reality Therapy?

    1419 Words  | 3 Pages

    Glasser believes that humans are genetically social creatures and need other people. He suggests that the cause of almost all psychological symptoms is an inability to get along with the important peopl...

    Read More

  • Nonverbal Communication

    1530 Words  | 4 Pages

    Any communication interaction involves two major components in terms of how people are perceived: verbal, or what words are spoken and nonverbal, the cues such as facial expressions, posture, verbal intonations, and other body gestures. Many people believe it is their words that convey the primary messages but it is really their nonverbal cues. The hypothesis for this research paper was: facial expressions directly impact how a person is perceived. A brief literature search confirmed this hypothesis.

    Read More

  • Psychological Concepts in American History X

    745 Words  | 2 Pages

    Kunstman, Jonathan W., et al. "Feeling In With The Outgroup: Out-group Acceptance And The Internalization Of The Motivation To Respond Without Prejudice." Journal Of Personality And Social Psychology 105.3 (2013): 443-457. PsycARTICLES. Web. 5 Dec. 2013.

    Read More

  • Social Cognition

    553 Words  | 2 Pages

    Everyday people use social cognition as a tool to help them thrive in social world. There are many important aspects of social cognition that are helpful to us in making decisions and help us to interpret the world around us. An important aspect that is linked to social cognition is that of thought suppression. Thought suppression is when a person tries to force particular thoughts, memories or feelings out of their minds that may be unpleasant or may cause a great deal of stress for the individual. Many people are unaware how often we use thought suppression in our daily lives, but the truth is we use it in almost every aspect of our day.

    Read More

  • Loneliness and Acceptance

    1993 Words  | 4 Pages

    ...e or friendship. We are taught that we don't have an identity if we are alone. Which is why we treat loneliness as a disease, one to be avoided at any cost. Loneliness is viewed as an inadequacy of our personalities. Though all of us are taught to be independent, our independence is superficial. We can cook, clean, and do our laundry but we can't seem to take care of our emotions independently. We are taught that we need to share all our emotions. And I believe that however hard we search we can never get the kind of understanding that we are looking for. We are taught to be uncomfortable in our own world. Society conditions us to believe that we are inadequately equipped to be alone and content. And that alone always means lonely.

    Read More

  • Essay On Active Ageing

    1640 Words  | 4 Pages

    (Nguyen, Sarkari, Macneil, Cowan, & Rankin, 2013). The main cause and outcome of social exclusion is poverty and has been known to cause numerous complications in relation to mental and physical wellbeing. There are four factors that have been found to lead to social exclusion these are societal discrimination, little opportunities to actively participate in society, the social exclusion of goods/needs, and the lack of financial resources to maintain their lifestyle (Nguyen et al., 2013). Social exclusion can perpetuate a tragic cycle where poverty comes from social exclusion and social exclusion leads to poverty. Which can mean that older adults can be more likely to live with multiple chronic illness, malnutrition, have high-stress levels, and experience multiple moments of loneliness, depression and anxiety (Nguyen et al., 2013). Fostering versatility and avoiding dependency roles can help the young-old to the old-old maintain their dependence and avoid social exclusion (Minett,

    Read More

  • A Reflection Of The Interaction Between Self And Society

    1620 Words  | 4 Pages

    In general, individual cannot be built without the continuous outpouring him or her into the society for understanding his or her position and identity. It is impossible that an infant is able to figure out he or she is a human being before he or she has the conception about “human being.” A man cannot know whether he is smart or not without comparison with other men. Therefore, all information about an individual must be obtained from other individuals in one society. The biological process of being a social individual is the time when the individual interacts with an outside social environment in both physical and emotional ways. The reason why an individual has to touch and output outside environment is the incompleteness of society. That is, there is no society which does not base on human beings because society is not a biologically extraneous phenomenon, and the society must be shaped by activities of every individual. With the continual establishment of the relationship between every individuals and social world, the existence of society become real. In short, the broader social world is the product of the activities of human

    Read More

More about Socially Rejected Individuals

Open Document