Chapter 14 Quiz: The Psychology of Rejection
Instructions: Select the best answer for each multiple-choice question. For short-answer questions, write 2–4 sentences. Review the chapter before beginning.
Multiple Choice
1. Eisenberger and colleagues' (2003) Cyberball study demonstrated that social exclusion activates:
a) The amygdala and hippocampus, regions associated with memory and emotion b) The dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC), a region also activated by physical pain c) The prefrontal cortex, the region responsible for executive function and emotional regulation d) The nucleus accumbens, the region associated with reward anticipation
Answer: b
2. The social pain overlap theory (SPOT) proposes that the neural co-optation of pain systems for processing social rejection:
a) Was an evolutionary accident with no functional benefit b) Reflects the fact that social exclusion and physical pain are subjectively identical experiences c) Exists because social exclusion represented genuine survival threat for a species dependent on group membership d) Is limited to humans and does not appear in other social mammals
Answer: c
3. DeWall and colleagues' (2010) finding that acetaminophen reduced social pain is best interpreted as:
a) Evidence that physical pain and social pain are neurologically identical b) Evidence that social pain can be reduced by treating its physical manifestations c) Evidence of neural overlap between physical and social pain systems d) Evidence that social pain is primarily a physiological rather than psychological phenomenon
Answer: c
4. Baumeister and Leary's "need to belong" theory proposes that:
a) Romantic relationships are more important to psychological well-being than friendships or family bonds b) Forming and maintaining lasting interpersonal relationships is a fundamental human motivation, not merely a preference c) Loneliness is pathological and represents a defect in social motivation d) Social belonging needs can be fully met through online social interaction
Answer: b
5. Rejection sensitivity (RS), as defined by Downey and Feldman, is best described as:
a) A tendency to accurately detect social rejection signals that others would miss b) A measure of how frequently a person has been rejected in romantic contexts c) A dispositional cognitive-affective style characterized by anxious expectation, ready perception, and intense reaction to rejection d) A clinically diagnosable anxiety disorder related to social and romantic contexts
Answer: c
6. The "self-fulfilling prophecy" dynamic described in rejection sensitivity research refers to:
a) High-RS individuals correctly predicting their own rejection based on accurate social reading b) The pattern in which RS-driven defensive behaviors (hostility, preemptive departure) create the very rejection the person fears c) Low self-esteem individuals unconsciously choosing partners who are likely to reject them d) The tendency of high-RS individuals to date other high-RS individuals, producing unstable relationships
Answer: b
7. Fisher and colleagues' (2010) neuroimaging research on recently rejected individuals found that romantic rejection was associated with:
a) Activation of stress response systems and deactivation of reward systems b) Activation of dopaminergic reward systems — the same systems involved in early love and addiction c) Activation of prefrontal regions associated with rational decision-making d) No consistent neural signature across participants
Answer: b
8. The chapter describes "cognitive deconstruction" as a consequence of severe social exclusion. This state is characterized by:
a) Hypervigilance for additional rejection cues and angry rumination b) Increased analytical thinking as the person tries to understand what went wrong c) A detached, time-distorted, emotionally numbed condition resembling acute grief d) Reduced sensitivity to future rejection signals as a protective mechanism
Answer: c
9. According to the chapter, app-based rejection differs from face-to-face rejection primarily because:
a) App rejection is more visible to third parties, increasing shame b) App rejection involves a higher emotional investment per interaction c) App rejection is low-context, high-volume, and imposes asymmetric costs (low for rejector, unchanged for rejected) d) App rejection is delivered through text rather than verbal communication, reducing its emotional impact
Answer: c
10. The fundamental attribution error, as applied to romantic rejection, refers to the tendency to:
a) Blame external circumstances for rejection while attributing successful courtship to internal qualities b) Explain rejection through internal, stable self-characteristics when situational factors are more likely explanatory c) Underestimate how much the rejector was actually attracted to you before deciding not to pursue d) Attribute your own rejection behavior to situational factors while attributing others' rejection to their character
Answer: b
11. Neff's self-compassion framework, applied to rejection recovery, is described as more effective than self-esteem as a foundation for recovery because:
a) Self-compassion requires less cognitive effort than self-esteem maintenance b) Self-compassion is not contingent on positive performance, making it stable even when rejection challenges self-regard c) Self-compassion eliminates negative affect, while self-esteem only suppresses it d) Self-compassion focuses on the future, while self-esteem is oriented toward the past
Answer: b
12. The research on meaning-making in rejection recovery (Davis et al.) suggests that:
a) People who find meaning in rejection are engaging in denial rather than genuine processing b) The capacity to find some positive meaning or learning in a rejection experience is among the strongest predictors of recovery c) Meaning-making is only effective for rejection from established relationships, not for early-stage romantic rejection d) Meaning-making is beneficial primarily for people with high rejection sensitivity, for whom it counteracts catastrophic attribution
Answer: b
Short Answer
13. Explain why romantic rejection can intensify desire for the rejected partner rather than extinguishing it, using the neurological framework from the chapter. What does this suggest about why "just getting over it" is harder than popular advice implies?
Sample answer: Fisher and colleagues' neuroimaging research found that romantic rejection activates dopaminergic reward systems — the same systems activated by early romantic love and by addiction. The rejected partner has been neurally encoded as a reward target; losing access to that target triggers craving rather than indifference, in a pattern that resembles addiction withdrawal. This explains why rejection often intensifies rather than reduces desire: the brain is running a wanting-and-losing program rather than a simple on-off switch. "Just getting over it" implies a volitional process, but the underlying mechanism is neurobiological — reward encoding that was built up over time and that extinguishes gradually as new experiences replace the old associations.
14. Describe the connection between rejection sensitivity and self-fulfilling prophecy in romantic relationships. What early developmental experiences are associated with elevated RS, and what does this suggest about how RS should be understood clinically?
Sample answer: High rejection sensitivity produces specific behavioral patterns — hostility toward partners in ambiguous situations, preemptive withdrawal before expected rejection, hypervigilance for rejection cues — that tend to communicate defensiveness and create emotional distance. Partners of high-RS individuals report feeling unloved and unwanted, which can lead to genuine withdrawal or relationship dissolution, confirming the high-RS person's expectation of rejection. RS is associated with early experiences of parental rejection, inconsistency, or conditional acceptance, and with chronic peer victimization. Clinically, this suggests that RS is not simply a cognitive distortion to be challenged but a learned expectancy system with relational origins — meaning that therapeutic work needs to address both the cognitive content (the interpretive style) and the underlying relational history that calibrated the system.