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Ozlem Ayduk Assistant Professor Ph.D., Columbia University
My research interests fall into three related but distinct domains. One is concerned with attachment and self-regulation as social-cognitive mediators of personal and interpersonal adjustment. The second one focuses on the cognitive and motivational mechanisms that facilitate effective emotional regulation. The third one examines the factors that affect development of self-regulatory competencies. Social-cognitive mediators of interpersonal adjustment. Although rejection by significant others elicits a wide range of psychological problems including depression, low self-esteem, and intimate violence, not everybody who faces rejection experiences these negative outcomes to the same extent. So how can we explain such variability in how effectively people cope with rejection? Over the last several years, my research has focused on two personality processes to address this question. The first one is the disposition to anxiously expect rejection in interpersonal situations, which we refer to as rejection sensitivity. The second one is the ability to effectively self-regulate negative arousal and impulsive behavior under stressful conditions. In a nutshell, this research has shown that although rejection sensitivity is typically associated with negative overreactions to perceived rejection (anger/hostility, or depression) and relationship difficulties, it is nevertheless moderated by how effectively people can regulate negative arousal and delay gratification in the service of their long-term goals. In the absence of self-regulatory competencies, rejection sensitivity develops into a maladaptive interpersonal style. If rejection sensitive people have self-regulatory competencies however they tend not to suffer from negative outcomes to the same extent. Current relevant projects are focusing on delineating with more precision the nature of attentional and physiological processes through which these two dispositions affect people’s relationship behavior and psychological well-being. Cognitive & motivational processes in emotional regulation. A second related line of research tries to unpack the mechanisms that underlie emotional regulation. What are the cognitive and motivational processes that enable people to control anger and inhibit destructive behavior in relationships? In an ongoing project my collaborators and I are examining how psychological distancing affects whether emotional processing accentuates or attenuates anger arousal. We are finding that emotional processing (i.e., trying to understand the reasons behind one’s feelings) attenuates anger only when people psychologically distance themselves from the experiential aspects of their anger-eliciting experiences. If people focus on emotions without adopting a distanced perspective, however, emotional processing runs the risk of turning into a cycle of ruminative thinking that exacerbates hostile tendencies. Effective self-regulation should not only depend on whether individuals can utilize certain kinds of cognitive mechanisms but also whether they have the goal to self-regulate in the first place, suggesting that making accessible regulatory, "cooling" goals should also facilitate emotional regulation. In a series of experiments we are testing this hypothesis by first priming participants with impulse inhibition and long-term relationship goals prior to exposing them to a rejection experience in the laboratory and then by assessing their physiological, and affective reactions to this transgression. Development of self-regulatory competencies. A third aspect of my research is concerned with studying the developmental precursors of self-regulatory abilities. Prior research indicates that there are at least two primary mechanisms that affect children’s development. One is temperamental, reflecting one’s biological/physiological predispositions. The other is environmental, acting through social and interpersonal relationships in modulating these underlying predispositions. Within this framework, one of my collaborative research projects examines the unique and interactive contributions of a child’s own negative affectivity and mother’s responsivity at age 18 months to their ability to self-regulate later in life. In a second longitudinal project, we are examining the intergenerational transmission of self-regulatory competencies, trying to understand the impact of both biological and interpersonal factors that contribute to their transmission. Selected Publications Ayduk, O., Downey, G., Testa, A., Yen, Y., & Shoda, Y. (1999). Does rejection elicit hostility in rejection-sensitive women? Social Cognition, 17, 245-271. Ayduk, O., Mendoza-Denton, R., Mischel, W., Downey, G., Peake, P., & Rodriguez, M. (2000). Regulating the interpersonal self: Strategic self-regulation for coping with rejection sensitivity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79, 776-792. Ayduk, O., Downey, G., Kim, M. (2001). Rejection sensitivity and depressive symptoms in women. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 27, 868-877. Ayduk, O., Mischel, W., & Downey, G. (2002). Attentional mechanisms linking rejection to hostile reactivity: The role of "hot" vs. "cool" focus. Psychological Science, 13, 443-448. Ayduk, O. & Mischel, W. (2002). When smart people behave stupidly: Inconsistencies in social and emotional intelligence. In R. J. Sternberg (Ed.), Why smart people can be so stupid? (pp. 86-105). New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. July 2003
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