25th Annual Student Research Conference
Exploring the Mechanism Mediating Between Social Anxiety and Social Success
Kelsey N. Spalding*, Jennifer G. Pearlstein, Fallyn Lee, Randall T. Miller, Jordan Constance, Nicholas Jacobson, and Peter Ruberton
Dr. Jeffrey Vittengl, Faculty Mentor
A cornerstone of our society is social success, and social attraction marks social success during first conversations. I hypothesized that high social anxiety correlates positively with the use of safety behaviors (i.e., low voice volume, submissive tone) and negatively with social approach behaviors (i.e., asking questions, interjecting), and people with moderate social anxiety would have the most successful conversations. Undergraduates (N=138) were partnered randomly with an unfamiliar student to have video-recorded conversations and told stories revealing something about themselves. The videos were coded for submissive and approach behaviors and results were analyzed using dyadic methods. Analyses did not reveal a significant relation between self-reported social anxiety and social attraction. However, behaviors and personality dimensions associated with social anxiety (amount of negative information shared, neuroticism, extraversion, and quality of communication) did correlate significantly with social attraction suggesting indirect relations between social anxiety and social attraction.
Keywords: Social Anxiety, Social Attraction, Safety Behaviors, Social Approach Behaviors
Topic(s):Psychology
Presentation Type: Oral Paper
Session: 403-1
Location: MG 1000
Time: 2:30