The dark side of competition: How competitive behaviour and striving to avoid inferiority are linked to depression, anxiety, stress and self‐harm

Abstract

This study was guided by the social rank theory of depression and aimed to explore the relationship between depression, anxiety, stress and self-harm with striving to avoid inferiority, feelings of shame and styles of attachment. Participants diagnosed with depression (n = 62) completed a series of questionnaires measuring striving to avoid inferiority, fears of missing out, being overlooked and active rejection, attachment, social rank and psychopathologies. Striving to avoid inferiority was significantly linked to social rank variables and anxious attachment. Mediator analyses revealed that the relationship between striving to avoid inferiority and depression was mediated by the social rank variable of external shame, and also anxious attachment. These findings suggest that elevated competitive behaviour can have a 'dark side'. When people feel insecure in their social environments, it can focus them on a hierarchical view of themselves and others, with a fear of rejection if they feel they have become too inferior or subordinate. This may increase vulnerability to depression, anxiety and stress.

Individual differences in the peripheral immune system promote resilience versus susceptibility to social stress

“…To directly address whether systemic inflammation functionally contributes to stress vulnerability, we used two social stress paradigms: repeated social defeat stress (RSDS) (13,14) and a purely emotional stressor (witness defeat) (15). As in humans (16,17), chronic social subordinations in mice lead to depression-like behavior, including social avoidance, in a subset of mice termed susceptible, whereas resilient mice resist the development of such behavior (18)(19)(20). We hypothesize that preexisting differences in the sensitivity of an individual's peripheral immune system dictate their subsequent vulnerability or resilience to social stress.…”

Biting myself so I don’t bite the dust: prevalence and predictors of deliberate self-harm and suicide ideation in Azorean youths

“…The current study showed that proximal factors such as engagement in high-risk behaviors, severe forms of self-criticism, and feelings of anger, shame, anxiety, and submissiveness explain a significant amount of variance in the alarming prevalence of NSSI behaviors in these youths, as demonstrated in previous studies. 7,14,16,17,62,64 In addition, reinforcement resulting from NSSI may act as a maintenance factor for this maladaptive behavior, rendering it more stable over time.…”

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“…Drive is stimulating and activating, accompanied by joy, fun and excitement (high pleasure, high arousal), but is also involved in competitive drives. Drive seeking is linked to the sympathetic nervous system, and over reliance can increase vulnerability to depression, particularly where individuals are striving to achieve in order to avoid inferiority or when individuals experience failures to obtaining a goal (Gilbert et al, 2007;Gilbert et al, 2009;Gilbert, 2014). The second type of positive affect, contentment, affiliation and safeness can often be overlooked.…”