Page 12 - Like me, or else... - Michelle Achterberg

Chapter 1
We literally bend over backwards to make a perfect picture, combine it with an inspiring quote, post it on social media and ... wait for the likes! Why do we invest so much effort in being recognized and accepted by others? And how come that being rejected can fill us with rage? What are the underlying neural mechanisms of these emotions and behaviors? And how do these mechanisms develop? In this dissertation, I seek out to shed light on the nature, nurture and neural mechanisms of social emotion regulation in childhood.
Social is Salient
The current generation of youth is the first to grow up with smartphones and tablets from birth on. These children are constantly connected to each other through multiplayer video gaming and social media. A 2015 survey amongst over 1200 eight-to-twelve-year-old children revealed that they spend on average six hours on (social) media each day (Common Sense Media Inc., 2015). These statistics show that children deal with social media and social connectedness from an early age on. However, relatively little is known about the influence of this intense form of social connectedness. Some studies have pointed to the potentially addictive aspects of social media (Blackwell et al., 2017), and popular media are warning for a society of social junkies always on the lookout for social confirmation. However, the desire to belong to a social group is not something new: Social acceptance is, and always has been, of key importance in life (Baumeister and Leary, 1995). Receiving positive social feedback increases our self-esteem and gives us a sense of belonging (Leary and Baumeister, 2000; DeWall et al., 2011). Negative social feedback, in contrast, is related to feelings of sadness and depression (Nolan et al., 2003) and can lead to frustration and rage (Twenge et al., 2001). The current dissertation examines how children deal with social evaluation, and what underlying mechanisms come into play. This thesis aims to answer questions such as: How is it that some children are more sensitive to social rejection than others? What are the neural mechanisms of social evaluation and subsequent behavior? And what is a feasible method to examine social evaluation and social emotion regulation in children?
Studying social interactions can be challenging as it is a complex form of behavior that is strongly intertwined with our day-to-day lives. In order to decompose these processes, researchers have often worked with experiments. The advantage of an experiment is that you examine participants in a controlled setting, making it possible to study unique aspects of complex behaviors. Experimental paradigms are also very suitable to use in combination with psychophysiological measures, which enables to additionally study covert
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