Abstract:

Rejection sensitivity is the disposition to anxiously expect, readily perceive, and intensely react to rejection. Relative to low rejection sensitive individuals, high rejection sensitive individuals show a heightened perception of social rejection, an attentional bias for cues related to social rejection, and more intensely response to the same level of perceived rejection. Considerable fMRI studies have shown that social rejection versus acceptance activated regions of limbic system and prefrontal cortex, high rejection sensitive individuals displayed significantly less activity in lateral prefrontal cortex and superior frontal gyrus, which may regulate response to social rejection. Previous researchers viewed rejection sensitivity from social cognitive and neurocognitive perspective in a micro level, which focused on individual differences in the responses to social rejection. Future research should explore the rejection sensitivity under intrapersonal processes.

Key words: rejection sensitivity, Social-Cognitive Model, cognitive mechanism, neuroscience mechanism