A Study On Relationships Between Reinforcement Sensitivity, Coping Style And Social Anxiety Among College Students

Objective:According to the existing survey data, social anxiety has been one of the most popular psychological problems among college students either in China or in the other countries. To cope with this problem, we must pay more attention and do more researchs. And it will be helpful for the effective prevention and intervention of social anxiety if we know more about the influencing factors and the mechanism of it. The current study attempted to examine the relations between reinforcement sensitivity and coping style with college students'social anxiety, as well as to establish and test the path model which explained how reinforcement sensitivity and coping style effect college students'social anxiety.Method:1. Literature summarizing. The current study adopted the literature summarizing method to review the relationships between reinforcement sensitivity and coping style and social anxiety among college students. On this basis, the research hypothesis was built,2. Behavioral measure. The data of participants'behavioral performance of Reward sensitivity is measured by The Card Arranging Reward Responsivity Objective Test which is designed by Powell etc and the data of participants'behavioral performance of punishment sensitivity is measured by Q-Task designed by Newman etc. The data detected by behavior measure is used to check the effectiveness of the Chinese version of the BIS/BAS Scale.3. Questionnaire survey. There are628college students from3schools in Changsha participate in this research. The data of Participants'reinforcement sensitivity, coping style and social anxiety is measured by the Chinese version of the BIS/BAS Scale made by Caver and White, Simplified Coping Style Questionnaire made by Xie Yaning and the Chinese version of Interaction Anxiousness Scale made by Leary was analyzed and discussed.Results and Conclusion:1.The relationships between reinforcement sensitivity and coping style and social anxiety among college students are significant:the reward sensitivity is significantly and positively correlated with positive coping style (r=.40, p<.01); the punishment sensitivity is significantly and positively correlated with social anxiety(r=.39, p<.01); positive coping style is significantly and negatively correlated with social anxiety (r=-.16, p<.01); negative coping style is significantly and positively correlated with social anxiety (r=.19, p<.01).2.The reward sensitivity is an effective predictor of positive coping style (b=.36, p<.001);the punishment sensitivity (b=.79, p<.001) and positive coping style (b=-.25, p<.001) and negative coping style (b=.32, p<.001) are effective predictors of college students'social anxiety.3. The path model which explained how reinforcement sensitivity and coping style effect social anxiety shows that reinforcement sensitivity effect social anxiety directly as well as indirectly through the mediating effects of coping style.