Here are some
recent abstracts (updated June 2010) from studies accepted for
publication (hyperlinks require individual or institutional
subscription):
Abstract: We demonstrate a means of conservatively combining self and peer data regarding personality pathology and interpersonal behavior through structural equation modeling, focusing on avoidant personality disorder traits as well as those of two comparison personality disorders (dependent and narcissistic). Assessment of the relationship between personality disorder traits and interpersonal problems based on either self or peer data alone would result in counterintuitive findings regarding avoidant personality disorder. In contrast, analysis of the variance shared between self and peer leads to results that are more in keeping with hypothetical relationships between avoidant traits and interpersonal problems. Similar results were found for both dependent personality disorder traits and narcissistic personality disorder traits, exceeding our expectations for this method. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)
Abstract: Although it is clear that people with social phobia have interpersonal impairment, evidence that social phobia (as opposed to other mental disorders) affects friendship in particular is lacking. Two large epidemiological datasets were used to test whether diagnosis of social phobia is related to perceived friendship quality above and beyond perceived family relationship quality, diagnosis of other mental disorders, and a variety of demographic variables. After Bonferroni correction, social phobia was the only diagnosis related to perceived friendship quality above and beyond other factors, such that people with social phobia reported more impaired friendship quality. Social phobia's effect was similar in magnitude to demographic characteristics in both samples. The current study demonstrates that social phobia is specifically related to perceived friendship quality, suggesting that this aspect of social phobia's effects is worthy of further study.
Abstract: Previous research indicates that people with social anxiety disorder tend to experience escalating distress when thinking about past social situations. We investigated whether such distress could be limited by either an intervention or the participant's pre-existing abilities. Participants were 38 undergraduate students who reported problematic levels of social anxiety. Participants who endorsed a poor ability to purposefully engage with thoughts about stressful social situations reported a deterioration of mood after 25 min of unstructured writing about a recent problematic social situation, whereas those who demonstrated low levels of purposeful engagement but received writing prompts (based on cognitive restructuring techniques) did not show a strong deterioration of mood. In contrast, participants who endorsed greater purposeful engagement ability did not show much deterioration. Results suggest that the negative effects of thinking about social situations might be ameliorated, for at least some participants, if they are provided with structure.
Abstract:
We describe two
ways that participants may react to their internal experiences
subsequent to stressful interpersonal interactions: Ambivalent
engagement, consisting of attempts to avoid or dismiss the experiences
arising from memories of the situation, and purposeful engagement,
consisting of effortful attempts to approach the memories and internal
experiences associated with the event. In a series of studies employing
undergraduate samples, we evaluate a self-report method of measuring
these trait-like constructs. The measure shows promising psychometric
properties, including adequate to good factorial validity, good internal
consistency, good test–retest reliability, and strong convergent and
discriminant validity across a variety of theoretically related
measures. This method of measuring ambivalent and purposeful engagement
should be useful in investigating whether these constructs are related
to the development of such disorders as social anxiety disorder and
generalized anxiety disorder, as well as whether purposeful engagement
is related to therapeutic change.
Abstract:
Multiple sources of evidence suggest that problematic social anxiety
should be related to attempts to hide aspects of the self from others,
but no specific measures are available to assess this phenomenon. A
self-report measure, the Core Extrusion Schema measure (CES) was
developed to measure aspects of self-concealment that should be related
to social anxiety, including perceived present rejection, belief that
one’s true self would be socially rejected, attempts to hide one’s true
self, and attempts to avoid scrutiny. In two studies with undergraduates
(n = 383 and 79), the CES was found to have good psychometric properties
and relate to social anxiety as predicted. Some evidence of relation to
interpersonal dysfunction above and beyond social anxiety was also
observed. The CES therefore offers one avenue to assess a potential core
cognitive component of impairing social anxiety, as well as the
interpersonal effects of such anxiety.
Abstract:
Researchers
have recently suggested that anxiety research may benefit from the
examination of motivational factors, such as the difference between
approach and avoidance goals. This suggestion is consistent with the
literature on self regulation, which indicates that affect serves as
feedback for goal pursuit, with anxiety primarily providing feedback
regarding avoidance. However, no data are available on participant goals
for a task that generates social anxiety. Data from 120 speech anxious
participants who engaged in a public speaking task were used to test the
following hypotheses: (1) avoidance goals would be more specific than
approach goals; (2) goals regarding social anxiety would have a negative
impact on public speaking experience and performance; and (3)
participants would tend to organize approach and avoidance goals not as
separate goals, but as opposite poles of the same overarching goal.
Hypotheses (1) and (3) were fully supported and hypothesis (2) was
partially supported. The results highlight the possibility that approach
goals may be particularly important to anxiety reduction.
Other ways to
read articles by Dr. Rodebaugh:
This article is available courtesy of Dr. Patrick J. Curran.
Search Google
Scholar for articles by Dr. Rodebaugh (or articles which cited one of
his articles).
If your university has access to Scopus, Psycinfo, or another search engine, you can search for Dr. Rodebaugh’s work in that way.