• Part 1. Varieties of Interpersonal Rejection


• 1: Mark R. Leary: Toward a Conceptualization of Interpersonal Rejection


• 2: Kipling D. Willams and Lisa Zadro: Ostracism: On being Ignored, Excluded, and Rejected


• 3: Roy F. Baumeister and Dawn Dhavale: Two Sides of Romantic Rejection


• 4: Julie Fitness: Betrayal, Rejection, Revenge and Forgiveness: An Interpersonal Script Approach


• 5: Steven R. Asher, Amanda J. Rose, and Sonda W. Gabriel: Peer Rejection in Everyday Life


• Part 2. Dealing with Rejection: Immediate and Long-Term Reactions


• 6: Mark R. Leary, Erika J. Koch, and Nancy R. Hechenbleikner: Emotional Responses to Interpersonal Rejection


• 7: Kristen Sommer: Coping with Rejection: Ego-Defensive Strategies, Self-Esteem, and Interpersonal Relationships


• 8: Carol T. Miller and Cheryl R. Kaiser: Implications of Mental Models of Self and Others for the Targets of Stigmatization


• 9: Patricia McDougall, Shelley Hymel, Tracy Vaillancourt, and Louise Mercer: The Consequences of Childhood Peer Rejection


• Part 3. Individual Differences


• 10: Sheri R. Levy, Ozlem Ayduk, and Geraldine Downey: The Role of Rejection Sensitivity in People's Relationships with Significant Others and Valued Social Groups


• 11: Kristine M. Kelly: Individual Differences in Reactions to Rejection


• Index

Mark R. Leary is Professor of Psychology at Wake Forest University.

Interpersonal rejection ranks among the most potent and distressing events that people experience. Romantic rejection, ostracism, stigmatization, job termination, and other kinds of rejections have the power to compromise the quality of people's lives. As a result, people are highly motivated
to avoid social rejection, and, indeed, much of human behavior appears to be designed to avoid such experiences. Yet, despite the widespread effects of real, anticipated, and even imagined rejections, psychologists have devoted only passing attention to the topic, and the research on rejection has
been scattered throughout a number of psychological subspecialties (e.g., social, clinical, developmental, personality). In the past few years, however, we have seen a surge of interest in the effects of interpersonal rejection on behavior and emotion. The goal of this book is to pull together the
contributions of several scholars whose work is on the cutting edge of rejection research, providing a scholarly yet readable overview of recent advances in the area. In doing so, it not only provides a look at the current state of the area but also helps to establish the topic of rejection as an
identifiable area for future research. Topics covered in the book include: ostracism, unrequited love, betrayal, stigmatization, rejection sensitivity, rejection and self-esteem, peer rejection in childhood, emotional responses to rejection, and personality moderators of reactions to
rejection.