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Social rejection, whether active or passive, can have negative psychological effects on individuals, including aggression and withdrawal. Those who are different or have offbeat personalities are more likely to be rejected. Rejection can lead to a vicious cycle of increased withdrawal or aggression, which can last a lifetime.
Social rejection occurs when an individual is intentionally excluded from social situations. This refusal can be made by an individual or a group of people and can be active or passive in nature. There have been numerous studies focusing on social rejection. These studies have shown that this type of rejection can lead to a variety of negative psychological effects on the sufferer, including aggression and withdrawal.
Humans are social creatures, by nature, and rejection is almost always emotionally painful. Some rejection is normal in life and almost everyone has experienced, or will experience, some sort of social exclusion during their lifetime. Repeated rejection, whether malicious or not, can have a negative impact on a person. These rejections can be much more devastating to a highly sensitive individual, or if fitting into a certain person or group is extremely important to the avoided person.
Active social rejection can manifest itself in such forms as bullying or teasing. Passive rejection, on the other hand, can be a little harder to recognize and can include ignoring a particular individual and excluding them from certain activities. While passive rejection may seem less cruel, it can have just as harmful effects.
Psychologists have, over the years, tried to figure out who is most likely to suffer from social rejection. While it’s not an exact science and all situations are different, they found that those who are considered different from so-called normal people are more likely to be the social outcasts. Shy or aggressive people are thought to be more targeted for rejection, as these personality traits tend to be slightly offbeat.
Numerous studies have been conducted on the effects of social rejection. Some findings have shown that children who are socially rejected are more likely to get poor grades, drop out of school, have low self-esteem or develop a substance abuse problem. It has also been suggested that these individuals often become increasingly aggressive or withdrawn.
One theory of social rejection is that it can become a vicious cycle. For example, if the social outcast is a shy person by nature, a repeated rejection could very likely make him more withdrawn. This, in turn, will often cause his peers to reject him more, he may become more withdrawn, and so on.
The same goes for aggressive personalities. If a person is aggressive by nature, there’s a good chance they’ll become the social reject. These actions of his peers could cause him to become even more aggressive. This cycle can last for a person’s entire life and breaking the cycle can be quite difficult.
