Gender,negative affectivity,and observed social support behavior in marital interaction

Most prior research on social support in close relationships examines perceptions of support, failing to capture fully the helping behaviors that partners exchange while interacting. We observed 60 newly married couples each engage in two 10-minute interactions. with one spouse (the helper) responding while the partner (the helper) discussed a personal characteristic or problem that he or she wanted to change. Helper and helper behaviors were coded and examined in relation to gender and negative affectivity, which have been linked in prior research to perceptions of support. Husbands and wives did not differ in helper behaviors, but wives displayed more negative helper behavior than did husbands. Helper and helper behavior covaried with negative affectivity in expected directions, and helper behavior covaried with the partner's negative affectivity. Finally, analysis of negative reciprocity sequences showed that, as helpers, husbands were more likely to reciprocate negative behavior, and to have their negative behavior reciprocated, to the extent that they were high in negative affectivity. We emphasize the value of observational data in understanding social support in marriage, we discuss the implications of the findings in terms of prevailing beliefs about gender and social support, and we outline the specific links between negative affectivity and observed support behavior in marriage.     

Social Support, Personality, and Burnout in Nurses

This study sought to find evidence for: (a) a relationship between increased levels of work-related social support and decreased burnout, (b) a relationship between personality traits and burnout, and (c) a significant interaction of social support and extraversion in relation to burnout. Seventy-six staff nurses and their supervisors at a private medical hospital participated as subjects. Two subscales of the Work Environment Scale measured social support. Personality was measured using an instrument known as PROSCAN, and Scale H of the 16PF. Burnout was measured by the Maslach Burnout Inventory. A strong negative correlation between work-related social support and burnout was found. Also, nurses whose supervisors received positive-feedback training showed significant reductions in emotional exhaustion, compared to those whose supervisors did not receive this training. Some dimensions of personality explained a significant amount of burnout. The study also provided further evidence of the interactive effect of social support and extraversion in relation to an emotional distress variable. That is, extraverted nurses required more work-related peer support than did introverts to avoid emotional exhaustion. Suggestions for further research are given.     

Dysphoria and Children's Processing of Supportive Interactions

This study examined the processing of supportive interactions by dysphoric and nondysphoric preteens and early adolescents. Seventy-two youngsters between the ages of 10 and 13 evaluated the supportiveness and helpfulness of standardized, videotaped interactions between a distressed preadolescent and a maternal figure. The tape presentations varied in terms of the level of depicted maternal support and instructional condition (degree of self-reference). The results indicated that dysphoric youngsters evaluated both the supportiveness and helpfulness of interactions less positively than nondysphoric agemates. Group differences in support evaluations were most pronounced in the self-referenced condition. The level of depicted support did not affect processing differences. Dysphoric subjects reported lower levels of emotional support in prior relationships and a greater tendency to view supportive behavior as ingenuine than nondysphoric peers. Variation in prior support experiences accounted for group differences in the evaluation of the supportiveness of new interactions.     

Supportive interactions,negative interactions,and depressed mood

Research on the association between social relationships and emotional functioning has emphasized the health-promoting effects of social support. Yet there is reason to believe that the absence of negative social interactions may be more important for mental health than the presence of supportive interactions. In this investigation we clarify important characteristics concerning the source, the recipient, and the combined influence of support and negativity. Data are presented regarding supportive and negative interactions with spouse, relatives, and friends; regression analyses suggest that negative interactions are more predictive of depressed mood than supportive interactions (specifically with spouse and friends). We also document several specifications suggesting directions for future research on the special importance of interactions in intimate relationships and the synergistic effects of situations in which supportive and negative interactions both occur.     

Accuracy and bias in perceptions of emotionally supportive communication in marriage

Abstract This study examined accuracy and bias within people's perceptions of a spouse's emotionally supportive behavior in the United States. Hypotheses stated that people's self‐reported supportiveness, their marital satisfaction, and outside observers' ratings of their partner's support predict people's perceptions of their partner's supportiveness. Married dyads (N = 100) completed measures of marital satisfaction, engaged in a discussion about personal stressors, and rated their own and their spouse's emotional support during the interaction. Third‐party observers also provided a rating of each partner's emotionally supportive behavior. For husbands and wives, perceptions of partner support were positively associated with their own supportiveness and the partner's observable supportive communication. Marital satisfaction predicted greater perception of partner support for wives, but not for husbands.     

Marital processes predictive of later dissolution: behavior, physiology, and health.

Seventy-three married couples were studied in 1983 and 1987. To identify marital processes associated with dissolution, a balance theory of marriage was used to generate 1 variable for dividing couples into regulated and nonregulated groups. For studying the precursors of divorce, a "cascade" model of marital dissolution, which forms a Guttman-like scale, received preliminary support. Compared with regulated couples, nonregulated couples had (a) marital problems rated as more severe (Time 1); (b) lower marital satisfaction (Time 1 and Time 2); (c) poorer health (Time 2); (d) smaller finger pulse amplitudes (wives); (e) more negative ratings for interactions; (f) more negative emotional expression; (g) less positive emotional expression; (h) more stubbornness and withdrawal from interaction; (i) greater defensiveness; and (j) greater risk for marital dissolution (lower marital satisfaction and higher incidence of consideration of dissolution and of actual separation).     

General traits of personality and affectivity as predictors of satisfaction in intimate relationships: evidence from self- and partner-ratings

Self- and partner-ratings on trait affect and the Big Five were obtained from 74 married and 136 dating couples. The relationship satisfaction of each person (the "target") was correlated with four sets of ratings: (a) target's self-rated personality, (b) target's partner-rated personality, (c) partner's self-rated personality, and (d) partner's target-rated personality. Self- and partner-ratings of the target's personality yielded very similar results. Negative and positive affectivity were consistent predictors of satisfaction in both samples. Conscientiousness and agreeableness were reliably related to satisfaction in the dating couples, whereas extraversion consistently correlated with satisfaction in the married couples. These traits jointly predicted as much as 34% (self-ratings) and 26% (partner-ratings) of the variance in satisfaction. In contrast, the partner's personality played a lesser role in satisfaction.     

Couples coping with cancer: Research issues and recent findings

The diagnosis of cancer in one partner can impose numerous changes for both the individual diagnosed with cancer and his or her healthy spouse. In this article, the literature on spouse social support in the context of cancer is reviewed. The importance of understanding support given and received within a close relationship using an interactional, contextual perspective is emphasized. Examining support-related interactions and understanding the personal characteristics that determine the type and amount of support that providers give and the kind of support individuals prefer, and investigating why significant others respond in supportive or critical ways is important. In addition, the study of support interactions must be placed in the both in the context of a marriage and in the context of a catastrophic life event such as cancer. A longitudinal study of patients with gastrointestinal cancer and their healthy partners was undertaken to examine these issues, and the design of this study is described. General problems conducting research with couples undergoing a severe life stressor as well as specific problems our research group has encountered while setting up a research program in the cancer setting are reviewed.     

Physiological and affective predictors of change in relationship satisfaction

In 1980, 30 married couples had engaged in a low-conflict and a high-conflict conversational interaction while continuous physiological data were obtained. In a separate session each spouse had provided a continuous self-report of affect while viewing the videotape of the interaction. In 1983, 19 of these couples were re-located to determine the change in relationship satisfaction that had occurred over the preceding 3 years. A broadly based pattern of physiological arousal (across spouses, interaction segments, and physiological measures) in 1980 was found to predict decline in marital satisfaction; the more aroused the couple was during the 1980 interactions, the more their marital satisfaction declined over the ensuing 3 years. Several affective variables also predicted decline in marital satisfaction, including a pronounced sex difference in negative affect reciprocity: Marital satisfaction declined most when husbands did not reciprocate their wives' negative affect, and when wives did reciprocate their husbands' negative affect.     

Outcomes of emotional support in dating relationships: Relational turbulence or sentiment override?

This study tests the relational turbulence model by considering how qualities of dating relationships may polarize positive evaluations of partner supportiveness and emotional improvement following an interaction about a stressful experience. Sentiment override, which is the tendency for negative relationship qualities to attenuate positive evaluations of a partner, was evaluated as a competing hypothesis. Using a laboratory‐based observation method, participants completed stressful activities and talked with a dating partner. Results supported the relational turbulence model, such that the positive association between observer ratings of enacted support and emotional improvement increased when turbulence was high. All results for perceived supportiveness were nonsignificant. Relationship satisfaction did not predict either outcome; therefore, the sentiment override hypothesis was not supported.     

The quantity and quality of marital interaction related to marital satisfaction: A behavioral analysis

An assessment instrument is presented for the evaluation of the quantity and quality of dyadic interaction, as well as for the daily recording of behaviors presented and omitted which influence marital satisfaction. Comparison of data from ten happy couples and from ten couples entering therapy indicated two distinct dysfunctional patterns among distressed couples, with significantly different patterns of time-together and positive/negative ratios differentiating the happy versus therapy groups. Independent behavioral recording for 14 consecutive days significantly increased husband-wife agreement on a traditional adjustment questionnaire without significantly increasing or decreasing the level of satisfaction being assessed. There was no difference between groups as to interspousal agreement on amount of time together. However, the happy couples agreed on daily quality ratings of the 72 15-minute segments significantly more often than did the distressed couples. Couples at the extremes of the happy-distressed continuum reported rewarding and punishing, respectively, in response to the partners presence, regardless of behaviors emitted. Midrange happy couples defined "pleasant" as positive behaviors presented; midrange distressed couples defined "pleasant" as negative behaviors omitted. Theoretical and clinical implications of behavioral analysis of sequential patterns are discussed.     

Partner support and marital satisfaction: Support amount,adequacy, provision,and solicitation

To compare the extent to which (a) amount versus adequacy of received support and (b) support provision versus solicitation behaviors predict marital satisfaction, married couples from the United States (N= 275) provided perceptions of received support and participated in 2 support transactions. Actor–partner interdependence modeling and structural equation modeling techniques were employed. Husbands’ perceptions of support adequacy predicted marital satisfaction more than their perceptions of support amount, whereas the results were generally the opposite for wives. Husbands’ provision and wives’ solicitation behaviors predicted marital satisfaction. Results suggest the need to move beyond simple counts of support received to examining support adequacy—and the various behaviors and roles involved in supportive transactions—to enhance theories of support and relationship functioning.     

Truth and bias in daily judgments of support receipt between romantic partners

The perception that a partner is supportive, tied to beneficial relational and personal outcomes, may be shaped by reality (the partner's actual support) but is often also biased. Using T. V. West and D. A. Kenny's (2011) truth‐and‐bias model, the balance between truth and one bias type—the tendency to maintain perceived mutuality by projecting one's own supportiveness onto one's partner—was examined. It was hypothesized that this balance will be altered by the behavior's psychological significance and by the scope of the behavior being judged. In a 35‐day diary, 80 couples reported perceived and provided emotional/practical support. Participants' judgments included less biased projection when they addressed behaviors of lower emotional significance or greater contextual specificity.     

Neuroticism and marital satisfaction

Thirty happily married and thirty unhappily married couples were examined by means of the MPI questionnaire to test the hypothesis that emotional instability impaired satisfaction in marriage. Unhappily married partners were very significantly higher on neuroticism than happily married partners, but there were no differences in extraversion/introversion. The data suggest that the high neuroticism of the unhappily married partners antedates their marriage.     

A Multi-Occasion Multi-Rater Model of Affective Dispositions and Affective Well-Being

Personality theories assume that affective dispositions have a strong influence on affective experience and well-being, produce cross-situational consistency, and that positive and negative experiences are influenced by separate dispositions. These assumptions were tested using multi-method data. 97 married couples completed self and informant ratings of affective dispositions, a 14-day experience sampling study, and retrospective self and informant ratings of affective experiences (overall and with spouse). Analysis was conducted using a multi-trait-multi-method matrix and structural equation modeling. Main findings were (a) strong effects of affective dispositions on affective experiences with partner and affective well-being, (b) shared method variance among disposition and well-being ratings by the same rater, and (c) moderate to strong negative correlations between dispositions for positive and negative affect.     

A Social Relations Model of need supportiveness

Basic need fulfillment has important implications for optimal growth and development and may be derived through receiving need support from others. Thus far, research has primarily focused on single-person ratings of (perceptions of) need supportiveness. Thus, it is unclear whether perceptions of need supportiveness are dyadically specific and reciprocal and to what extent need supportiveness may be trait-based. In the current study, sorority and fraternity members (N = 117, ethnically diverse, 78% male) completed self-ratings and other-ratings of perceptions of need supportiveness using a round-robin design. Data was analyzed according to the Social Relations Model. We found that people tended to consistently see others as, and be seen by others as, need supportive (or not). These perceptions were related to self-reported need supportiveness, suggesting that people may have perceptual biases, and there was self-other agreement in terms of need supportiveness. These findings suggest that need supportiveness may represent an individual difference and not just a dyadic construct. Moreover, those that rated themselves as need supportive were also seen by others as need supportive, providing some support for the validity of self-report measures of need supportiveness.     

The epistemic benefits of trait-consistent mood states: an analysis of extraversion and mood

One must consider both trait and state affect to predict individual differences in emotional processing. The present results document a novel trait-state interaction that is consistent with proposals concerning the epistemic functions of affect (A. R. Damasio, 1994). Four studies tested the effects of extraversion and mood on motivation-relevant processing. Study 1 measured naturally occurring mood, whereas Studies 2-4 manipulated mood. Extraverts were faster to link events to their personal motivations when in a positive mood state, whereas introverts were faster to do so in a neutral or negative mood state. Further findings indicate that this interaction affects attitude accessibility rather than event elaboration. Overall, the authors suggest that there are pragmatic benefits to trait-consistent moods, particularly for processing motivation-relevant stimuli.     

SOCIAL SUPPORT NETWORK DIFFERENTIALS AMONG MARRIED AND NONMARRIED BLACK FEMALES

Being married has generally been associated with better mental health for adult females, in part because of the social support derived from a primary network relationship. Without the benefit of a spouse, it would be expected that nonmarried adult females would have fewer sources of social support and concomitantly lower levels of psychological well-being. Focusing on selected network characteristics, this study analyzes the differences in social support available to a sample of 91 married and 183 nonmarried Black females residing in a metropolitan area. Results indicate that having a spouse has little influence on the number of socially supportive relationships or the most important sources of assistance with financial problems. A marital partner is a source of emotional support for married Black females, but only for less than one-third. Family members and extended kin are major sources of social support for Black females, irrespective of marital status.     

Want a tip? Service performance as a function of emotion regulation and extraversion

Surface acting and deep acting with customers are strategies for service performance, but evidence for their effectiveness is limited and mixed. We propose that deep acting is an effective strategy for most employees, whereas surface acting's effect on performance effectiveness depends on employee extraversion. In Study 1, restaurant servers who tended to use deep acting exceeded their customers' expectations and had greater financial gains (i.e., tips) regardless of extraversion, whereas surface acting improved tips only for extraverts, not for introverts. In Study 2, a call center simulation, deep acting improved emotional performance and increased the likelihood of extrarole service behavior beyond the direct and interactive effects of extraversion and other Big Five traits. In contrast, surface acting reduced emotional performance for introverts and not extraverts, but only during the extrarole interaction. We discuss implications for incorporating traits into emotional labor research and practice.     

Negative representations of the self/spouse and marital distress

The link between marital distress and negative representations of both the self and the spouse was examined with data from an initial sample of 538 married couples studied over the first four years of marriage (Study 1) and 98 of these couples studied in their tenth year of marriage (Study 2). Findings from Study 1 indicated that, for both husbands and wives, representations of the self and representations of the spouse accounted for unique variability in distress. Across spouses, representations of the spouse accounted for more of the variability in distress than did representations of the self. Cross–spouse effects were especially pronounced for husbands such that their distress was linked to wives’ representations. Findings from Study 2 with self/spouse measures anchored to the marital context replicated this pattern. Findings support the view that marital distress is uniquely influenced by models of both the self and the spouse, that representations of the self and the spouse are dynamic relationship schemas, that models of the self and the spouse can be meaningfully assessed within the marital context, and that negative representations of the spouse—particularly those of wives—are especially diagnostic of marital distress.