Date of Award

Summer 8-16-2024

Level of Access Assigned by Author

Open-Access Thesis

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Psychology

Advisor

Cynthia Erdley

Second Committee Member

Emily Haigh

Third Committee Member

Jeffrey Hecker

Additional Committee Members

Mollie Ruben

Rebecca Schwartz-Mette

Abstract

Individuals with excessive inhibitory control, or ‘overcontrol,’ have a higher likelihood than other persons to experience increased threat sensitivity, low reward sensitivity, inhibited emotional expression, low sensation-seeking behavior, perfectionism, and involvement in aloof or distant relationships (Lynch, 2018a). Radically Open Dialectical Behavior Therapy’s (RO DBT) hallmark skill (Match +1) has been found to enhance social connectedness for overcontrolled persons (Lynch, 2018b). The current study examined whether the Match +1 skill may be effective in a brief intervention, with a normative sample of college-aged adolescents, for improving social interactions. It was hypothesized that those who engaged in dyadic conversation utilizing conversation prompts derived from the Match +1 skill, as compared to those utilizing neutral conversation prompts, would experience increased levels of social connectedness, decreased levels of emotional loneliness, increased levels of positive mood, and decreased levels of negative mood following the conversation. The sample included 128 participants (64 dyads) who were recruited through the University of Maine. Participants’ ages ranged from 18 to 29 years (M =19.55, SD =1.61), with 38.2% self-identified as male, 61.8% self-identified as female, 84.1% self-reported as White, 5.5% as Black, 0.3% as Latino/a, 3.1% as Asian, 1.5% as American Indian/Native American, and 5.5% as two or more races. Dyad members who were known to one another participated virtually on Zoom in a conversational task with the instruction to use conversation prompts. Dyads were assigned to either the Match +1 condition or the control condition (neutral prompts). A mixed effects regression model was used to control for dependency. Analyses did not yield support for any of the current study’s main hypotheses. Overall, the brief intervention was not effective at engendering positive consequences for participants with reference to social connectedness, emotional loneliness, positive mood, and negative mood after engaging in an intimate conversation with another person. However, there were some interesting patterns that emerged for certain subgroups, particularly regarding gender and overcontrol. Interpretations of the findings, conclusions, limitations, and implications for future research, theory, and clinical practice are discussed.

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