Projects

Identifying the underlying mechanisms and processes linked to social resilience and psychological wellbeing.

My previous research has focused the psychological, behavioural and physiological effects of inhibiting social rejection. In short, previous results suggest that it is possible to counter an individual's negative automatic mental habits by adopting positive cognitive strategies that in turn enable the person to deal more effectively with social stress. Although these positive results show surprising benefits, several questions need answering before properly and responsibly adapting such interventions to other psychological vulnerabilities. Firstly, these results raise several questions regarding how attentional bias and the attentional training task actually operate. Little is known about the specific components of attentional bias that are modified by the training task or about the processes through which the cognitive mechanisms involved in this modification operate. Therefore, properly identifying the components and mechanisms involved in attentional bias and the attentional training task will make it possible to adapt this type of intervention to other wide-spread emotional disorders such as depression, social anxiety and anorexia, which are also perpetuated by a dysfunctional and hyperactive attentional bias to negative information.

Publications related to this project:

Dandeneau, S. D., & Baldwin, M. W. (2009). The buffering effects of rejection-inhibiting training against social and performance threats in adult students. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 34, 42-50.

Dandeneau, S., Baldwin, M., Baccus, J., Sakellaropoulo, M., & Pruessner, J. (2007). Cutting stress off at the pass : Reducing vigilance and responsiveness to social threat by manipulating attention. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 93(4), 651-666.

Dandeneau, S. D., & Baldwin, M. W. (2004). The inhibition of socially rejecting information among people with high versus low self-esteem: The role of attentional bias and the effects of bias reduction training. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 23(4), 584-602.