The Role of Social Anxiety in Self-Control Depletion

1. The Role of Social Anxiety in Self-Control Depletion  Lyndsay A. Nelson, Jessica Williamson,& Ginette C. Blackhart East Tennessee State University Method • Conclusions • The higher participants’ social anxiety, the more cookies they ate following social evaluation. • Furthermore, social anxiety predicted cookies consumed even when controlling for trait self-control. • Impression management was negatively correlated with, but did not predict, cookies consumed. • Results suggest that, following social evaluation, those who are socially anxious, will experience lowered self-control performance. • If being evaluated in everyday lives, there are several negative implications concerning these individuals’ ability to self-regulate • Future research should explore whether socially anxious individuals’ self-control is affected generally across interpersonal situations • Background • Self-control is a limited resource that becomes weakened when engaging in processes requiring self-regulation (Muraven & Baumeister, 2000). • Because socially anxious individuals engage in immense self-regulatory efforts in social situations, this may lead them to experience self-control depletion (Kashdan et al., 2011). • The present research examined how social evaluation would impact the state self-control of socially anxious individuals. • We hypothesized that social anxiety would predict state self-control, even when controlling for trait self-control. • Participants • Undergraduate Students • n = 76 (61% women) • Mage = 22.22, SD = 7.59 • Measures • Social Interaction Anxiety Scale (SIAS) (Mattick & Clarke, 1998) • Trait Self-Control Scale (SCS) (Tangney et al., 2004) • Balanced Inventory of Desirable Responding (BIDR) (Paulhus, 1991) • State Self-Control – Cookies Consumed • Participants first completed psychological measures • Next, participants were told they would complete two separate studies:a psychological study assessing how well people perform under various pressures and a marketing study assessing preference for a particular kind of food • Participants had 10 min to prepare a 5 min speech serving as a job interview. This speech was given in presence of two confederates acting as managers and was recorded on video camera • After the speech task, participants were presented with 35 bite sized cookies and rating form. The number of cookies consumed served as the measure of self-control, where more cookies consumed reflected lower self-control • Last, participants completed a demographics questionnaire and funnel debriefing before exiting the lab Results • The number of cookies consumed was significantly correlated with trait self-control, social interaction anxiety, and impression management. • A hierarchical multiple regression was conducted with trait self-control entered at Step 1 and social anxiety and impression management entered at Step 2. • The total variance explained by the model as a whole was 17%, • F(3,72) = 4.43, p < .05. • In the final model, only social anxiety significantly predicted cookies consumed References Kashdan, T. B., Weeks, J. W., & Savostyanova, A. A. (2011). Whether, how, and when social anxiety shapes positive experiences and events: A self-regulatory framework and treatment implications. Clinical Psychology Review, 31(5), 786-799. Muraven, M., & Baumeister, R. F. (2000). Self-regulation and depletion of limited resources: Does self-control resemble a muscle?. Psychological Bulletin, 126(2), 247-259. Send correspondence about this research to Lyndsay Nelson at nelsonla@goldmail.etsu.edu. Note: *p< .05, **p < .01, ***p < .001