Having a Cyberball: Using a ball-throwing game as an experimental social stressor to examine the relationship between neuroticism and coping

Abstract

Research examining the relationship between neuroticism and coping has been limited by reliance on dispositional and retrospective methodologies. The current experiments evaluated the utility of a ball-throwing game used in ostracism research, as an experimental stressor with which to examine neuroticism-related differences in coping. Experiment 1 revealed that being excluded during Cyberball is associated with lowered mood and self-esteem, even when widely-used measures are employed. Being ostracised also evoked an emotion-focused coping response. Experiment 2 increased the sensitivity of response-scales and introduced an ambiguous Cyberball condition. When exclusion was ambiguous, high-neuroticism participants perceived themselves as having less control during the game. Being excluded evoked emotion-focused and avoidance coping responses. Consistent with previous research high-neuroticism participants engaged in more emotion-focused coping. Future research should consider the utility of ambiguous conditions in examining experimental manipulations, as well as individual differences in sensitivity to social ostracism.