Chinese intimacy: Filial piety,autonomy, and romantic relationship quality

Due to its accurate representation of parent–child interaction quality in Confucian-influenced cultures, contemporary filial piety, which refers to general beliefs about how children are expected to behave toward their parents, has drawn increasing attention in academia. However, how filial piety associates with intimate relationships beyond the family setting is less clear. This study examined the relation between dual filial piety (i.e., reciprocal filial piety and authoritarian filial piety) and romantic relationship quality among Chinese youths. We explored a mediational model in which we tested whether dual autonomy (i.e., individuating autonomy and relating autonomy) would help explain how Chinese youths' beliefs in filial piety are linked to the quality of their romantic relationships. A total of 605 youths from Macau (N = 291) and Taiwan (N = 314) who are currently or once romantically involved participated in the study. We employed structural equation modeling to analyze the data. Results showed within-culture invariance regarding the direct and indirect associations between filial piety, autonomy, and romantic relationship quality. Specifically, young people in both Macau and Taiwan who endorsed higher reciprocal filial piety had more individuating autonomy, which in turn contributed to them having higher quality romantic relationships.     

Sexuality and intimacy following radical prostatectomy: patient and partner perspectives.

Most research on adjustment following radical prostatectomy has focused on limited assessments of urinary and erectile functioning. In this study, the authors provided a more comprehensive assessment of sexuality from 134 radical prostatectomy patients and their partners and determined the extent to which various components of sexuality are associated with psychosocial adjustment. Measures of sexuality and intimacy modestly predicted patients' emotional distress and quality of life (QoL), with body image and dyadic adjustment playing the most important roles after controlling for medical variables, general physical functioning, and optimistic outlook. Urinary incontinence and other sexuality variables were not unique predictors. In contrast, partner ratings of sexual satisfaction played a more important role in predicting their QoL.     

Low intimacy as a mediator between depression and clinic couple relationship satisfaction

This study examined low intimacy as a mediator between partners' depression symptoms and low relationship satisfaction in a sample of 82 heterosexual couples who sought therapy at an outpatient clinic. Both the amount of intimate behavior that partners enact and the level of pleasure they experience from each other's intimate acts were assessed. Using an actor–partner interdependence model approach, path model analysis simultaneously included both partners' scores on measures of depression, intimate behavior, pleasure from partner's intimate behavior, and relationship satisfaction. Overall, female depression symptoms had a greater impact than male depression symptoms on the couple relationship. Male depression had little effect on intimacy, whereas the female partner's depression affected her pleasure from the male's intimate behavior and both partners' enactment of intimate behavior. The results indicate the importance of examining reciprocal influences between partners' functioning to understand and treat intimacy problems.     

Feeling at home in contemporary Japan: Space,atmosphere and intimacy

Based on a long-term ethnography inside thirty urban dwellings, this article aims to explore what it means to feel ‘at home’ in contemporary Japan. Ample attention has been paid to the staging of atmospheres in public spaces, but qualitative studies about domestic atmospheres are scarce and the emphasis tends to be on ‘front-stage’ concerns such as hospitality, status, and normativity. By contrast, by focussing on ‘back-stage’ activities such as sleeping, eating, and bathing, this article will show how these bodily practices may generate, assisted by various domestic technologies, an all-encompassing heat that encourages intimate sociality without infringing on individual needs for autonomy and detachment from social demands. More generally, the article argues that by exploring the complex entanglements of ideal and actual atmospheres we might gain a more comprehensive understanding of this expansive, spatial phenomenon and its relationship with intimacy within different cultural contexts.     

Self-disclosure, emotional expression and intimacy within romantic relationships of people with social phobia

The current study examined aspects of communication and intimacy between people with social phobia and their romantic partners. Forty-eight individuals with social phobia and 58 community controls completed a series of questionnaires to measure self-disclosure, emotional expression and levels of intimacy within their romantic relationships. Participants with social phobia reported less emotional expression, self-disclosure and intimacy than controls, even after controlling for a diagnosis of mood disorder. The group differences did not differ significantly by gender. A continuous measure of social anxiety also correlated significantly with the three relationship measures and these associations held for emotional expression and self-disclosure after controlling for levels of dysphoria. People with social phobia report reduced quality within their romantic relationships, which may have implications for impairment, social support and ultimately maintenance of the disorder.     

Two distinct emotional experiences in romantic relationships: effects of perceptions regarding approach of intimacy and avoidance of conflict

This study examined how perceived position and velocity regarding approach and avoidance in romantic relationships relate to affective experiences. The authors hypothesized that perceived progress toward intimacy would predict positive affect and that perceived movement toward conflict would predict anxious affect. Ninety-two romantic couples recorded perceived levels of, and perceived changes in, both intimacy and conflict twice daily throughout 10 consecutive days using electronic palm-top devices. Multilevel modeling demonstrated that perceived increase in intimacy related to positive affect above and beyond perceptions of intimacy, conflict, and changes in conflict, for both male and female partners. Perceived increase in conflict related to anxious affect above and beyond perceptions of conflict, intimacy, and changes in intimacy, but only among male partners. Findings support a dual-process view of these feelings in romantic relationships and suggest that increases in positive feelings in close relationships depend on enhancing intimacy rather than on decreasing conflict.     

Men and women's acceptance of coercive sexual strategies varied by initiator gender and couple intimacy

Seventy-two men and 86 women read vignettes describing five coercive strategies for obtaining sexual intercourse on a date. Subjects rated the acceptability of strategies used by male and female initiators for couples who were or were not sexually intimate. Subjects generally rejected all tactics. Results revealed a continuum of increasing rejection from verbal pressure and sexual stimulation, followed by mock force, followed by intoxication and physical force. Although women were more rejecting of any strategy than were men, women were slightly less opposed to verbal pressure and stimulation for “more sex” rather than for “first-time sex.” Women equally rejected most male- and female-initiated strategies, but men were more accepting of female-initiated strategies. Results are explained in terms of sex role norms prescribing that men be initiators and women be gatekeepers in sexual interaction.     

Love and space in the nursing home

Nursing homes and other institutionsdesigned for persons with impairments are not,in fact, designed for persons with impairments.They are typically designed for theimpairments, not the persons, and therebybecome a part of the problem by reinforcingphysical and cultural manifestations of theimpairments. In the essay that follows, Idescribe an architectural design project inwhich students were asked to make changes to anexisting nursing home for the persons who livedthere. This requires not only becoming familiarwith the spaces, but with the personsthemselves and designing space to helparticulate their voices and being. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Understanding cognitive,affective, and intimacy deficits in sexual offenders: A developmental perspective

Factors, such as intimacy deficits, problems empathizing with victims, and cognitive distortions, have all been associated with the genesis of sexual abuse. Importantly, they all point to a lack of awareness of other peoples' beliefs, desires, perspectives, and needs. We argue that sexual offenders' problems in these domains can be viewed as partially arising from deficits in one central mechanism: the ability to infer mental states. Following a review of the above three areas, we discuss the developmental literature on children's theory of mind and develop a model informed by this work. We apply this model to sexual offenders and discuss its research and clinical implications.     

Twenty-four-hour sleep-wake patterns in a nursing home population

Sleep-activity patterns were objectively recorded over a 24-hr period in 19 elderly nursing home residents. On average, both sleep and wake times were observed during every hour of the 24 recorded hours; however, the sleep pattern of the residents was fragmented so that they rarely experienced even a single hour of consolidated time spent sleeping. It is hypothesized that several independent factors, including compensation for lost sleep, increased total time in bed, weakening of social constraints, and deterioration of the circadian sleep-wake rhythm, are interacting to produce this increase in sleep fragmentation.     

Sex differences in romantic attachment: a meta-analysis

This article presents the first meta-analysis of sex differences in the avoidance and anxiety dimensions of adult romantic attachment, based on 113 samples (N = 66,132) from 100 studies employing two-dimensional romantic attachment questionnaires (Experiences in Close Relationships, Experiences in Close Relationships-Revised, and Adult Attachment Questionnaire). Overall, males showed higher avoidance and lower anxiety than females, with substantial between-study heterogeneity. Sex differences were much larger in community samples (bivariate D = .28) than in college samples (D = .12); web-based studies showed the smallest sex differences (D = .07) in the opposite direction. Sex differences also varied across geographic regions (overall Ds = .10 to .34). Sex differences in anxiety peaked in young adulthood, whereas those in avoidance increased through the life course. The relevance of these findings for evolutionary models of romantic attachment is discussed, and possible factors leading to underestimation of sex differences are reviewed.     

Assessment of the global intelligence and selective cognitive capacities in preterm 8-year-old children

The aim of this study was to assess various cognitive abilities such as attention, IQ, reasoning, and memory related to academic achievement in 8- and 9-year-old preterm children. A total of 141 children were assessed. The preterm group (=37 weeks) comprised 63 children and was compared to 78 full-term children. Attention was evaluated using the d2 Selective Attention test, and the IQ by the L-M form of the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale, establishing a profile of abilities: perception, memory, comprehension, reasoning, and verbal fluency. Significant differences in IQ were found between the preterm and full-term children. Of the cognitive abilities assessed, the only significant differences were found in verbal fluency, with preterm boys showing lower verbal fluency scores than full-term children. In conclusion, all preterm groups have attention ability similar to that of full-term children. However, preterm children obtain lower scores in intelligence measures. In addition, preterm boys have verbal fluency difficulties. Taking into account the increase in preterm births, suitable intervention programs must be planned to attend the difficulties found.     

Autonomy for nursing home residents: the role of regulations

The importance of autonomy and choice to nursing home residents' well-being has been well established. This paper examines the complex role of regulation as it affects the autonomy of nursing home residents. Nonstandardized interviews with residents, family members, nursing staff members, and administrators were conducted at three nursing homes in suburban Maryland. These anecdotal interviews identified the most problematic areas where regulations enforce barriers to autonomy and control. These areas include: scheduling of activities of daily living, food portions, physical environment, and documentation. Suggestions for possible improvements are discussed.     

Depressive symptoms and cognitive control in a mixed antisaccade task: specific effects of depressive rumination

Growing empirical evidence suggests that cognitive and affective problems in depression may be a reflection of cognitive control impairments. However, to date, the nature of such impairments is still poorly understood and further investigation of this topic is required to advance current knowledge on the underlying vulnerability factors for depression. Using a mixed antisaccade paradigm, the present study examined if depressive symptoms in general, and more specifically rumination, are related to impairments in cognitive control functions such as inhibition and switching. The results on antisaccade latency and error rates indicated that depressive symptoms in general were not related to impairments in inhibition and switching. However, rumination was associated with impaired inhibition such that high, compared to low, ruminators had slower antisaccade latencies. No group differences were observed on antisaccade error rates. Implications for understanding the underlying vulnerability factors for the development of depressive symptoms are discussed.     

Relationships at risk: How the perceived risk of ending a romantic relationship influences the intensity of romantic affect and relationship commitment

Drawing on emotional intensity theory (EIT: Brehm in Personality and Social Psychology Review 3:2–22, 1999; Brehm and Miron in Motivation and Emotion 30:13–30, 2006), this experiment (N?=?104) shows how the manipulated risk of ending a romantic relationship influences the intensity of romantic affect and commitment. As predicted by EIT, the intensity of both romantic feelings varied as a cubic function of increasing levels of manipulated risk of relationship breakup (risk not mentioned vs. low vs. moderate vs. high). Data additionally showed that the effects of manipulated risk on romantic commitment were fully mediated by feelings of romantic affect. These findings complement and extend prior research on romantic feelings (Miron et al. in Motivation and Emotion 33:261–276, 2009; Miron et al. in Journal of Relationships Research 3:67–80, 2012) (a) by highlighting the barrier-like properties of manipulated risk of relationship breakup and its causal role in shaping romantic feelings, and (b) by suggesting that any obstacle can systematically control—thus, either reduce or enhance—the intensity of romantic feelings to the extent that such obstacles are perceived as ‘risky’ for the fate of the relationship.     

Depressive symptoms and cognitive control in a mixed antisaccade task: Specific effects of depressive rumination

Growing empirical evidence suggests that cognitive and affective problems in depression may be a reflection of cognitive control impairments. However, to date, the nature of such impairments is still poorly understood and further investigation of this topic is required to advance current knowledge on the underlying vulnerability factors for depression. Using a mixed antisaccade paradigm, the present study examined if depressive symptoms in general, and more specifically rumination, are related to impairments in cognitive control functions such as inhibition and switching. The results on antisaccade latency and error rates indicated that depressive symptoms in general were not related to impairments in inhibition and switching. However, rumination was associated with impaired inhibition such that high, compared to low, ruminators had slower antisaccade latencies. No group differences were observed on antisaccade error rates. Implications for understanding the underlying vulnerability factors for the development of depressive symptoms are discussed.     

Acquiring verbal reference: The interplay of cognitive,linguistic, and general learning capacities

Verbal reference is the ability to use language to communicate about objects, events, or ideas, even if they are not witnessed directly, such as past events or faraway places. It rests on a three-way link between words, their referents, and mental representations of those referents. A foundational human capacity, verbal reference extends the communicative power of language beyond the here-and-now, enabling access to language-mediated learning and thus fueling cognitive development. In the current review, we consider how and when verbal reference develops. The existing literature suggests that verbal reference emerges around infants’ first birthdays and becomes increasingly robust by their second. In discussing the powerful developmental advantages of acquiring verbal reference we propose that this achievement requires a dynamic interplay among infants’ cognitive and language development, fueled by general learning capacities. We close by describing new research directions, aimed at advancing our understanding of how verbal reference emerges.