Interpersonal Avoidance

 

Directions:  In a well written, four-five page paper, research an Interpersonal Skill that has dysfunctional behavior or phenomenon that needs to be studied in order for Interpersonal Communication to be successful.   

• Select a topic from the phenomenon list.

• Create a question helping you research.

• Describe what exactly is the problem.

• Add the use of three of the ten Interpersonal Theories to explain why this problem happens, and or how this behavior can be altered, changed, or modified.

For example:  Phenomenon:  Interpersonal Attraction. 

To help you RESEARCH,  Why are we attracted to certain people?

From here we can create a topic sentence: We are attracted to people that are similar to us.

Discuss through research what the problem is: using our textbook for support and other articles or sources that support your statement. Add three of the ten theories to help analyze your findings. Are there solutions? 

Be certain to use the correct in-text citations and MLA works cited page. Refer to the Librarian’s power point instructional and Credo>

 

Assimilation Paper – is a term paper that assimilates information from the theories discussed in class and in your textbook, to explain a phenomenon common in identity formation or close relationships. Select a topic that you consider interesting or fascinating aspect of human relations (ideas are on the following page.) The paper needs to begin with a literature overview about the phenomenon (research.) Then link, how would the theory account for this phenomenon in people or their relationships? To what would the theory attribute this phenomenon? The sooner you have selected a topic, the sooner you can begin reviewing the literature on that phenomenon.  Simply put:  How the theory accounts for the phenomenon and this may lead to a solution.

• Co-cultural Theory

• Communication Accommodation Theory

• Self-Discrepancy Theory

• Communication Privacy Management Theory

• Dyadic Power Theory

• Family Communications Patterns Theory

• Implicit Personality Theories

• Social Penetration Theory

• Social Exchange Theory

• Uncertainty Reduction Theory

Create a 5 slide presentation about the subject should be 3 minutes long Interpersonal Avoidance (2)

 

Interpersonal Avoidance

Introduction

Some people avoid occupational and social activities that involve significant interaction with others due to fear of rejection, disapproval, and criticism. Interpersonal skills promote social interactions, which are highly rewarding and intricately tied to persons’ health and well-being. However, some people may face challenges forming social interactions as interactions may cause them distress. The research topic is interpersonal avoidance, where persons avoid socializing with others, and extreme cases, cause avoidant personality disorder. Heerey and Kring (2007) define avoidant personality disorder as a feeling of extreme social inhibition, sensitivity, and inadequacy to rejection and negative criticism. The research question is, why do people avoid social interactions?

Literature Review

Perrotta (2021) defines an avoidant personality disorder as a condition characterized by “y a penetrating pattern of behavior of social inhibition, feelings of inadequacy, extreme sensitivity to negative evaluations towards oneself, and the tendency to avoid social interactions.” This concerns Drago et al. (2016) argument that people with APD start their symptoms during adolescence and present with extreme shyness, sensitivity to rejection, and feelings of inadequacy. The cause of the inferiority feelings is the persisting and constitutive ideas of inferiority to others and the great anxiety that others will poorly judge them. In general cases, the persons are only shy to express or interact with others, but they tend to avoid social places altogether in extreme cases.

Interpersonal avoidance may also cause social anxiety where a person feels shy, nervous, and self-conscious. The anxiety is strong in some people, preventing them from socializing or speaking up most of the time. Although it may be an extreme shyness, to some, it may be anxiety; a condition termed social anxiety or social phobia. According to Heerey and Kring (2007), social phobia presents extreme feelings of social consciousness and shyness, which builds up to fear. Intense fear causes discomfort, and the individual avoids everyday social interactions. However, the person’s interpersonal skills are profound when interacting with family and a few close friends. However, speaking in public, talking in groups, or meeting new people causes extreme shyness.

Schineier and Goldmark (2015) provide that people with social anxiety do not enjoy social activities, but they dread such activities and avoid them. According to Rodebaugh et al. (2010), social anxiety is a fear of something that is not that dangerous. However, the mind and body are recorded as dangerous. Gable and Gosnell (2013) argue that interpersonal avoidance results from physical sensations of fear like fast breathing and a heartbeat. The physical sensations are fight-flight responses due to the increased release of adrenaline that prepares the body to make a getaway or fight. In response to the physical response, the biological mechanisms start when a person gets afraid following the build-up of the nervous system. The nervous system senses dangers and reacts to respond to the danger.

The nervous system normally reacts to people while talking to a crowd or during presentations, when a person sweats or the voice breaks. However, in extreme cases, the response is frequently and strongly activated, and in circumstances that it is out of place. Gable and Gosnell (2013) explain that the nervous system reaction makes the danger seem real. The reaction is the individual freezing and finding it challenging to communicate. The physical sensations in the body and emotions make one avoid such situations and avoid social interactions.

Interpersonal avoidance varies from one person to another, wherein social phobia, a person’s fears, and concerns may be social performance. Such individuals tend to exhibit uncomfortable or self-consciousness about being judged or noticed by others. Schineier and Goldmark (2015) explain that interpersonal avoidance results from the fear that one will be embarrassed, laughed on, criticized, make a mistake, or look foolish. It is normal to avoid such situations. However, the anxiety and fear are out of proportion.

Theoretical Applications

There are several theories explaining interpersonal avoidance. They include Social Penetration Theory, Social Exchange Theory, and Family Communications Patterns Theory.

Social Penetration Theory

The development of Social Penetration Theory was formed to explain the process of information exchange in the development and dissolution of interpersonal relationships. It describes the interaction process that takes a relationship from a superficial to a more intimate relationship (Carpeneter and Greene, 2015). According to Lee and Lin (20117), Social Penetration Theory is facilitated by self-disclosure, which increases intimacy in a relationship. Social penetration occurs in different relationships, ranging from work relationships, social groups, friends, and romantic relationships (Carpeneter and Greene, 2015). The theory adopts the onion model, where people tend to peel back different personal information layers until they reach the core. However, the theory identifies it is challenging to reach the innermost layer of others where a person attains intimate information about another.

In peeling the onions, persons with interpersonal avoidant find it challenging to peel the layer. They only get to know the public figure and never get a chance to get the intimate information of another’s core self. Worse, they find it challenging opening to people they do not know or are uncomfortable with. The person faces challenges interacting as they fail to form bonds with others. They can access the superficial layers where they have shallow information about others. According to Carpenter and Greene (2015), the Social Penetration Theory promotes relationships through the exchange of information. However, persons with interpersonal avoidance do not have the depth conversations and cannot form intimate relationships.

 Social Exchange Theory

The second theory on interpersonal skills is Social Exchange Theory which claims that social behavior results from an exchange process. Cook et al. (2013) provide that the Social Exchange Theory employs an exchange process to maximize benefits and minimize costs. Before forming any relationship, a person weighs the benefits and the risks of the relationship. When benefits outweigh risks, one forms a close relationship, but when risks outweigh the benefits, a person tends to abandon or terminate the relationship.

For persons with interpersonal avoidance and related disorders, the costs of a relationship outweigh the benefits. They fear starting the conversation, which reduces their chances of seeing the potential rewards of a relationship. Their fear of judgment outweighs any benefits they can generate from the relationship. Another aspect of Social Exchange Theory is expectation versus comparison levels. Cook et al. (2013) provide that people with poor friendships have lower comparison levels at the start of a relationship. This is worse with interpersonal avoidance as they have nothing to compare with.

Family Communications Patterns Theory

The third theory is Family Communications Patterns Theory which focuses on child and parent interactions in forming a shared social reality (Levine et al., 2015). The application of the Family Communications Patterns Theory is evident in Levine et al.’s (2015) research which argues that persons with high levels of family closeness and low levels of negative interactions are at a higher risk of social anxiety disorder. Conversely, individuals with low negative interactions and high family closeness are least likely to have social anxiety. From the Family Communications Patterns Theory perspective, interpersonal avoidance occurs in people from families with high levels of negative interaction and low levels of family closeness.

Conclusion

One of the significant problems of interpersonal skills is interpersonal avoidance, where individuals avoid communication, especially in social settings. The behavior in extreme cause avoidant personality disorder or social anxiety/social phobia. Such individuals may ease interacting with people they know but have an intense fear of unknown persons. Some of the theories that explain this interpersonal skills behavior are Social Penetration Theory, Social Exchange Theory, and Family Communications Patterns Theory. The three theories influence the exchange of information in social settings where persons with interpersonal avoidant avoid social places or talking to new people or groups. Thus people avoid social interactions due to intense fear of being rejected, judged or feelings of inadequacy.

 

 

Reference

Carpenter, A., & Greene, K. (2015). Social penetration theory. The international encyclopedia of interpersonal communication, 1-4.

Cook, K. S., Cheshire, C., Rice, E. R., & Nakagawa, S. (2013). Social exchange theory. In Handbook of social psychology (pp. 61-88). Springer, Dordrecht.

Drago, A., Marogna, C., & Sogaard, H. J. (2016). A review of characteristics and treatments of the Avoidant Personality Disorder. Could the DBT be an option. Int J Psychol Psychoanalysis, 2(1), 13.

Gable, S. L., & Gosnell, C. L. (2013). Approach and avoidance behavior in interpersonal relationships. Emotion Review, 5(3), 269-274.

Heerey, E. A., & Kring, A. M. (2007). Interpersonal consequences of social anxiety. Journal of abnormal psychology, 116(1), 125.

Lee, Y. C., & Lin, S. (2017, May). Exploring horizontal communication of matrix-structured organization with social penetration theory. In 2017 International Conference on Applied System Innovation (ICASI) (pp. 1911-1913). IEEE.

Levine, D. S., Taylor, R. J., Nguyen, A. W., Chatters, L. M., & Himle, J. A. (2015). Family and friendship informal support networks and social anxiety disorder among African Americans and Black Caribbeans. Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology, 50(7), 1121-1133.

Perrotta, G. (2021). Avoidant personality disorder: Definition, clinical and neurobiological profiles, differential diagnosis and therapeutic framework. Journal of Neurology, Neurological Science and Disorders, 7(1), 001-005.

Rodebaugh, T. L., Gianoli, M. O., Turkheimer, E., & Oltmanns, T. F. (2010). The interpersonal problems of the socially avoidant: self and peer shared variance. Journal of abnormal psychology, 119(2), 331.

Schneier, F., & Goldmark, J. (2015). Social anxiety disorder. Anxiety disorders and gender, 49-67.