Do birds of a feather flock together in China?

Evidence of couple similarity was examined in 2 nationally representative samples (Ns = 536 and 537 couples) from mainland China. Variable‐centered and couple‐centered tests provided convergent results suggesting that husbands and wives were considerably similar on characteristics of 3 broad categories: demographic variables, values, and personality. Additional tests suggest that value and personality similarities were not likely to be due to social homogamy, convergence, response biases, or culture‐unique characteristics. Whereas the couple similarity on demographics and values largely mirrors what has been observed in Western research, Chinese couples' consistent and strong similarity on personality domains presents a striking contrast to Western couples who share little systematic similarity on personality.     

Ideological differences in attitude and belief similarity: distinguishing perception and reality

ABSTRACT

Attitude and belief similarity have long stood as topics of inquiry for social psychology. Recent research suggests that there might be meaningful differences across people in the extent to which they perceive and actually share others’ attitudes and beliefs. I outline research examining the relationship between political ideology and the perception and reality of attitude similarity. Specifically, I review research documenting that (a) conservatives perceive greater ingroup similarity than do liberals, (b) conservatives overestimate and liberals underestimate ingroup similarity, (c) liberals and conservatives both underestimate similarity to outgroup members, and (d) liberals possess more actual ingroup similarity than do conservatives on a national level. Collectively, this review contributes to understanding how political ideology relates to (perceived) attitude similarity.     

Economic cycles as a source of social influence on individuals

The current review summarizes emerging research in psychology and associated disciplines showing that the economic cycles exert social influence on individuals across a range of psychological domains. Most research on social influence focused on how factors in the proximal environment impact individuals, while influences emanating from the state of the economy as a whole received far less attention. I review the development of different intellectual traditions examining social influence to explain the relative lack of attention to economic cycles and position emerging work on the topic relative to past research. I then review research on how economic cycles influence individuals by focusing on influences relevant to intraindividual, interpersonal, and intergroup processes. A review of this work shows that the understanding of core phenomena of interest to social psychology (e.g., attributions, altruism, and racial tensions) can be meaningfully extended by studying the complex interplay between the economic system and the psychology of individuals embedded within it. This stream of research also uncovers mechanisms through which economic cycles generate or amplify problems for the broader society, which I propose is both the key reason why more work on the topic is needed as well as the key direction for future work.     

The how and the when of the social cure: A conceptual model of group- and individual-level mechanisms linking social identity to health and well-being

In this article, we aim at theoretical specification and integration of mechanisms proposed within the Social Identity Approach to Health and Well-being. We differentiate group-level and individual-level effects of shared social identity by distinguishing three different aspects: individual identification, group identification, and individually perceived group identification. We discuss specific group-level mechanisms (i.e., mutual social support and collective self-efficacy) and individual level-mechanisms (i.e., attribution and appraisal processes regarding stressors and resources) for each of the three aspects. A core conclusion is that the positive effects of shared social identity on health and well-being crucially depend on its close relationship with social support, and that although social support is an interindividual phenomenon, it is intraindividual mechanisms—attribution and appraisal—that shape the psychological partnership between social identity and social support. Therefore, we put special emphasis on cross-level interactions between group- and individual-level mechanisms, which have been widely neglected in earlier research.     

Temperament and Vulnerability to Psychopathology: Introduction to the Special Section

Several authors have highlighted associations with temperament as promising avenues for understanding vulnerability to psychopathology (e.g., Muris and Ollendick, Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review, 8, 271–289, 2005; Nigg, Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, and Allied Disciplines, 47, 395–422, 2006). The successful integration of models of temperament and models of psychopathology will undoubtedly increase our understanding of both. The current special section intends to present important new ideas and evidence in this field and tries to formulate answers to a couple of emerging questions. To set the stage for the papers, we provide a brief state of the art of research on temperament—psychopathology associations. After that, we discuss emerging questions in the field, some of which are addressed in the papers of this special section. To conclude, we point out a couple of future research perspectives.     

Is Committed Desire Intentional? A Qualitative Exploration of Sexual Desire and Differentiation of Self in Couples

The question of what heightens or diminishes sexual desire has long been a passionate theme across cultures in literature, arts, media, and medicine. Yet, little research has been conducted to determine what affects level of desire within couples. The degree of differentiation of self has been suggested as an important variable in shaping partners' level of desire. Through a qualitative analysis of dyadic couple interviews, this study provides an account of characteristics, processes, and trajectories of sexual desire and differentiation in 33 heterosexual couples of varying ages and relationship duration. Factors associated with high desire were change and autonomy, whereas conflict and children were reported to be desire‐diminishing factors. Innovation, sharing, autonomy, and effort emerged as desire‐promoting strategies, while fostering personal interests, investing in a positive connection, and enhancing personal integrity were identified as couples' strategies to promote and preserve differentiation of self. The results also shed light on couples' perceptions of whether and how sexual desire changes over the course of the relationship and challenge common cultural assumptions about desire in committed relationships—namely the myth that the only authentic expression of desire is that which occurs spontaneously and without intention and planning. Implications for couple therapy are discussed.     

Eyewitness identification evidence and innocence risk

It is well known that the frailties of human memory and vulnerability to suggestion lead to eyewitness identification errors. However, variations in different aspects of the eyewitnessing conditions produce different kinds of errors that are related to wrongful convictions in very different ways. We present a review of the eyewitness identification literature, organized around underlying cognitive mechanisms, memory, similarity, and decision processes, assessing the effects on both correct and mistaken identification. In addition, we calculate a conditional probability we call innocence risk, which is the probability that the suspect is innocent, given that the suspect was identified. Assessment of innocence risk is critical to the theoretical development of eyewitness identification research, as well as to legal decision making and policy evaluation. Our review shows a complex relationship between misidentification and innocence risk, sheds light on some areas of controversy, and suggests that some issues thought to be resolved are in need of additional research.     

“Doubly Mother”: Heterologous Artificial Insemination Between Biological and Social Parenthood: A Single Case Study

In heterologous artificial insemination, the donation of gametes (either sperm or eggs) from a third person allows infertile and same-sex couples to become parents. Therefore, the child is genetically related to one parent, while the other parent is referred to as the social mother or father. This current single case study aimed at investigating this double access to parenthood in a lesbian couple who had two children after heterologous artificial insemination. In this couple, both women delivered one of the two children, so that each partner is either biological or social mother. The Clinical Generational Interview was used to assess the quality of family relationships, with a specific focus on three dimensions: the origins of each partner, the constitution of the couple, and the generational passage. Paper and pencil textual analysis was conducted following the principles of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis and led to the identification of six dominant themes (and subthemes): (a) relationship with the family of origin; (b) couple relationship; (c) generational passage; (d) heterologous artificial insemination and “double motherhood”; (e) donor/biological father; and (f) children identity and the disclosure of their origin. This study’s findings revealed the importance of using research techniques aimed at in-depth exploration of this phenomenon consistently with the specificities of the new filiation forms. The adoption of a transgenerational perspective allows articulating conception coordinates with the history of the couple and each partner’s origins.     

Trans,gender diverse and non-binary adult experiences of social support: A systematic quantitative literature review

Abstract

Background: Trans, gender diverse and non-binary (TGDNB) adults experience significant health disparities relative to their cisgender peers. While social support is a known health-protective factor within the general population, no systematic reviews of TGDNB experiences of social support exist.

Aim: To systematically review prior research of social support for TGDNB adults. We sought to assess the defining characteristics of the research, the participants and the research findings, mapping emerging trends across disciplines.

Methods: Six electronic databases (PubMed, MEDLINE, CINAHL, Web of Science, LGBT Life and PsycNet) were searched for literature pertaining to TGDNB adults, social support, and health or well-being published in the past decade.

Results: The findings illustrate a predominance of USA-based quantitative research that measures social support of friends, family and a singular intimate partner. The majority of participants were white, binary-identified transgender women and TGDNB people living in metropolitan settings. Social support was commonly reported as a protective factor, with TGDNB peer support the most frequently reported correlate of health and well-being for TGDNB adults.

Discussion: The results suggest standardized inventories do not capture the emic nature of social support for TGDNB adults. A key opportunity lies in an inductive, hypothesis-forming approach to the study of what is socially supportive for TGDNB adults. In turn, this knowledge will enable the appropriate measurement, implementation and interpretation of social support studies.     

Racial, Cultural and Ethnic Disparities in Health and Mental Health: Toward Theory and Research at Community Levels

We need to further develop theoretically informed, empirically grounded bodies of knowledge on how community structures, norms, and processes operate in local communities and how they affect human well-being, especially in culturally diverse and ethnic minority communities. Scholars pursuing this agenda will benefit from population thinking which focuses attention on human aggregates and on equilibrium processes and social and community mechanisms of change. They will benefit too from considering a promising body of theory and research on social capital. Community level knowledge has profound intervention-related implications at policy levels: such knowledge figured prominently in initiatives associated with 2.5 million residents leaving poverty neighborhoods during the decade 1990–2000. It continues to figure in crucial policy debates and provides a knowledge base on which future federal reports, like 2001s Mental Health: Culture, Race, and Ethnicity—A Supplement to Mental Health: A Report of the Surgeon General, can draw.This article is based on the address delivered as the recipient of the 2004 Division 27 Award for Distinguished Contribution to Theory and Research in Community Psychology     

Groundhog day: The individual,the couple,the group and the space between

Abstract

The film Groundhog Day first came out in 1993. Five years later, it is still cited in a variety of contexts. The author proposes that this is because the film is a cultural artefact which both elucidates and frustrates the ideal of romantic love in the couple as the agent of internal change.

The author also proposes a re-viewing of the meaning of the concept of couple. The convergence of object relations theories with group analysis suggests that the mind works by repeating and externalizing internal group structures in social relationships. The couple, then, becomes an intermediary structure between the individual and the group where intimacy facilitates a re-working of group internal structures. It is the collapsing and the opening of the ‘space between’ which is the agent of change. This process creates strength, power and a feeling of wholeness. But it also implies the expression of anger, pain and disappointment. The author illustrates these points with an interpretation of the Groundhog Day film and with a clinical case study of a couple in therapy.     

Older adult research in the Journal of Counseling Psychology,The Counseling Psychologist,and Counselling Psychology Quarterly: A 15-year review and implications for research

In preparing for an aging global population, older adults’ well-being has become an urgent priority across the world. Counseling psychologists have also called upon the field for more empirical attention on older adults. Yet, a review of the literature revealed that older adults were represented in less than 2% of all the articles in the Journal of Counseling Psychology (JCP) and The Counseling Psychologist (TCP) from 1991 to 2000. The current study presents a follow-up review of older adult research in counseling psychology literature between 2001 and 2015 in the following mainstream journals: Counselling Psychology Quarterly (CPQ), JCP, and TCQ. Results suggest a decline in the past 15 years, with less than 1% of the total articles in JCP, TCP, and CPQ devoted to older adults. Most of the studies employed cross-sectional survey research design to examine predictors of mental health. A number of studies focused on culture-specific experiences of diverse older adults. Implications and suggestions for future research on older adult issues are discussed in relation to the principles and interests rooted in the field of counseling psychology.     

From Couple Therapy 1.0 to a Comprehensive Model: A Roadmap for Sequencing and Integrating Systemic,Psychodynamic, and Behavioral Approaches in Couple Therapy

Couple therapy is a complex undertaking that proceeds best by integrating various schools of thought. Grounded in an in‐depth review of the clinical and research literature, and drawing on the author's 40‐plus years of experience, this paper presents a comprehensive, flexible, and user‐friendly roadmap for conducting couple therapy. It begins by describing “Couple Therapy 1.0,” the basic conjoint couple therapy format in which partners talk to each other with the help of the therapist. After noting the limitations of this model, the paper introduces upgrades derived from systemic, psychodynamic, and behavioral/educational approaches, and shows how to combine and sequence them. The most important upgrade is the early focus on the couple's negative interaction cycle, which causes them pain and impedes their ability to address it. Using a clinical case example, the paper shows how all three approaches can improve couple process as a prerequisite for better problem solving. Additional modules and sequencing choice points are also discussed, including discernment counseling and encouraging positive couple experiences.     

Predicting Marital Satisfaction From Self,Partner, and Couple Characteristics: Is It Me,You, or Us?

Past research on the link between personal characteristics and marital satisfaction has taken either an individual or a dyadic approach. The individual approach examines how self and/or partner characteristics are associated with satisfaction, whereas the dyadic approach focuses on couple characteristics such as couple similarity. The current research was designed to integrate both approaches. A modified Actor-Partner Interdependence Model (Kashy & Kenny, 2000) was proposed to test simultaneously the contributions of self characteristics, partner characteristics, and two types of couple similarity (level similarity measured by the absolute difference score and shape similarity measured by the profile correlation) in predicting husbands' and wives' marital satisfaction. This model was tested by structural equation modeling in two large, nationally representative, urban samples (N=536 and 537 couples) from China. The results were largely replicated across four personality domains and two value domains, suggesting that all predictors tended to make independent contributions to satisfaction except the absolute difference score.     

Reshaping Couple Configurations that Get in the Way of Relationship Repair and Healing

In the context of relationship trauma, partners' reactive patterns of engagement can disrupt and derail attempts at relationship correction and healing. A circumplex typology of couple patterns of engagement in relational trauma context is defined in terms of partners' underlying views of self in relation to other (VSIRO). VSIRO is conceptualized along a continuum anchored at opposite poles by inflated (self-aggrandizing) versus collapsed (self-abnegating) VSIRO, with a balanced (egalitarian) VSIRO, characterized by accountability and forbearance, as the target position. The circumplex model delineates four problematic couple configurations—a dejected couple, a taker–enabler couple, an ultimate fighting couple, and a debtor–collector couple. Where problematic engagement occurs, therapists need to reshape couple engagement toward the balanced, egalitarian position prior to relational trauma work. Clinical vignettes depict these couples and springboard an analysis of unique needs and interventions associated with each couple configuration. Reshaping couple patterns of engagement using a circumplex model of couple configurations is an essential prerequisite to effective and ethical relational trauma work.     

Mapping physical characteristics in face images to social judgements

Sutherland and Young (Br. J. Psychol., 113, 2022, 1056) provide a comprehensive and timely overview of recent developments in research on social judgements of faces, emphasizing the utility of data-driven approaches. Here, we expand on this theme, focusing on how data-driven approaches can provide new insights into the physical characteristics in face images that best predict social judgements.     

Introducing the Expectations and Preference Scales for Couple Therapy (EPSCT): Development,Psychometric Evaluation,and Suggested Use in Practice and Research

While it is known that client factors account for the largest proportion of outcome variance across treatment modalities, little is known about how clients’ characteristics affect the process and effectiveness of couple therapy. To further knowledge in this area, we created a brief, practice‐friendly measure, the Expectation and Preference Scales for Couple Therapy (EPSCT). Three self‐report scales assess clients’ Outcome expectations (e.g., I expect our relationship to improve as a result of couple therapy) and role expectations for Self (e.g., I expect to listen to my partner's concerns) and Partner (e.g., I expect my partner to blame me). Three Cognitive‐Behavioral, Emotionally Focused, and Family Systems preference scales use a forced‐choice format to measure the comparative strength of respondents’ preferences for interventions broadly reflective of each approach. A large item pool was developed from relevant literature and clinical experience and refined based on face and content analyses with two panels of experienced couple therapists and researchers. Across four studies with 1,175 participants, the scales’ internal consistency reliabilities were similar and their construct validity was supported with confirmatory factor analyses and significant correlations with several established measures, including expectation measures developed for individual psychotherapy and measures of attitudes toward professional help seeking and valuing personal growth. Across all studies, participants had stronger role expectations for themselves than their partners, although gender effects differed by sample. We discuss how to use the 15‐item EPSCT in clinical practice and in future research as a predictor of couple therapy processes and outcomes.     

Looking from the Outside/In: Re-thinking Research Ethics Review

This paper shares my reflections on the research ethics review process, from the point of view of both a qualitative researcher and a member of an institutional research ethics review board. By considering research ethics review, first as practice, then as policy, as a relationship and, finally, as a performance, I attempt to outline a new vision of research ethics, one that engages seriously with the relationship between receiving ethics approval, and conducting ethical research.     

Religiosity, psychoticism, and schizotypal traits

In the present study we investigated the relationship between scores on the Francis Scale of Attitudes towards Christianity [FSAC (Francis & Stubbs, Personality and Individual Differences, 8, 741–743, 1987)], Eysenck's Personality Questionnaire [EPQ (Eysenck & Eysenck, Manual of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire, 1975)], Eckblad and Chapman's Magical Ideation Scale [MgI (Eckblad & Chapman, Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 51, 215–225, 1983)], and Claridge's STQ (Claridge & Broks, Personality and Individual Differences, 5, 633–648, 1984). A first Principal Components Analysis with the FSAC and the EPQ confirmed previous work which has shown a negative association between religiosity and psychoticism. A second Principal Components Analysis with all scales yielded a four factor solution:

1. (1) aberrant perceptions and beliefs;

2. (2) social anxiety and suspiciousness;

3. (3) asociality and low religiosity; and

4. (4) social desirability.

Some evidence is also presented for an association between higher religiosity and higher scores on unusual perceptual experiences in men although not in women. Implications for the assessment of religiosity in future research are discussed.