Keeping Up with the Joneses: Friends’ Perfectionism and Students’ Orientation Toward Extrinsic Aspirations

Kasser and Ryan (1993,1996) have contrasted two types of life values: intrinsic aspirations, which include community contribution, building close relationships, and self‐growth, and extrinsic aspirations, which include fame, wealth, and physical beauty. Prioritization of extrinsic relative to intrinsic aspirations has been related cross‐sectionally to decreased well‐being (Kasser, 2002). However, the influence of close others in the etiology of young adults' prioritization of extrinsic aspirations, and the prospective effects of aspirations on well‐being, are not well understood. In a multiple‐informant prospective study of 341 university students (mean age = 19.4; 64% Caucasian; 74% female), we examined the influence of friends’ and family members’ perfectionism on participants’ aspirations, and the outcomes of prioritization of extrinsic aspirations. Having friends high in other‐oriented perfectionism was significantly positively related to prioritization of extrinsic over intrinsic aspirations. Furthermore, living with friends amplified the effect. Last, prioritization of extrinsic aspirations at T1 was related to decreased subjective well‐being and self‐concordance for goals 3 months later. The study provides preliminary evidence for a relationship between friends’ other‐oriented perfectionism and students’ orientation toward extrinsic aspirations, as well as negative prospective consequences of students’ orientation to extrinsic aspirations.     

Boys’ and Girls’ Relational and Physical Aggression in Nine Countries

Distinguishing between relational and physical aggression has become a key feature of many developmental studies in North America and Western Europe, but very little information is available on relational and physical aggression in more diverse cultural contexts. This study examined the factor structure of, associations between, and gender differences in relational and physical aggression in China, Colombia, Italy, Jordan, Kenya, the Philippines, Sweden, Thailand, and the United States. Children ages 7–10 years (N = 1,410) reported on their relationally and physically aggressive behavior. Relational and physical aggression shared a common factor structure across countries. In all nine countries, relational and physical aggression were significantly correlated (average r = .49). Countries differed in the mean levels of both relational and physical aggression that children reported using and with respect to whether children reported using more physical than relational aggression or more relational than physical aggression. Boys reported being more physically aggressive than girls across all nine countries; no consistent gender differences emerged in relational aggression. Despite mean‐level differences in relational and physical aggression across countries, the findings provided support for cross‐country similarities in associations between relational and physical aggression as well as links between gender and aggression. Aggr. Behav. 38:298‐308, 2012. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Pals,Problems, and Personality: The Moderating Role of Personality in the Longitudinal Association Between Adolescents’ and Best Friends’ Delinquency

We examined the potential moderating role of Block's personality types (i.e., overcontrollers, undercontrollers, and resilients) on the longitudinal associations between adolescents’ and their best friends’ delinquency. Across three annual waves, 497 Dutch adolescents (283 boys, M_Age = 13 years at Wave 1) and their best friends reported on their delinquent behaviors. Adolescents’ three personality types were obtained by latent class growth analysis on their annual reports on Big Five personality. A three‐group cross‐lagged panel analysis was performed on three waves of data. Delinquency of overcontrollers was predicted by their best friends’ delinquency, whereas delinquency of undercontrollers and resilients was not. Delinquency of undercontrollers and resilients predicted their best friends’ delinquency, but overcontrollers’ delinquency did not. These findings suggest that personality may play an important role in adolescents’ susceptibility to the influence of friends’ delinquency, as well as in youths’ ability to influence friends through their own delinquency.     

网络交往中的人际信任

网络人际信任是人际信任在网络交往中的延伸.网络人际信任表现出脆弱性、认知性的特点,其产生与发展是一个动态的持续过程.网络环境因素、网络使用行为、个体因素和社会文化因素影响网络人际信任水平;此外,网络人际信任对个体网络自我表露、知识共享、行为决策以及团队合作等网络行为起促进作用.在此基础上指出现有研究的不足,并提出未来应基于网络人际信任的特点开展深入研究,明晰网络人际信任的影响因素及其发展过程.     

Relational Communication in Computer-Mediated Interaction

This study involved an experiment of the effects of time and communication channel—asynchronous computer conferencing versus face-to-face meetings—on relational communication in groups. Prior research on the relational aspects of computer-mediated communication has suggested strong depersonalizing effects of the medium due to the absence of nonverbal cues. Past research is criticized for failing to incorporate temporal and developmental perspectives on information processing and relational development. In this study, data were collected from 96 subjects assigned to computer conferencing or face-to-face zero-history groups of 3, who completed three tasks over several weeks’time. Results showed that computer-mediated groups increased in several relational dimensions to more positive levels and that these subsequent levels approximated those of face-to-face groups. Boundaries on the predominant theories of computer-mediated communication are recommended, and principles from uncertainty reduction and social penetration are discussed.     

Conceptualization and Measurement of Interpersonal Communication Motives

The goal of this study was to develop and validate an instrument that could be used to ascertain motives individuals have for interpersonal communication. A 28-item scale is presented along with initial information about the scale's construct validity. Results indicated there were six prominent motives: pleasure, affection, inclusion, escape, relaxation, and control. Low communicative appre-hensives used interpersonal communication for pleasure, affection, and control while high apprehensives were more aligned with the inclusion motive. The motives of pleasure, affection, and relaxation were more closely related to communication satisfaction. In fact, communication satisfaction was best predicted by low communication apprehension, gender, and the pleasure, affection, relaxation, and escape communication motives.     

Data,Dreams, and Drives: Interpersonal and Relational Innovations in Perspective

My fundamental approach is to first explore the most concrete understanding of any clinical phenomenon. Only after this consideration of the concrete do I go on to consider metaphoric or symbolic meanings. I assume there are specific facts to be discovered about our patients and that those facts are significant in the patient’s psychology. With patients experiencing panic attacks, a detailed interview may reveal a life situation in which the patient should be afraid but does not connect the danger with the symptom. With dreams, this approach endorses a combined intersubjective and objective approach, searching for how a dream may depict a real problematic situation for the dreamer that is being dissociated. Finally, disagreeing with Greenberg and Mitchell that combined drive-relational models do not work, I propose a model of multiple drives that can each be connected with different self-states.     

人际沟通中的语言偏向及影响因素

语言偏向是指因交流目标所属社会范畴不同而造成的语言使用差异。目前对语言偏向的研究主要集中在语言群际偏向(LIB)、语言期望偏向(LEB)以及否定偏向(NB)。对语言偏向的理论解释主要包括动机机制和认知机制。语言偏向受到沟通者的认知与刻板印象、情绪、人格特质、群体认同、沟通目标、沟通情境等因素的影响。拓展语言偏向的心理机制、类型与应用研究、创新研究方法以及开展汉语本土化研究是语言偏向研究的未来方向。     

“Our Sister,Mother Earth”: Solidarity and Familial Ecology in Laudato Si’

Laudato si’, with its articulation of a familial ecology reflecting Francis’s Latin American context, expands the subject of solidarity in Catholic social teaching and thought. Yet, this ecological vision of family fails to attend to the problem of gender subordination latent in Catholic social teaching, including in its approaches to ecology. A vision of solidarity that eradicates gender and ecological subordination must elaborate a familial ecology characterized by both mercy and equality.     

Patients’ Characteristics Affecting Physician-Patient Nonverbal Communication

Previous research has reported that nonverbal elements of physician-patient communication influence medical outcomes such as patients’ understanding, compliance, and saris/action with health care delivery. This investigation examined the impact of various patients’ characteristics (age, sex, education, anxiety, and relational history with the physician) on patterns of nonverbal communication exhibited in 41 physician-patient interactions at a family practice clinic. Several findings were noteworthy. First, although they were relatively consistent in their nonverbal responses to different patients, physicians generally reciprocated patient's adjustments in response latency, pauses during speaking turns, body orientation, and interruptions and compensated patient's modifications in turn duration and gestural rates. Second, physicians nonverbally interacted with patients over 30 years of age in a less domineering and more responsive fashion (e.g., comparable turn durations, more vocal back-channels, and more nonverbal behavior reciprocity) than they did when conversing with patients under 30. Third, physicians appeared responsive to patients experiencing various degrees of anxiety. Specifically, relative to their interactions with less worried patients, physicians used less task touch with anxious patients and to a greater degree compensated the worried patients nonverbal responses. Finally, the patients sex, education, and visit (i.e., first versus repeat) had little impact on the structure of physician-patient nonverbal exchanges.     

Cultures in CollisionPhilosophical Lessons from Computer-Mediated Communication

I expand the metaphor of computing as philosophical laboratory by exploring philosophical insights gleaned from examining computer-mediated communication (CMC) technologies in terms of the cultural values and communicative preferences they embed, as well as their interactions with the values and preferences that define diverse cultures in which the technologies are deployed. These empirically grounded data provide new insights for debates in philosophy of technology, notions of the self, and epistemology. This approach to utilizing data drawn from the cultural encounters facilitated by CMC technologies further suggests more ambitious ways of making philosophical use of CMC venues as a laboratory for testing and refining basic claims and hypotheses. The approach also uncovers other grounds that should encourage philosophers to become interdisciplinarians – not only for the sake of perhaps developing new sorts of insights and even forms of knowledge but also in order to shape and contribute to a global ethic and a Socratic education needed to sustain cultural diversity as CMC envelops the globe.     

Regulatory Focus and the Interpersonal Dynamics of Romantic Partners’ Personal Goal Discussions

Guided by regulatory focus theory, we examined how romantic partners’ chronic concerns with promotion (advancement) and prevention (security) shape the interpersonal dynamics of couples’ conversations about different types of personal goals. Members of 95 couples (N = 190) first completed chronic regulatory focus measures and then engaged in videotaped discussions of two types of goals that were differentially relevant to promotion and prevention concerns. Participants also completed measures of goal‐ and partner‐relevant perceptions. Independent observers rated the discussions for support‐related behaviors. Highly promotion‐focused people approached their partners more, perceived greater partner responsiveness, and received more support when discussing goals that were promotion‐relevant and that they perceived as less attainable. When partners’ responsiveness to promotion‐relevant goals was low, highly promotion‐focused people reported greater self‐efficacy regarding these goals. Highly prevention‐focused people perceived more responsiveness when partners were less distancing during discussions of their prevention‐relevant goals, and greater responsiveness perceptions reassured them that these goals are less disruptive to the relationship. These findings suggest that chronic concerns with promotion and prevention orient people to their relationship environment in ways that are consistent with these distinct motivational needs, especially when discussing goals that increase the salience of these needs.     

Merging Mass and Interpersonal Communication via Interactive Communication Technology: A Symposium

This introduction to the special issue describes the impetus for a review of the merger of mass and interpersonal communication processes in light of recent developments in communication technologies. It reviews historical arguments about the need for integration in theorizing about communication processes. Then, it discusses the potential for communication technologies to combine mass and interpersonal communication in ways that obviate the traditional distinction between both types, and how interactive communication technology offers unprecedented analytic approaches for research. Finally, it previews the 11 essays that follow by identifying 4 types of convergence of mass and interpersonal communication: concurrence, integration, transformation, and evolution.     

Group Membership as a ‘Frame of Reference’ for Interpersonal Comparison

Although individuals may view themselves as part of a group (e.g., couple, a family, or a nationality) when comparing to others, most contemporary theory and research in psychology focuses on the interpersonal comparisons that individuals make to other individuals. The prevailing view is quite individually oriented as it emphasizes the closeness between individuals as the most important basis of interpersonal comparison. However, membership in a meaningful ‘reference group’ typically frames interpersonal comparison, even where individuals do not consciously attend to the group. This makes individuals especially likely to make interpersonal comparisons to other members of their reference group and for these comparisons to be especially affecting psychologically. These are the central tenets of reference group theory ( Hyman, 1942 ; Merton, 1957 ). In this paper, we use reference group theory to highlight the role of group membership in what otherwise appear to be individually oriented interpersonal comparisons.     

Effects of Interpersonal Goals on Inadvertent Intrapersonal Influence in Computer‐Mediated Communication

This research explores a sequence of effects pertaining to the influence of relational goals on online information seeking, the use of information and arguments as relational management strategies in computer‐mediated chat, and the intrapersonal attitude change resulting from these processes. Affinity versus disaffinity goals affected participants' information seeking for communicatory utility ( Atkin, 1972 ), their conversational behaviors, and their own attitudes toward the topic and partner. People with negative relational goals used the Web to seek information for discussions more than affinity‐goal participants. Individuals expressed affinity‐disaffinity through arguments, agreements, and disagreements with partners' preferences, which led to changes in their own attitudes. Findings suggest renewed consideration of the interplay between mass media and interpersonal sources accessible on the Internet.     

Relational Control and Interactive Media Choice in Technology-Mediated Communication Situations

The study develops a framework to examine the communication goals of interacting partners and how these affect media choice. The study hypothesizes that in communication situations when the relational dimension of communication goals is competitive, relational control would affect media choice. Personal interviews were conducted among a nonrandom sample of 70 persons. The respondents were presented with different communication situations and asked if and why they would select one mode of communication over another. A content analysis of the responses supported the main argument of the study that in situations of relational competitiveness relational control would be a significant factor affecting media choice.     

Consequences of Politicians’ Disrespectful Communication Depend on Social Judgment Dimensions and Voters’ Moral Identity

The present study investigates the consequences of respectful versus disrespectful communication in political debates on voters’ social judgments and voting decisions. Reconciling previously mixed results, we argue that the consequences of disrespect vary with the judgment dimension (communion vs. agency) and voters’ moral identity. An initial study (N = 197) finds that a political candidate's disrespect towards his or her opponent affects voting decision through voting intention. A second study (N = 327) shows that disrespect influences voting intention through communion but not through agency ratings. Qualifying the previous finding, a third study (N = 329) shows that both communion and agency judgments act as mediators, but in different ways depending on the level of moral identity. Overall, communion judgments played a more prominent part in explaining the consequences of disrespectful communication. Our findings thus present a nuanced picture of respect and disrespect in political communication and shed light on their ramifications.