This thesis generated insights into the neural and affective signatures of connectedness between parents and adolescents and between people in general, which is operationalized by responses to eye... Show moreThis thesis generated insights into the neural and affective signatures of connectedness between parents and adolescents and between people in general, which is operationalized by responses to eye contact and empathy. Overall, our findings show that during adolescence, parents are still highly attuned to their child at the neural and affective level. In addition, adolescents report to feel more connected with their parents than with unknown others, although this was not directly reflected in stronger neural responses. Another interesting finding is that making eye contact for a prolonged period generally enhanced the socio-emotional connection between people, both between parents and adolescents and with unknown others. For individuals with a history of CEM and depressed adolescents eye contact is less socially rewarding, however, and does not seem to foster a stronger connectedness with others. Studying the psychobiological underpinnings of affiliative bonding, including the parent-adolescent bond, brings us a step closer to unraveling how such bonds are established and maintained during adolescence. And even more important: Once we know how these bonds are established, we might be better able to modify and repair these bonds in situations in which they for some reason got disrupted. Show less
Social anxiety is anxiety about negative evaluation and rejection by others. Social anxiety has been long related to reduced eye contact, this feature is seen as a casual and a maintaining factor... Show moreSocial anxiety is anxiety about negative evaluation and rejection by others. Social anxiety has been long related to reduced eye contact, this feature is seen as a casual and a maintaining factor of social anxiety disorder. However, related empirical findings were equivocal. The dissertation sought to address three key questions: (1) Whether social anxiety is featured by gaze avoidance. (2) Under which conditions socially anxious individuals display gaze avoidance. (3) To what extent subjective experience of gaze avoidance corresponds with actual gaze behavior. Using the combination of naturalistic social settings and wearable eye-trackers, the dissertation provides evidence for the relationship between social anxiety and gaze avoidance particularly in naturalistic social situation, and further reveals that the relationship depends on severity of social anxiety symptoms, type of social situation and age group. Besides, gaze anxiety is moderately associated with actual gaze avoidance. Altogether, the dissertation sheds light on the nature of gaze behavior adopted by socially anxious individuals in naturalistic social interactions. Show less
