Psychology Commons^™

Social Exclusion And Negative Affect: The Impact Of Mentalized Affectivity, Anna Voicu

Honors Program Theses

Social exclusion has been widely associated with feelings of anxiety, depressed mood, anger, and hostility. Previous literature indicates that mentalized affectivity (MA), a sophisticated form of emotional regulation, may be effective in mitigating emotional experience after social exclusion. In light of this research, our study sought to examine the predictive value of mentalized affectivity and inclusion/exclusion on emotion. Participants (N = 170) completed measures of mentalized affectivity and positive and negative affect, in addition to playing a virtual ball-tossing game that would randomly assign them to an inclusion or exclusion condition. Multiple regression analyses revealed that mentalized affectivity predicted both …