The Effect Of Social Exclusion On Existential Anxiety:The Role Of Self-concept Clarity And Self-compassion

In real life,social exclusion may be hidden or present,but it is omnipresent.It affects individuals’ interpersonal feelings,as well as their perceptions and feelings of self,which may in turn evoke their existential anxiety.The paper consists of two studies designed to examine the relationship between social exclusion and existential anxiety among college students,the mediating role of self-concept clarity and the moderating role of self-compassion through questionnaire and laboratory simulation methods.Study 1 was divided into two sub-studies,both using the questionnaire method.Study1 A examined the relationship between feelings of social exclusion and existential anxiety,and the role of self-concept clarity in this relationship.The study used the Social Exclusion Scale,the Self-Concept Clarity Scale,and the Existential Anxiety Scale to survey 368 college students and found that social exclusion positively predicted existential anxiety and that self-concept clarity mediated the relationship.Social exclusion negatively predicted self-concept clarity,while self-concept clarity negatively predicted existential anxiety.Based on the model derived from Study 1A,Study 1B examined the moderating role of self-compassion in this mediating model.The study used the aforementioned scales plus the Self Compassion Scale with 454 college students.Results found that the mediating model of self-concept clarity still held and that self-compassion moderated the path from self-concept clarity to existential anxiety.The interaction between self-compassion and self-concept clarity can negatively regulate existential anxiety.On the basis of Study 1B,Study 2 used an experimental priming method to examine the possible buffering role of self-compassion in the effects of social exclusion on individual self-concept clarity and existential anxiety.The study used a network toss paradigm to initiate individuals’ sense of social exclusion by randomly dividing 120 college students into three groups: social exclusion-self-compassion priming group,social exclusion-non-self-compassion priming group and non-social exclusion-nonself-compassion priming group.The self-compassion initiation group was activated by the Leary self-compassion writing task.Finally,the buffering effect of self-compassion was examined by the amount of pre-and post-measure changes in subjects’ self-concept clarity as well as existential anxiety.It was found that the self-compassion activation buffered the threat to self-concept clarity and existential anxiety after social exclusion.Based on the above,this study confirmed that social exclusion triggers existential anxiety in college students;social exclusion not only directly predicts existential anxiety,but also mediates self-concept clarity.Self-compassionate priming can help individuals stabilize their self-concept clarity and alleviate their existential anxiety when they feel social excluded.These results are informative for understanding the selfthreat and self-protection measures that individuals can adopt when facing social exclusion events.