Rejection as a form of social exclusion

Abstract

The article presents the study results of the rejection in interpersonal relationships in the social exclusion ideas context. The empirical study involved 51 people. The results, carried out using qualitative and quantitative methods of data analysis, demonstrate the characteristic perception of rejection as a process. The rejection trigger is the discovery of otherness and / or inadequacy with the interaction partner. This is expressed in the mismatch of values, attitudes, person’s expectations; in the awareness of the reciprocity absence; in inattention to the partner, in ignoring its interests. The rejection experience is accompanied by feelings of resentment, loneliness, other negative emotions, as well as a search for the meaning of what is happening. Adaptation to a situation of rejection presupposes acceptance or reciprocal rejection, which leads to the final break in communication with the partner of interpersonal relations, to the loss of psychological resources, to the significant social needs’ deprivation. It is shown that lonely adults are much less likely to describe the rejection process as a way to accept the diversity of the world and interpersonal relationships’ variability. Understanding rejection as a social exclusion form gives a possibility for building psychotherapeutic work with people who reject interpersonal relationships.