Behavioral Inhibition and Anxiety

identifying shyness in infants

show them novel things (some want to touch, some avoid)

identifying shyness in toddlers

robots, toys (avoid or touch)

identifying shyness in preschoolers

more social tasks, how do you play with a novel peer

among toddlers, behavioral inhibition manifests as

• passive avoidance/freezing

• hyper-vigilance (orient toward source of potential threat)

• may show high levels of distress (reactive) or show elevated levels of the stress hormone cortisol

passive avoidance/freezing (of BI in toddlers)

• avoid unfamiliar events, objects and people

• when faced with such challenges, children with high levels of BI cease play, become quiet, and withdraw to proximity of caregiver

• this reticence is persistent and long lasting

what does extreme childhood BI look like

doesn’t make eye contact, posture/body language turned inwards towards himself/turned away, making body smaller, retreating into himself

Reznick’s Retrospective Self-Report of Inhibition

for adults, asking them to reflect on their childhood

• were you afraid of unfamiliar animals, such as those you encountered on the street or at someone else’s home

• did it upset you when your parents left you with a new, unfamiliar baby sitter

• did you ever pretend to be sick in order to avoid going to school or to other social events

• did you enjoy meeting new children your age

BI and personality traits

face of neuroticism and negative emotionality

what phenotypic features appear in both Anxious temperament monkeys and behavioral inhibition in kids

• increased freezing/reduced motor activity/passive avoidance in the presence of adult strangers

• less frequent vocal communication

• moderate stability across time and context

• heritable

• right lateralized frontal EEG activity

• increased or sustained amygdala activity to novelty and potential threat

• altered functional connectivity between the amygdala and prefrontal cortex

how stable is BI

• relatively high proportion of children switch from inhibited to noninhibited classifications

  • basically, many to most kids grew out of extreme early-life BI

• suggests that the environment/nurture plays an important role in determining continuity

  • stress/adversity

  • derisive, insecure, or helicopter parenting associated with increased continuity

helicopter parenting

the biggest predictor of sustained BI

• overprotective parenting, always making decisions for their kids

• lab testing —> give kids a puzzle, count how many times parents intervene

why isnt BI stable over development

• developmentally age appropriate fears

• modest continuity reflects normative developmental milestones

• modest continuity reflects heterogeneity

modest continuity reflects normative developmental milestones

• fear and anxiety are adaptive in face of danger

• intense fear and anxiety normal part of childhood

modest continuity reflects heterogeneity

• fears thought to be protective, protecting child from encountering harm during periods marked by onset of walking and increased exploration

  • normative fears vanish by 2-3 years

• but some kids, childhood marked by persistence of these fears and development of age-inappropriate fears

  • modest continuity of BI partially reflects heterogeneity in the functional significance of early-life anxiety and inhibition

• also reflects the emergence/maturation of emotion regulation

given this heterogeneity

focus on kids who are characterized with stable and high levels of BI (who don’t grow out of their shyness)

stable, high BI confers risk

kids w/ heightened BI across assessments at risk for

• anxiety disorders

• major depressive disorder

• substance use disorder

• nearly half children with extreme BI develop social anxiety disorder

individuals with social anxiety disorder tend to

• experience persistent, intense fear or anxiety about being with other people

• have a hard time talking to other people, even though they wish they could

• be extremely self conscious

• be afraid about the possibility of being judged, embarrassed, or humiliated

• worry for days or even weeks before social activities

• avoid social situations

• have difficulty making and keeping friends

• blush, sweat, or tremble around others

• feel nauseous or sick to their stomach around others

how does BI become adult dysfunction

influences social skill acquisition

• promotes problematic social behaviors

• predicts worse social outcomes

BI promotes problematic social behaviors

behaviorally inhibited children interact with others in less effective ways

BI predicts worse social outcomes

• more likely to have their requests refused

• leads to poorer quality peer relationships

• makes it more and more challenging for BI kids to

  • learn social skills and confidence

  • forge strong social relationships with new people (develop new social networks among peers, friends, schoolmates, and ultimately dorm mates, colleagues, and co workers

what mechanisms underlie bi and psychopathology

extreme BI —> aberrant social skills/peer relations —> psychopathology

• experience of social failure teaches BI kids to interpret ambiguous social situations as threatening and believe that poor social outcomes are a result of internal causes; socially anxioius