Heterosexuality and home: Intimacies of space and spaces of touch

This paper uses the notion of touch to understand further the production of heterosexual bodies and home spaces. Specifically, it argues that the everyday geographies of heterosexual touch are an important constituent of homemaking. Considering the ordinary acts of heterosexual touch and home encourages a more nuanced reading of the mutually constitutive relationship between bodies and space. It challenges normative notions about the naturalness and normality of heterosexuality. Drawing on data from joint semi-structured interviews, solicited diaries and self-directed photography with 14 women in heterosexual relationships who live in Hamilton, Aotearoa New Zealand, I offer an in-depth, critical and nuanced analysis of sexualised touch. Building on suggestions that touch is more than simply cutaneous contact, I show that heterosexual bodies touch and feel bodies, spaces and objects in a variety of ways.     

Movement and working memory: Patterns and positions in space

Five experiments are reported in which subjects were asked to remember short, visually presented sequences of whole body movement patterns, words, and spatial positions. The items were recalled in order in a memory span paradigm. During presentation of the items to be remembered subjects simply watched, or they carried out a concurrent activity involving articulatory suppression, movement to external spatial targets, or body-related movement. When the movement patterns to be remembered were familiar to subjects, movement span was not disrupted by articulatory suppression or movement to spatial targets but was disrupted by body-related movement. This movement suppression task, however, did not interfere with performance on a spatial span task or on verbal span. It is concluded that the memory for patterns of limb movement differs from memory for movement to spatial targets and that accounts of visuo-spatial processes in working memory involve the latter type of movement.     

The use and abuse of touch in therapy and counselling

Sexual exploitation within therapy is founded upon inappropriate physical contact. Yet the use of touch in therapy remains a contentious issue. Some therapists purport that touch is a primary source of communication of which many clients, as children, were deprived. They argue that refraining from the appropriate use of touch in the counselling situation can be damaging to the client. This article considers the argument for the use of physical contact in therapy and counselling and its potential therapeutic value.     

Alexithymia and interpersonal problems: A study of natural language use

The concept of alexithymia refers to difficulties in experiencing, verbalizing and regulating emotions. The relationship between alexithymia and interpersonal style is investigated by means of lexical content analysis. It is hypothesized that alexithymia is related to less frequent and less varied use of communication words and references to others. Alexithymia was measured with the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale and the Toronto Structured Interview for Alexithymia. The Clinical Diagnostic Interview was administered to 50 psychiatric inpatients, transcribed verbatim, and computer-analysed with the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count-dictionary. Results showed that alexithymia is related to a less complex vocabulary for communication words. Contradictory results for some subscales of the TAS-20 and the TSIA however compromise their construct validity.     

Ethical considerations in the use of nonerotic touch in psychotherapy with children

Although touch frequently occurs in psychotherapy with children, there is little written on the ethical considerations of therapeutic touch. Because physical contact does occur, therapists must consider if, how, and when it is used, for both their clients' safety and their own. In this review, I further develop the issues suggested by Aquino and Lee (2000) in the use of nurturing touch in therapy by considering many types of touch that occur in psychotherapy with children; the possible positive role of touch; clients' perception of touch in therapy; considerations related to the therapist, the child's safety, and any history of abuse in the child's and family's background; and other practical considerations. I list guidelines.     

Cyberball: A program for use in research on interpersonal ostracism and acceptance

Since the mid-1990s, research on interpersonal acceptance and exclusion has proliferated, and several paradigms have evolved that vary in their efficiency, context specificity, and strength. This article describes one such paradigm, Cyberball, which is an ostensibly online ball-tossing game that participants believe they are playing with two or three others. In fact, the “others” are controlled by the programmer. The course and speed of the game, the frequency of inclusion, player information, and iconic representation are all options the researcher can regulate. The game was designed to manipulate independent variables (e.g., ostracism) but can also be used as a dependent measure of prejudice and discrimination. The game works on both PC and Macintosh (OS X) platforms and is freely available.     

Shame and fragmentation in the marital dyad

The paper outlines an expansion of object relations theory to account for fragmentation and shame. This expansion promotes a better psychodynamic perspective on the type of marital conflict escalation that occurs when each spouse turns to the other for empathic receptiveness while that other is also in a disorganized and vulnerable state of mind. Escalation occurs when spouses have different needs for safety and optimum distance and when the shame generated by continued exposure of these needs is not acknowledged. Clinical precepts promoting a focus on fragmentation and acknowledgement of shame are elaborated.     

Maternal correlates of stability and change in infant-mother attachment

The relations between maternal control style, sensitivity, and childrearing attitudes on one hand and the stability of the infant-mother attachment relationship on the other were examined in a sample of 38 mother-infant dyads. The mother-child pairs were observed during a structured play session and in Ainsworth's Strange Situation when the infants were 12 and 20 months old, a developmental period characterized by increased autonomous functioning. Our results suggested that infants whose mothers had nonpunitive childrearing attitudes, were sensitive, and supportive of their infants' striving toward autonomy remained, or became, secure in their attachment relationship over their second year of life. Mothers who were more punitive, more controlling, and less sensitive had infants who either remained or became insecurely attached across this developmental period. While previous research has linked attachment stability to socioeconomic factors, the present investigation points to the importance of more subtle interactive variables to the understanding of the attachment relationship.     

Further findings on assaultiveness and alcohol use in interpersonal disputes

In a previous study uniform observational data were collected regarding family disputes managed by police officers; those data contradicted views commonly held by social scientists and by police about the roles of assaultiveness and alcohol use in these events. In the present study police officers employed systematic naturalistic observation during their interventions as third parties in disputes between nonfamily members as well as those between family members. Tentative conclusions about assaultiveness, based on the data of both studies, are that it: does not usually precede the arrival of police in such disputes; is associated with interpersonal closeness of the disputants; is associated with poverty rather than race; and is as likely in a middle-class small city as in a poor inner-city area. Tentative conclusions about the use of alcohol in police-managed interpersonal disputes are: that these disputes are not usually influenced by alcohol use; and that assaultiveness is not related to alcohol use in such disputes.     

Behavioral similarity,confederate strategy,and sex composition of dyad as determinants of interpersonal judgments and behavior in the prisoner's dilemma game

The study was designed to test three distinct theoretical models relating player's attitudes toward a confederate in the prisoner's dilemma game: a reinforcing outcome model, a cultural norm model, and a social comparison model. A secondary concern of the study was to determine if player's sex, confederate's sex, and the confederate's strategy interactively influence player's choice behavior. Forty-eight male and forty-eight female subjects played 100 trials of the prisoner's dilemma game with a confederate who played either a 74% cooperative or 74% competitive predetermined strategy and then filled out the Interpersonal Judgment Scale rating the confederate. Behaviorally similar confederates received more positive evaluations than dissimilar confederates supporting the social comparison hypothesis. Further, the strategy of the confederate did not influence choice behavior in mixed-sex dyads, suggesting that sex roles may inhibit behaviorally based male-female interaction. The generality of previous gaming research which has dealt almost exclusively with same-sex dyads is called into question.     

Social relationships and intraindividual variability in interpersonal behavior: correlates of interpersonal spin

Personality constructs are typically conceptualized as central tendencies of the individual. We explore whether dynamic personality constructs that quantify the within-individual variability of behavior across situations and over time predict the closeness of social relationships. We focused on interpersonal spin, defined as the degree of dispersion in a person's interpersonal behaviors around the interpersonal circumplex across situations and over time. We predicted that individuals with high spin would have social relationships that are less close than individuals with low spin. In 3 studies with different measures of relationship closeness, we found that (a) higher spinners reported that a larger proportion of their contacts in their workplace social networks were distant (Study 1); (b) co-workers were less satisfied and less often engaged in pleasant activities with higher spinners (Study 2); and (c) co-workers avoided higher spinners with whom they were well acquainted (Study 3). Moderated mediation analyses in Study 3 revealed that co-workers avoided well-acquainted higher spinners because they felt more negative affect when interacting with these individuals. The findings suggest the potential of dynamic personality constructs for improving our understanding of the characteristics of individuals' social relationships.     

Patterns of recovery from trauma: the use of intraindividual analysis

Patterns of recovery from sexual and nonsexual assault were examined. Two studies containing data from female victims of these assaults were analyzed. In Study 1, victims (N = 101) underwent 12 weekly assessments with measures of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, and state anxiety. In Study 2, victims (N = 108) underwent monthly assessments on the same measures. The authors examined the effects of type of trauma and time of peak reaction on long-term recovery using intraindividual analysis of change. In both studies, initial and peak reactions of rape victims were more severe than were those of nonsexual assault victims on all measures of psychopathology. Victims with delayed peak reaction exhibited more severe pathology at the final assessment than did victims with early peak reaction. Results of Study 2 indicated a slower recovery rate from sexual than nonsexual assault; in Study 1 a similar pattern of recovery emerged. The advantages of an individual-focused, longitudinal approach to recovery from a trauma are discussed.     

Close interpersonal proximity modulates visuomotor processing of object affordances in shared,social space

Research suggests that the human brain codes manipulable objects as possibilities for action, or affordances, particularly objects close to the body. Near-body space is not only a zone for body-environment interaction but also is socially relevant, as we are driven to preserve our near-body, personal space from others. The current, novel study investigated how close proximity of a stranger modulates visuomotor processing of object affordances in shared, social space. Participants performed a behavioural object recognition task both alone and with a human confederate. All object images were in participants’ reachable space but appeared relatively closer to the participant or the confederate. Results revealed when participants were alone, objects in both locations produced an affordance congruency effect but when the confederate was present, only objects nearer the participant elicited the effect. Findings suggest space is divided between strangers to preserve independent near-body space boundaries, and in turn this process influences motor coding for stimuli within that social space. To demonstrate that this visuomotor modulation represents a social phenomenon, rather than a general, attentional effect, two subsequent experiments employed nonhuman joint conditions. Neither a small, Japanese, waving cat statue (Experiment 2) nor a metronome (Experiment 3) modulated the affordance effect as in Experiment 1. These findings suggest a truly social explanation of the key interaction from Experiment 1. This study represents an important step toward understanding object affordance processing in real-world, social contexts and has implications broadly across fields of social action and cognition, and body space representation.     

Assessing the interpersonal circumplex model in late childhood: the interpersonal behavior questionnaire for children

The authors developed the Interpersonal Behavior Questionnaire for Children with the aim of assessing the constructs of the interpersonal circumplex model, that is, Dominance and Love and their possible combinations, via third- to fifth-grade children's self- and peer reports. In the three studies presented herein, the authors examined several psychometric properties of the questionnaire. Results demonstrated that children's ratings along the questionnaire yielded the hypothesized circumplex structure of the interpersonal variables; that they reached significant association levels with external criteria; and that they were reliable. Specifically, interrater correlations were shown to reach substantive levels when inspected in older children, when scores were aggregated over raters, and when dominant behaviors were evaluated. Overall, the findings demonstrated the tenability of the circumplex model in young ages via children's ratings. The authors suggest that both personality assessment and personality development research may take advantage from using children's evaluations, in addition to adults' ratings of their children's personality.     

Problematic internet use and academic achievement: a focus on interpersonal behaviours and academic engagement

In accordance with the Self-Determination Theory, the interpersonal behavior of others can support or thwart the basic psychological needs and influence the well-being of students. Furthermore, several studies have shown that problematic internet use has a negative influence on the academic field. However, no studies have investigated the impact of need-supportive and need-thwarting interpersonal behaviors (using the SDT theoretical framework) on internet addiction, academic engagement, and academic achievement. For this reason, the main purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between students’ perceptions of others’ behaviors that supported or thwarted their basic psychological needs, internet addiction, and academic engagement and the impact on academic achievement through two studies. In the first study, 889 students (age: M?=?20.26, SD?=?3.16), were used to investigate the dimensionality of the Italian version of the Interpersonal Behaviour Questionnaire (IBQ) and the reliability, convergent and concurrent validity. In the second study, 515 students (age: M?=?20.26, SD?=?3.16) were tested to investigate the mediating role of problematic internet use on the relationship between students’ perceptions of others’ behaviors that supported or thwarted their basic psychological needs and academic engagement and the impact on academic achievement. The results of the first study suggested that the Italian version of the IBQ shows good psychometric characteristics in the Italian context. The results of the second study confirmed the mediating role of problematic internet use and academic engagement as mediators between students’ perceptions of need-thwarting interpersonal behaviors and academic achievement.

     

The value of possessions in compulsive hoarding: Patterns of use and attachment

Hoarding behavior, patterns of use of possessions, and emotional attachment to possessions were examined among a sample of female undergraduates and a sample of community volunteers. Hoarding behavior was associated with a decreased frequency of use of possessions and excessive concern about maintaining control over possessions. Furthermore, high scores on the hoarding scale were associated with higher levels of perceived responsibility for: (1) being prepared; and (2) the well-being of the possession. Hoarding was also associated with greater emotional attachment to possessions and to the reliance on possessions for emotional comfort. The implications of these findings for the definition of hoarding are discussed.     

Brotherly love I: The experience of closeness in the fraternal dyad

The present research explicates the experience of closeness in dyadic relationships between brothers. A total of 160 respondents comprising 80 intact brother dyads described situations or events in which they felt particularly close to each other. Phenomenological analyses identified five themes characterizing the experience of closeness among brothers: shared conversation, solidarity, companionship, shared perceptions and memories, and surviving shared adversity. Some of these themes confirmed prior research on siblings or male-male relationships, whereas others have not emerged in previous studies. Results are discussed in relation to contemporary appeals for a more inclusive theoretical approach to the study of close relationships.     

Maternal correlates of infant temperament ratings and of infant-mother attachment: A longitudinal study

This study examined longitudinally correlates of mothers' ratings of their infant's temperament and of the infant-mother attachment relationship. Measures included Carey's Revised Infant Temperament Questionnaire, child-rearing attitudes, psychophysiological responses to an unfamiliar infant's crying pre- and postdelivery, psychophysiological responses to the mother's own infant's crying, and assessments of infant-mother attachment. The results indicated that maternal ratings of infant temperament at 4 months were significantly related not only to concurrent cry responsiveness but also to cry responsiveness and child-rearing attitudes predelivery, as well as to the quality of attachment at 1 year. It is suggested that a differential response pattern of mothers of “easy” and of “difficult” infants, which affects the developing infant-mother bond, may in part originate in maternal dispositions existing prior to parenthood.