Communal Behaviors and Psychological Adjustment of Family Caregivers and Persons With Spinal Cord Injury

OBJECTIVE: Examined the influence of mutual communal behaviors on the adjustment reported by persons with spinal cord injury (SCI) and their family caregivers. Previous research has found that persons who have a history of mutually communal behaviors in relationships may react differently to relationship changes after an acquired physical disability than dyads with few communal behaviors. METHOD: Family caregivers and persons with SCI were administered measures of mutual communal behaviors, depression, and life satisfaction. Structural equation modeling was used to test the relations among caregivers' communal behaviors and care recipients' communal behaviors, depression, and life satisfaction. RESULTS: Caregiver and care recipient reports of communal behaviors were not significantly correlated. Significant paths indicated that care recipients' communal behavior scores were positively associated with their life satisfaction, and care recipients' depression was inversely associated with their life satisfaction. Caregivers' communal behavior scores were unrelated to their self-reported adjustment. CONCLUSIONS: Caregiver-care recipient dyads may differ in their perceptions of communal behaviors in their relationships. Although care recipient reports of communal behavior may be related to their life satisfaction, communal behaviors may not serve a similar function among caregivers of persons with SCI.     

Affect Dysregulation in Individuals With Borderline Personality Disorder: Persistence and Interpersonal Triggers

We hypothesized that affect dysregulation among individuals with borderline personality disorder (BPD) would involve greater persistence of negative affect between interpersonal events and heightened reactivity to stimuli indicating risk of rejection or disapproval, specifically perceptions of others’ communal (agreeable-quarrelsome) behaviors. A total of 38 participants with BPD and 31 controls collected information about affect and perceptions of the interaction partner's behavior during interpersonal events for a 20-day period. Negative and positive affect persisted more across interpersonal events for individuals with BPD than for controls. In addition, individuals with BPD reported a greater increase in negative affect when they perceived less communal behavior and a smaller increase in positive affect when they perceived more communal behavior in others. Findings indicate the importance of interpersonal perceptions in the affect dysregulation of individuals with BPD.     

Affect dysregulation in individuals with borderline personality disorder: persistence and interpersonal triggers

We hypothesized that affect dysregulation among individuals with borderline personality disorder (BPD) would involve greater persistence of negative affect between interpersonal events and heightened reactivity to stimuli indicating risk of rejection or disapproval, specifically perceptions of others' communal (agreeable-quarrelsome) behaviors. A total of 38 participants with BPD and 31 controls collected information about affect and perceptions of the interaction partner's behavior during interpersonal events for a 20-day period. Negative and positive affect persisted more across interpersonal events for individuals with BPD than for controls. In addition, individuals with BPD reported a greater increase in negative affect when they perceived less communal behavior and a smaller increase in positive affect when they perceived more communal behavior in others. Findings indicate the importance of interpersonal perceptions in the affect dysregulation of individuals with BPD.     

Children's perceptions of the sibling relationship in middle childhood: Connections within and between family relationships

Although sibling warmth and hostility have been shown to be statistically independent, they are intertwined in children's everyday experiences. We developed a multidimensional characterization of children's perceptions of their sibling relationships and examined differences in other family relationship measures as a function of different combinations of sibling hostility and warmth. Participants included 91 firstborn children between 10 and 11 years of age with younger siblings between 6 and 10 years of age. Children reported their levels of satisfaction, intimacy, and rivalry in their sibling relationships and their satisfaction with parent-child relationships. Parents rated their marriages. As compared with children in families with “affect-intense” sibling relationships (high hostility/high warmth), children in “hostile” sibling relationships (high hostility/low warmth) rated their sibling and parent-child relationships more negatively, and their parents rated their marriages more negatively. Results are discussed in terms of the role of hostility in sibling experiences and the importance of understanding multidimensional patterns in the sibling relationship.     

Culture and Social Obligation: When “Shoulds” Are Perceived as “Wants”

This study explored motivational differences in the perception of social obligations by respondents from individualist versus collectivist cultures. Participants were 120 undergraduate students (60 Latinos and 60 Anglos) who completed a lengthy questionnaire assessing the extent to which they felt obligated to help and wanted to help across a variety of social situations. Although individuals from the two cultures reported a strong sense of obligation with regard to close friends and family members, Latinos expressed a greater desire (i.e., greater perceived “want”) to engage in these “should” behaviors. Furthermore, compared to Anglos, Latinos felt a stronger sense of both shoulds and wants in their motivations to help more distant family and friends. The two groups did not differ in their motivations to help distant acquaintances and strangers. Although wants were associated with life satisfaction for both groups, shoulds were positively associated with life satisfaction for Latinos but not Anglos. Overall, compared to the Anglo students, Latino students perceived helping others as both more obligatory and more personally desirable, suggesting a more congruent view of personal autonomy and societal control in collectivist cultures than in individualist cultures.     

Effects of valence and framing in decision-making: Assessing decision-makers' perceived domains of choice

Abstract: In comparison between choice alternatives, judgments of “How much better is a preferred option?” and “How much worse is a less preferred option?” may differ in their magnitudes. Such discrepancies are called “valence effects”. Previously, Yamagishi and Miyamoto (1996 ) observed systematic positive valence effects (“Better” exceeding “Worse”) in the domain of gains and systematic negative valence effects (“Worse” exceeding “Better”) in the domain of losses. The current experiments used the directions of valence effects as a tool to assess decision‐maker's interpretation of choice tasks under “framing effects” ( Tversky & Kahneman, 1986 ). Preferences under the framing effect switch from certain options in the domain of gains to uncertain options in the domain of losses. Two experiments showed that preferences for certain options were associated with positive valence effects, whereas preferences for uncertain options were associated with negative valence effects. Moreover, conditions wherein the framing manipulations lose the effectiveness were examined. Valence effects showed that framing effects ceased to occur when decision‐makers maintained consistent domain perceptions as pertaining to gains or to losses, across the domains of gains and losses. Implications are discussed.     

Division of Household and Childcare Labor and Relationship Conflict Among Low-Income New Parents

We examine the relationships among the division of housework and childcare labor, perceptions of its fairness for two types of family labor (housework and childcare), and parents’ relationship conflict across the transition to parenthood. Perceived fairness is examined as a mediator of the relationships between change in the division of housework and childcare and relationship conflict. Working-class, dual-earner couples (n?=?108) in the U.S Northeast were interviewed at five time points from the third trimester of pregnancy and across the first year of parenthood. Research questions addressed whether change in the division of housework and childcare across the transition to parenthood predicted mothers’ and fathers’ relationship conflict, with attention to the mediating role of perceived fairness of these chores. Findings for housework indicated that perceived fairness was related to relationship conflict for mothers and fathers, such that when spouses perceived the change in the division of household tasks to be unfair to either partner, they reported more conflict, However, fairness did not significantly mediate relations between changes in division of household tasks and later relationship conflict. For childcare, fairness mediated relations between mothers’ violated expectations concerning the division of childcare and later conflict such that mothers reported less conflict when they perceived the division of childcare as less unfair to themselves; there was no relationship for fathers. Findings highlight the importance of considering both childcare and household tasks independently in our models and suggest that the division of housework and childcare holds different implications for mothers’ and fathers’ assessments of relationship conflict.     

Relationship tensions and mood: Adult children's daily experience of aging parents' stubbornness

This study examined middle‐aged individuals' reports of parents' behaviors commonly attributed to stubbornness. Middle‐aged adults (N = 192) completed a 7‐day diary reporting their mood and how often they felt their parents (N = 254) engaged in behaviors often described as “stubbornness” (insistent or risky). Thirty‐one percent of middle‐aged children reported insistent behaviors, and 17% reported risky behaviors by their parent(s). Daily reports of parent behaviors attributed to stubbornness were positively associated with parent–child relationship quality, parent functional limitations, and child neuroticism. Reports of perceived parent insistent behaviors were also associated with greater daily negative mood among adult children. Findings highlight the impact of adult children's daily perceptions of parent behaviors commonly attributed to stubbornness on the individual and relationship.     

Ex-Partner,Family, Friends,and Other Relationships: Their Role Within the Social Network of Long-Term Single Mothers1

This study explores various aspects of support in the social network of long-term single mothers: the nature of expected help and of offered support, the attitudes behind support, the strategies for requesting help, the reluctance to ask, the efficacy of received help, the perceived refusals, and the behaviors judged as harmful. Thirty women separated for at least two years with a child aged under 10 were chosen following the snowball technique, and participated in this study. The content analysis of the semi-structured interviews shows how the dynamics of social support varies according to the relationship to the target person: ex-partner, family, friends, or “other relationships”. For instance the ex-partner, when mentioned, rarely offered the expected support and was perceived as harmful. Family members often lived up to their expectations, but women were generally very reluctant to ask them for help. Friends were the most efficient helpers and were the main persons from whom mothers expected cognitive support. The “other relationships” offered a certain amount of help, especially at the instrumental level but, as with the ex-partner, they were frequently perceived as harmful. Finally, we advocate for an “ecological” approach to measure social support in the context of the interaction in which it occurs.     

Capitalization in distressed couples: A pilot study and outline for future research

Capitalization—seeking “support” when good things happen—is linked to healthy couple functioning but has never been studied in distressed couples. We examined whether perceptions of capitalization and traditional social support related to couples' satisfaction prior to, and following, couples' therapy at a Veteran Affairs Medical Center. Perceptions of capitalization and traditional social support were associated yet distinct. Not all distressed couples had poor perceptions of support, and greater perceived support related to greater satisfaction at treatment entry. Relationship satisfaction was higher posttreatment for individuals whose partners reported providing them with greater capitalization support prior to treatment. We focus our discussion on the development of systematic research to investigate how capitalization may promote adaptive processes in vulnerable couples.     

Better to Decide Together: Shared Consumer Decision Making,Perceived Power,and Relationship Satisfaction

Shared consumer decisions, particularly those made with a relationship partner, can be very different from decisions that are made alone. Across multiple studies, we investigate how shared consumer decision making affects perceptions of power and relationship satisfaction. We integrate two streams of research to create a novel theory about consumer decision making and perceived power. Specifically, we suggest that shared consumer decision making combines two necessary components of power—an individual's influence over and a partner's engagement in the decision—and that these combined components drive power perceptions. In other words, individuals who relinquish some control and make a decision with their partner, ironically, perceive having greater power than if they had made the decision alone. We further find that shared decision making and greater perceived power lead to greater satisfaction with the relationship in which the decisions are made. By focusing on consumer decision making within relationships, the current research contributes to the literatures on decision making, social influences in consumer behavior, close relationships, consumer well-being, and power.     

Projection of responsiveness to needs and the construction of satisfying communal relationships

This research tested a social projection model of perceived partner responsiveness to needs. According to this model, people project their own care and supportiveness for a partner onto their perceptions of their partner's caring and supportiveness. In 2 dyadic marriage studies, participants' self-reported responsiveness to the needs of a spouse predicted perceptions of the spouse's responsiveness to the self more strongly than did the spouse's self-reported responsiveness. These projected perceptions of responsiveness, in turn, appeared to promote perceivers' relationship satisfaction. These effects were independent of individual differences in attachment, self-esteem, depression, and communal orientation. A daily-diary component suggested that people projected their own chronic responsiveness as well as their daily enacted support onto perceptions of the specific benefits received from their spouses. A 3rd study found that experimentally manipulated feelings of difficulty in recalling examples of own support provision reduced perceptions of partner responsiveness. Results suggest that projection of own responsiveness is an important determinant of perceived social support and is a means by which caring perceivers maintain satisfying and subjectively communal relationships.     

Distinctive Preferences Toward Risk in the Substantive Domain of Sociality*

As with standard models of rationality, theorists generally treat prospect theory's demonstration of risk aversion in gains but risk tolerance in losses as domain‐general. Yet evolutionary psychology suggests that natural selection has designed a domain specific cognitive architecture—with systems specialized for some substantive domains but not others. Here we address risky choices through that lens asking whether humans' risk responses dispose them to enter social relationships even when doing so is counter to normative rationality and regardless of whether the “enter” versus “not enter” choice is framed as between gains and losses. Laboratory findings in five sites across three countries provide a positive answer to both possibilities. Participants could enter or not enter inherently risky social relationships. They were more willing to enter such relationships than rational choice models would predict and were equally so willing regardless of whether equivalent alternatives were framed as gains and as losses. With the “social context” extracted in otherwise identical games, participants' risk responses were consistent with prospect theory. The present findings suggest the possibility of adaptations designed to facilitate sociality—despite its risks and how those risks are framed.     

When What You Want is What You Get: Pay Dispersion and Communal Sharing Preference

The question of whether pay structures should be compressed or dispersed remains unanswered. We argue that pay dispersion can yield uncertainty regarding others' intentions and behaviors; as a result, individuals take a greater risk trusting their group members as pay spreads widen. Accordingly, we explore the conditions under which individuals are more willing to take this risk by viewing their group members as trustworthy even when pay is dispersed. Specifically, preferences for how relationships and resources should be structured in groups should help to determine when pay dispersion relates to trustworthiness perceptions. We hypothesise that the cross‐level interaction between preferences for communal sharing (Level 1)—that is, the extent to which individuals prefer communal, egalitarian structures in their groups—and pay dispersion (Level 2) is associated with trust perceptions. Data drawn from a sample of university professors support our hypothesised cross‐level interaction, and show that when pay dispersion is greater, individuals perceive their group members as more trustworthy only when they have weak preferences for communal sharing. Our results signify the importance of individual attributes to understanding pay dispersion's effects, and show that trust is fostered when preferences and pay conditions are aligned.     

Walking the walk,talking the talk: Love languages,self‐regulation,and relationship satisfaction

Much clinical work has utilized G. Chapman's (1995) “love languages” model to promote relationship satisfaction, yet the model remains untested. This study addressed this issue by testing the hypothesis that couples with aligned love languages would report higher relationship satisfaction; we also explored the role that self‐regulation played in promoting satisfaction. A total of 67 heterosexual couples were assessed on love language preference, self‐regulation, and relationship satisfaction. Results provided limited evidence that love language alignment promotes satisfaction; self‐regulation contributed greater variance in satisfaction. Dyadic analyses identified that female self‐regulation positively impacted both male and female relationship satisfaction when couples had dissimilar primary love languages, although significant actor effects were also important predictors for both genders. The outcomes of this study suggest that the effectiveness of Chapman's model may be dependent on both spouses exhibiting appropriate self‐regulatory behaviors and that female self‐regulation plays an important role in predicting relationship satisfaction for both partners when they have different preferred love languages.     

The construction of risk in relationships: The role of framing in decisions about intimate relationships

Two studies examined the applicability of Kahneman and Tversky's (1979) notion of “framing” to decision making in romantic relationships. Using scenarios about hypothetical relationships, the results of Study 1 demonstrated that framing objectively identical alternatives in terms of losses versus gains affected participants' preferences for risky versus cautious actions. Furthermore, adult attachment style was found to moderate the impact of this framing effect. Study 2 examined individual differences in people's spontaneous tendencies to frame their feelings about their actual relationships in terms of losses or gains. Consistent with the findings of Study 1, attachment style was reliably associated with spontaneous framing. Secure individuals were most likely to represent their feelings in terms of a “gains frame” whereas fearful individuals were most likely to represent their feelings in terms of a “loss frame.”     

Physical,Psychological and Social Adaptation of African American Nuns to Their Religious Communities as They Age: Implications for Aging in Place

ABSTRACT

This study examined the association between health status, stress, depression, satisfaction with the relationship with the religious community, alienation from significant persons, racial/cultural identity and “aging in place,” as measured by length of time in the same religious community, for a purposive sample of 72 African American nuns. Aging in place was significantly associated with perceptions of better health status, less stress and depression and greater satisfaction with relationships with the religious community. However, the study also found that the longer the nuns lived in their respective communities, the less racially/culturally identified they became. These findings underscore the need for finding ways to keep nuns in their religious communities as they age and to provide avenues of racial/cultural expression for African American nuns.     

Calibrating Use of Emotion Regulation Strategies to the Relationship Context: An Attachment Perspective

This research tested whether adult attachment orientations predict use of emotion regulation strategies in theoretically consistent ways, and whether associations among attachment orientations and emotion regulatory strategies are moderated by critical features of the relationship context. Ninety‐six couples (192 individuals) reported on their attachment orientations, habitual use of emotion regulation strategies (cognitive reappraisal, expressive suppression, negative emotion expressivity), and perceptions of relationship closeness and negative partner behaviors. Highly secure individuals reported greater use of cognitive reappraisal, especially when they felt closer to their partners, and engaged in less suppression when their partners behaved more negatively toward them. Highly avoidant individuals reported greater use of suppression, especially when they perceived more negative partner behaviors, and when their partners were more avoidant. Highly anxious individuals also used more suppression when their partners were more avoidant, but they expressed more negative emotions when they were paired with less avoidant partners. Fearful‐avoidant individuals' emotion regulation patterns resembled those of both highly secure and dismissive‐avoidant individuals. This study illustrates how attending to moderating effects within specific relationships and testing joint effects of both partners' personality characteristics can help identify contextual boundaries of emotion regulation strategies and clarify emotional response patterns in couples.     

Discrepancies Between Parent and Adolescent Beliefs About Daily Life Topics and Performance on an Emotion Recognition Task

Parents and children and adolescents commonly disagree in their perceptions of a variety of behaviors, including the family relationship and environment, and child and adolescent psychopathology. To this end, numerous studies have examined to what extent increased discrepant perceptions—particularly with regard to perceptions of the family relationship and environment—predict increased child and adolescent psychopathology. Parents’ and children and adolescents’ abilities to decode and identify others’ emotions (i.e., emotion recognition) may play a role in the link between discrepant perceptions and child and adolescent psychopathology. We examined parents’ and adolescents’ emotion recognition abilities in relation to discrepancies between parent and adolescent perceptions of daily life topics. In a sample of 50 parents and adolescents ages 14-to-17 years (M?=?15.4 years, 20 males, 54 % African-American), parents and adolescents were each administered a widely used performance-based measure of emotion recognition. Parents and adolescents were also administered a structured interview designed to directly assess each of their perceptions of the extent to which discrepancies existed in their beliefs about daily life topics (e.g., whether adolescents should complete their homework and carry out household chores). Interestingly, lower parent and adolescent emotion recognition performance significantly related to greater parent and adolescent perceived discrepant beliefs about daily life topics. We observed this relation whilst accounting for adolescent age and gender and levels of parent-adolescent conflict. These findings have important implications for understanding and using informant discrepancies in both basic developmental psychopathology research and applied research in clinic settings (e.g., discrepant views on therapeutic goals).