Ostracism and Physiological Arousal Following Traumatic Brain Injury – “It might hurt but that doesn’t mean I will do anything about it”
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1
University of Newcastle, School of Psychology, Australia
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2
University of New South Wales, School of Psychology, Australia
People with traumatic brain injury (TBI) have impoverished self-reported and physiological responses to socially relevant stimuli. This study examined the psychological and physiological effects of ostracism in 21 adults with TBI and 17 matched control participants using the Cyberball paradigm. Cyberball is a computerised task in which participants play a game of catch and throw with three other (pseudo) participants. The game is manipulated so that in the inclusion condition the real participant is included fairly in the game, while in the ostracism condition they are excluded from the game following the first few throws. Skin conductance levels (SCLs) were measured throughout the game as a proxy for social stress. Results showed that people with TBI were cognitively aware that they were being ostracised, however, that their self-reported emotional experience to social exclusion was different to that of the control group [F (1, 35) = 4.10, p = 0.05, η2 = 0.11]. Differences in SCLs between groups and between conditions did not reach significance, nor did they correlate with behavioural responses. These findings will be discussed with regards to the consequences of dissociation between psychological and physiological measures and the implications for motivating behaviours associated with social reintegration.
Keywords:
ostracism,
Traumatic Brain Injury,
social exclusion,
physiological,
cyberball
Conference:
ASP2015 - 25th Annual Conference of the Australasian Society for Psychophysiology, Sydney, Australia, 2 Dec - 4 Dec, 2015.
Presentation Type:
Oral Presentation
Topic:
Psychophysiology
Citation:
Kelly
M,
McDonald
S and
Rushby
JA
(2015). Ostracism and Physiological Arousal Following Traumatic Brain Injury – “It might hurt but that doesn’t mean I will do anything about it”.
Conference Abstract:
ASP2015 - 25th Annual Conference of the Australasian Society for Psychophysiology.
doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2015.219.00028
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Received:
21 Oct 2015;
Published Online:
30 Nov 2015.
*
Correspondence:
Dr. Michelle Kelly, University of Newcastle, School of Psychology, Newcastle, NSW, 2308, Australia, michelle.kelly@newcastle.edu.au