Social-Cognitive Predictors of Interpersonal Sensitivity

IntroductionSensitive persons are frequently described as being very careful to others' behaviour and reactions, as they want to make the others happy and to minimise conflicts (McCabe, Blankstein, & Mills, 1999); they are sensible to the threats aiming they social relations, they are unable to be assertive and they have a low self-esteem. Generally, sensitive persons have relationship difficulties because they worry too much about the way in which they are seen by the others - it is the case of the persons who have eating disorders. Increased sensitivity towards criticism can be involved in psychopathological disorders such as depression or anxious disorders; another type is the sensitivity for being rejected, which is manifested by increased expectations of being rejected and exaggerate perception of rejection (Atlas, 2004; Marian, 2012 a,b), which interferes with satisfaction in life and with couple life.Interpersonal sensitivity is an efficient predictor of depressive semeiology, mainly in the case when it is accompanied by a low self-esteem (McCabe et al., 1999). On the other side, trust represents the belief according to which generally we can rely on honesty, good intentions or the truth told by the others (Barefoot, Beckham, Brummett, & Maynard, 1998). The development of the ability for trusting the others is an essential element for the development of a healthy personality. So far, only a reduced number of studies had as a precise objective the study of trust in the others as a variable related to psychical and physical health. Barefoot and his collaborators indicated that trust influences psychical and physical well being and it has effects on longevity. Encouraging trust attitudes can be a method for promoting psychological wellbeing, mainly in the case of the older persons (Barefoot et al., 1998). On the other side, the lack of trust can be an indicator for psychological vulnerability; usually it is replaced by cynicism and by sarcasm and it can lead to isolation and gradually to the installation of depression.Stressing events can create a specific vulnerability of the adult towards depression. Besides that, the way in which the person explains the reasons which are at the basis of negative events (or positive) from his life is critical in determining negative or positive effects of those events. Anxious and depressed individuals frequently manifest a negative attributional style characterised by internal, stable and global causal explanations for negative events (Seligman, Abramson, Semmel, & von Baeyer, 1979). This attributional style is exhausting because the combination between attributional reactions towards success and failure will allow the integration of negative results and not the positive ones in the structure of self believes.ObjectivesThe study proves the fact that negative attributional style, the lack of trust and reduced social support have a direct impact on sensitivity. The results that we hope to obtain may allow the formulation of a predictive model for the above mentioned disorder, model which can support future corrections.MethodParticipantsThere were 215 participants included in the study, 102 men and 113 women, aged between 18 and 61 years old (m=26,81; SD=10,18). The participants were volunteers and the group is heterogeneous from occupational and educational point of view.InstrumentsThe Trust Scale was proposed by Rempel, Holmes and Zanna (1985) and by the means of three dimensions it measures the development and the progress of the relationships between partners. The authors proved that predictability, trust or belief and hope are representative components and dimensions of interpersonal trust. We obtain an alpha Cronbach coefficient . 89, which indicates a good internal consistency of the scale.SCL-90 is a scale made out of 90 items (see Croft, 1999; Holi, 2003) and designed with the declared purpose to reflect symptomatic psychological patterns in the case of psychiatric patients or in the society. …