The Dynamic Ecology of Rejection and Acceptance: Mental Health Implications
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COMMENTARY
The Dynamic Ecology of Rejection and Acceptance: Mental Health Implications Geraldine Downey1 · Jarrell E. Daniels1 Received: 14 December 2019 / Revised: 7 January 2020 / Accepted: 9 January 2020 © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
It is an honor to provide a commentary on Feinstein’s (2019) excellent target article delineating ways in which the rejection sensitivity (RS) model (Downey & Feldman, 1996) can augment influential accounts of how stigma, prejudice, and discrimination can harm the mental health of sexual minorities. Feinstein has highlighted how the sense of rejection communicated societally and interpersonally about sexual minority status can generate anxious or angry expectations of rejection that increase the person’s readiness to perceive and react to rejection in ways that undermine relationships and well-being. We begin with a consideration of the distinction between the RS model and the minority stress and psychological mediation frameworks. We then focus on three features of the RS model that Feinstein’s article led us to realize warrant further development. First, we recognize the need for consideration of how acceptance and rejection of different aspects of our personal and social identities across the course of development integrate to shape our social expectations and associated coping strategies. When our research made the leap from RS that developed from rejection within primary relationships (parents, peers, and teachers) to rejection based on membership in a historically devalued status group, we sought to statistically show that status-based RS had an impact that could not be reduced to the individual being a generally sensitive person. A more illuminating approach would be to use ecological systems theory (Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 2006) as a way of considering the multiple layers of acceptance and rejection that unfold dynamically over the course of our lives and shape expectations and concerns about the social world. This Commentary refers to the article available at https://doi. org/10.1007/s10508-019-1428-3. * Geraldine Downey [email protected] 1
Center for Justice and Psychology Department, Columbia University, 1190 Amsterdam Avenue, New York, NY 10027, USA
Second, Feinstein (2019) has prompted us to consider the ways in which being high in RS may impede the development of a healthy and robust sense of self. To the extent that individuals’ behavior and well-being are contingent on the perceived regard of others, they are constantly questioning whether the salient other will be rejecting or accepting and responding in line with their expectations and fears. This observation points to the importance for mental health of supporting the high-RS person in developing a coherent, stable, value-based sense of self that guides social interactions. Third, Feinstein (2019) highlights how much of our work has focused on understanding the processes through which people defend against rejection. We have paid less attention to acceptance, with t
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