Does rejection elicit hostility in rejection sensitive women?

When women express hostility, the target is typical ly a significant other. Our efforts to account for this observation center on the role of rejectio n sensitivity-the disposition to anxiously expect, readily perceive, and ov erreact to rejection-in women's hostility. We have previously shown that di spositional anxious expectations about rejection by a significant other pro mpt women to readily perceive rejection and to react with hostility in situ ations that activate rejection expectations. These findings led us to propo se that the hostility of women in such situations is a specific reaction to perceived rejection. Results from three studies support this proposition. Using a priming-pronunciation task paradigm, Study 1 revealed that rejectio n thoughts facilitated hostile thoughts to a greater extent in women high i n rejection expectations (HRS) than in those low in rejection expectations (LRS). Chronic accessibility of hostile thoughts was unrelated to rejection expectations. Study 2 found that, following rejection by a potential datin g partner, HRS women evaluated their prospective partners less positively t han LRS women. Partner evaluations were unrelated to rejection expectations in a nonrejection control condition. Using a daily diary methodology, Stud y 3 showed that HRS women were more likely than LRS women to report a confl ict with their romantic partners only when they had felt rejected on the pr evious day.