Rumination and Its Impact on Socially Anxious Individuals in Romantic Relationships
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Author
Nelson, Sarah
Publisher
Washburn University
Sponsor
Department of Psychology
Issue Date
Rights
Alternative Title
Abstract
Socially anxious individuals were compared to control participants regarding romantic
relationship satisfaction and rumination. Socially anxious individuals had higher levels of
rumination than their low anxiety counterparts. Contrary to expectations, high and low social
anxiety groups did not differ in relationship satisfaction. Participants were asked to recall a
hurtful event within their romantic relationship, a task intended to provoke rumination. Contrary
to hypotheses, socially anxious individuals did not experience a noticeable decrease in romantic
relationship satisfaction after this task. All participants experienced a decrease in negative
emotions since the hurtful relationship event. Contrary to expectations, socially anxious
individuals did not continue to experience more negative emotions tied to the event than
controls. Lastly, high social anxiety and high rumination were predicted to interact to produce
low levels of relationship satisfaction. The data did not support this hypothesis.