The influence of personal,relational, and contextual factors on forgiveness communication following transgressions

The way that individuals adapt to stress in their romantic relationships plays a major role in determining relational satisfaction. This study used the Vulnerability‐Stress‐Adaptation Model as a framework to examine how individuals adapt to a relational transgression in their romantic relationships. This study examined individuals' attachment dimensions and perceived relational equity as factors that influenced how they used forgiveness strategies following a relational transgression. The results revealed that both attachment dimensions and perceptions of relational equity inform our understanding of the strategies that individuals use to communicate forgiveness to a romantic relationship partner. Furthermore, the results suggest that the communication of forgiveness has important implications for relational satisfaction.     

Relational coping during deployment: Managing communication and connection in relationships

Wartime deployment involves prolonged separation and creates uncertainty, fear, and disorganization in families (M. J. Peebles‐Kleiger & J. H. Kleiger, 1994). This study examined how military wives/fiancées reported coping with the demands they associated with spousal deployment. Twenty‐six in‐depth interviews were conducted with wives and fiancées whose partners were currently deployed. Through qualitative analysis, 2 main coping themes emerged: (a) maintaining a mediated interpersonal connection and (b) choosing open versus restricted communication. Further analyses revealed that the former theme promoted 2 relationship functions (e.g., intimacy and positivity, confronting realities and fears) and the latter 4 functions (e.g., closeness, smooth reunion, outlet, and protection). On the basis of these coping strategies and functions, a conceptual framework for understanding relational coping communication patterns is proposed. Themes, practical applications, and theoretical implications are discussed.     

In the wake of transgressions: Examining forgiveness communication in personal relationships

This study evaluated several structural equation models testing the relations between forgiveness communication styles, offense and offender variables, and relational characteristics. Results suggest partners' style of forgiveness (i.e., direct, indirect, and conditional) is shaped by offense and offender variables. Specifically, offender remorse positively predicted both direct and conditional forgiveness, offense severity negatively predicted indirect forgiveness, and blameworthiness positively predicted conditional forgiveness. Results also demonstrated that whereas direct forgiving following transgressions improved relationships (i.e., decreased relational damage and increased satisfaction), conditional forgiving detracted from relationships (i.e., increased relational damage). Indirect forgiveness, in contrast to the other styles, was unrelated to relational damage. These and other findings are discussed in light of research/theorizing on interpersonal forgiveness, relational maintenance, facework, and communication accommodation.     

The longitudinal association between social status insecurity and relational aggression: Moderation effects of social cognition about relational aggression

Previous research has shown that adolescents’ insecurity about their social status is related to their use of relational aggression. However, little is known about how adolescents’ social cognition may moderate this association. Employing a mixed-method approach and a short-term longitudinal design, this study addresses this issue by examining the moderation effects of attribution and outcome expectancies regarding relational aggression on the associations between social status insecurity and relational aggression among 476 Chinese adolescents (238 girls). The main results showed that self-serving attributions and instrumental outcome expectancies strengthened the positive and longitudinal association between social status insecurity and self-reported relational aggression. The findings of this study enrich our knowledge about the social cognitive processes pertinent to peer status and relational aggression among adolescents.     

Effects of relational transgressions on idealization of and disillusionment with one's romantic partner: A three‐wave longitudinal study

In this three‐wave study (n = 121 couples), we tested whether one couple‐member's relational transgressions (high and low severity) at Wave 1 predicted less idealization on warmth and competence traits and greater disillusionment by the partner at the next two waves. It was hypothesized that (a) greater frequency of the target partner's severe transgressions in 1 month would be needed to reduce how much the other partner idealized the target in the competence domain, (b) higher frequency of even relatively less severe transgressions would lower the partner's idealization of the target in the warmth domain, and (c) any transgressions would raise perceivers' disillusionment. Longitudinal analyses (controlling for earlier idealization and disillusionment) substantially supported predictions.     

The effects of coping primes on responses to messages about disease detection behaviors

Abstract

This study examined the influence of coping primes on responses to subsequent messages that encouraged the performance of health behaviors. It was hypothesized that the addition of a coping prime prior to a message encouraging a disease detection behavior would increase the likelihood that the message would be attended to and that persuasion would occur. To test this hypothesis participants were required to read a coping or neutral prime. Coping primes were statements that indicated that the upcoming message would present information about a behavior, and that this behavior would help them deal with a serious health threat. After reading the prime participants were presented with a message encouraging the performance of a health promotion or a disease detection behavior. The primary measures recorded were the participants' cognitive responses to the message, and their attitudes about the behavior. The results supported the hypothesis.     

Social comparison and optimism about one's relational future: order effects in social judgment

This research tested the hypothesis that when individuals first answer a question about relative evaluation, i.e. the degree in which they feel they are better or worse off than comparison others and next a question about general evaluation, i.e. the general judgment of one's situation or one's characteristics, the correlations between both variables will be higher than when the order of the questions is reversed. In the first case individuals will use social comparison information as a reference point for making a judgment of their situation, whereas general evaluations not preceded by relative evaluations may be based on a variety of factors. The content of the questions concerned optimism with respect to one's own prospects concerning intimate relationships, i.e. the perceived chances of having a happy intimate relationship in the future, and the perceived chance of not becoming involved in a divorce. The results of two studies—a questionnaire study among students (n=274), and a computer administered survey among single adults (n=275)—confirmed the predictions. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

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.     

Development of relational reasoning during adolescence

Non-linear changes in behaviour and in brain activity during adolescent development have been reported in a variety of cognitive tasks. These developmental changes are often interpreted as being a consequence of changes in brain structure, including non-linear changes in grey matter volumes, which occur during adolescence. However, very few studies have attempted to combine behavioural, functional and structural data. This multi-method approach is the one we took in the current study, which was designed to investigate developmental changes in behaviour and brain activity during relational reasoning, the simultaneous integration of multiple relations. We used a relational reasoning task known to recruit rostrolateral prefrontal cortex (RLPFC), a region that undergoes substantial structural changes during adolescence. The task was administered to female participants in a behavioural (N = 178, 7-27 years) and an fMRI study (N = 37, 11-30 years). Non-linear changes in accuracy were observed, with poorer performance during mid-adolescence. fMRI and VBM results revealed a complex picture of linear and possibly non-linear changes with age. Performance and structural changes partly accounted for changes with age in RLPFC and medial superior frontal gyrus activity but not for a decrease in activation in the anterior insula/frontal operculum between mid-adolescence and adulthood. These functional changes might instead reflect the maturation of neurocognitive strategies.     

Children's reasoning about spatial relational similarity: the effect of alignment and relational complexity

We investigated 4- and 5-year-old children's mapping strategies in a spatial task. Children were required to find a picture in an array of three identical cups after observing another picture being hidden in another array of three cups. The arrays were either aligned one behind the other in two rows or placed side by side forming one line. Moreover, children were rewarded for two different mapping strategies. Half of the children needed to choose a cup that held the same relative position as the rewarded cup in the other array; they needed to map left-left, middle-middle, and right-right cups together (aligned mapping), which required encoding and mapping of two relations (e.g., the cup left of the middle cup and left of the right cup). The other half needed to map together the cups that held the same relation to the table's spatial features-the cups at the edges, the middle cups, and the cups in the middle of the table (landmark mapping)-which required encoding and mapping of one relation (e.g., the cup at the table's edge). Results showed that children's success was constellation dependent; performance was higher when the arrays were aligned one behind the other in two rows than when they were placed side by side. Furthermore, children showed a preference for landmark mapping over aligned mapping.     

The differential effects of emotional salience on direct associative and relational memory during a nap

Relational memories are formed from shared components between directly learned memory associations, flexibly linking learned information to better inform future judgments. Sleep has been found to facilitate both direct associative and relational memories. However, the impact of incorporating emotionally salient information into learned material and the interaction of emotional salience and sleep in facilitating both types of memory is unknown. Participants encoded two sets of picture pairs, with either emotionally negative or neutral objects paired with neutral faces. The same objects were present in both sets, paired with two different faces across the sets. Baseline memory for these directly paired associates was tested immediately after encoding, followed by either a 90-min nap opportunity or wakefulness. Five hours after learning, a surprise test assessed relational memory, the indirect association between two faces paired with the same object during encoding, followed by a retest of direct associative memory. Overall, negative information was remembered better than neutral for directly learned pairs. A nap facilitated both preservation of direct associative memories and formation of relational memories, compared to remaining awake. Interestingly, however, this sleep benefit was observed specifically for neutral directly paired associates, while both neutral and negative relational associations benefitted from a nap. Finally, REM sleep played opposing roles in neutral direct and relational associative memory formation, with more REM sleep leading to forgetting of direct associations but promoting relational associations, suggesting that, while not benefitting memory consolidation for directly learned details, REM sleep may foster the memory reorganization needed for relational memory.     

The role of lay beliefs about group transgressions in acceptance of responsibility for ingroup harm-doing

Denial of responsibility by perpetrator groups is the most common response to group-based transgressions. Refusal to acknowledge responsibility has dire consequences for intergroup relations. In this research we assessed whether shifting lay beliefs about group-based transgressions in general influences acceptance of responsibility for a specific ingroup transgression. In two experimental studies we manipulated lay beliefs about group transgressions as reflecting either a group's stable character (i.e., a global defect construal) or a specific characteristic (i.e., a specific defect construal). Specific defect construals (compared to global defect construals) increased acceptance of ingroup responsibility by increasing group malleability beliefs, but reduced acceptance of ingroup responsibility by reducing the ingroup's perceived moral failure. These effects were moderated by ingroup superiority in Study 1, but not Study 2. We draw implications for our understanding of mechanisms of denial of responsibility, identity threat, and coping with this threat.     

The motivational value of listening during intimate and difficult conversations

Outcomes of conversations, including those dealing with controversial, deeply personal, or threatening disclosures, result not only from what is said but also from how listeners receive these messages. This article integrates the motivational framework of self-determination theory (SDT) and the expanding literature on interpersonal listening to explore the reasons why high-quality listening is so impactful during these conversations. We describe why high-quality listening is a specific and distinguishable autonomy-supportive motivational strategy, and argue that there is much to gain by considering that listening can satisfy basic psychological needs, in particular for autonomy and relatedness. We argue that SDT can help explain why high-quality listening is effective, especially in reducing defensiveness, bridging divides, and motivating change. The discussion focuses on ways motivation science can build more effective interventions for behavioral change by harnessing listening as an interpersonal strategy.     

Sequencing in social repair: A Markov grammar of children's discourse about transgressions

A Markov grammar was developed to account for the sequence of conversational moves in discourse about transgressions. This discourse interrupts ongoing activity and functions to repair the social fabric when inappropriate or awkward behavior has attracted the attention of interactants. A corpus of 1248 such interchanges, obtained in 90 hr of observation in kindergarten through fourth grade classrooms, was the basis of the grammar. Beginning with theoretical assumptions about the canonical form of these interchanges, the process of grammar development was explicitly described and the direction given by pragmatic considerations (such as attaining a balance between parsimony and accuracy) was discussed. The resultant grammar accounted for 83% of the corpus and served as a framework within which age and context effects on the discourse were explored. Loglinear analyses of multiway contingency tables at each transition point in the grammar revealed that the presence vs absence of an adult in the interchange affected the relative preferences for different alternatives at one juncture, but that subjects' ages did not influence the sequencing of discourse as described by the model. The overall approach was considered in relation to the more traditional uses of Markov models and its strengths, weaknesses, and future promise for discourse analysis were discussed.     

The effects of relational structure on analogical learning

Relational structure is important for various cognitive tasks, such as analogical transfer, but its role in learning of new relational concepts is poorly understood. This article reports two experiments testing people’s ability to learn new relational categories as a function of their relational structure. In Experiment 1, each stimulus consisted of 4 objects varying on 2 dimensions. Each category was defined by two binary relations between pairs of objects. The manner in which the relations were linked (i.e., by operating on shared objects) varied between subjects, producing 3 logically different conditions. In Experiment 2, each stimulus consisted of 4 objects varying on 3 dimensions. Categories were defined by three binary relations, leading to six logically different conditions. Various learning models were compared to the behavioral data, based on the theory of schema refinement. The results highlight several shortcomings of schema refinement as a model of relational learning: (1) it can make unreasonable demands on working memory, (2) it does not allow schemas to grow in complexity, and (3) it incorrectly predicts learning is insensitive to relational structure. We propose schema elaboration as an additional mechanism that provides a more complete account, and we relate this mechanism to previous proposals regarding interactions between analogy and representation construction. The current findings may advance understanding of the cognitive mechanisms involved in learning and representing relational concepts.     

Talking about subject choice at secondary school and career aspirations: conversations with students of Chinese background

Interviews with 15 boys and 12 girls from Chinese backgrounds are reported. The interviews, which centred on option/subject choices and career aspirations, were based on the results of a survey of 794 secondary-school students. This survey had indicated that the Chinese students included were more similar in their responses to ethnic-majority than to other ethnic-minority students. Conversation analysis of the interviews revealed three themes: students attributed their choices to (i) their liking for the subject/teacher; (ii) the link between school subjects and careers; and (iii) institutional frameworks. There was a marked omission of reference to issues related to ethnicity or gender. These findings are discussed in the context of other studies of Chinese ethnicity.