Ghosted?: Navigating strategies for reducing uncertainty and implications surrounding ambiguous loss

Ghosting is the unilateral dissolution process of ceasing communication through media. When ghosted, non‐initiators are often left without the ability to navigate the resulting uncertainty or impending dissolution processes. Utilizing uncertainty reduction theory and ambiguous loss, this investigation explores effective and ineffective strategies used to find answers, reduce uncertainty, and navigate post‐dissolution consequences. Employing two studies from Amazon's Mechanical Turk, a thematic analysis to delineate and affirm categories—7 effective and ineffective strategies and 11 categories of personal and relational implications after being ghosted—was used. These studies provide insight about non‐initiators process to resolve their uncertainty and highlight ramifications from ambiguity that non‐initiators experience after being ghosted. These findings discuss connections to knowledge acquisition, closure processing, and consequences of ghosting.     

“I’ll never be in a relationship like that again”: Personal growth following romantic relationship breakups

This study investigated the prevalence and correlates of personal growth and distress following romantic relationship breakups. Causal attributions for why the relationship declined and ended, personality factors, gender, and initiator status were examined as correlates of growth and distress in 92 undergraduates who had experienced a recent romantic relationship breakup. In regard to the prevalence of growth, respondents reported, on average, five types of personal growth they thought might improve their future romantic relationships. Correlates of self–reported growth included causal attributions to environmental factors and the personality factor of Agreeableness. Women reported more growth than did men. Factors related to higher levels of distress included causal attributions to the ex–partner and to environmental factors surrounding the previous relationship. The importance of assessing growth following relationship breakups and of accounting for the environmental context of close relationships is discussed.     

Social network members' responses to friends' breakup false alarms

Social networks influence romantic relationships through friends' support or lack of support of the union. However, the consequences of friends repeatedly telling other friends their relationship was going to end but failing to actually terminate the relationship are unclear. Guided by the false alarm effect (FAE), and data from both student (N = 273) and noncollege (N = 226) samples, it was found that breakup false alarms were associated with increases in both positive and negative responses. In addition, when participants were friends with both partners, breakup false alarms were associated with “feeling caught” between the friends. Findings generally support the FAE and paint a complex picture of how social network members react to their close friends' tumultuous relationships.     

The contemptuous separation: Facial expressions of emotion and breakups in young adulthood

The importance of studying specific and expressed emotions after a stressful life event is well known, yet few studies have moved beyond assessing self‐reported emotional responses to a romantic breakup. This study examined associations between computer‐recognized facial expressions and self‐reported breakup‐related distress among recently separated college‐aged young adults (N = 135; 37 men) on four visits across 9 weeks. Participants' facial expressions were coded using the Computer Expression Recognition Toolbox while participants spoke about their breakups. Of the seven expressed emotions studied, only Contempt showed a unique association with breakup‐related distress over time. At baseline, greater Contempt was associated with less breakup‐related distress; however, over time, greater Contempt was associated with greater breakup‐related distress.     

Facing a breakup: Electromyographic responses moderate self‐concept recovery following a romantic separation

Romantic breakups arouse fundamental questions about the self: Who am I without my partner? This study examined self‐concept reorganization and psychological well‐being over an 8‐week period in the months following a breakup. Multilevel analyses revealed that poorer self‐concept recovery preceded poorer well‐being and was associated with love for an ex‐partner, suggesting that failure to redefine the self contributes to post‐breakup distress. Psychophysiological data revealed that greater activity in the corrugator supercilia facial muscle while thinking about an ex‐partner predicted poorer self‐concept recovery and strengthened the negative association between love for an ex‐partner and self‐concept recovery. Thus, the interaction between self‐report and psychophysiological data provided information about the importance of self‐concept recovery to post‐breakup adjustment not tapped by either method alone.     

On-again/off-again dating relationships: what keeps partners coming back?

Building on research comparing on-again/off-again (on-off) relationships to other dating relationships, the current study focused on a unique feature of these relationships-renewals. A sample of 274 participants who had experienced an on-off relationship completed a survey about why they renewed their relationships, characteristics of their breakups and renewals, and what stressors and benefits they experienced. These characteristics were used to predict the occurrence of renewals, separately as well as in multivariate analyses. In addition to lingering feelings being a predominant reason for renewals, findings suggested uncertainty about what the preceding breakup indicated, not having dated others after breakups, and feeling the on-off nature improved the relationship were all related to an increased chance of renewals. Mutual initiations of breakups, as well as reporting uncertainty about the general nature of the relationship, were also related to a decreased chance of renewals.     

Two sides to the breakup of dating relationships

Very few studies on the aftermath of relationship breakups have included data from both ex-partners. The major purpose of this study was to examine whether there is any validity to the principle that there are two sides to every breakup. Questionnaire data were collected from both partners of 47 heterosexual, dating couples after they experienced the breakup of their relationship. Their emotional reactions, perceptions of who had control over the breakup, and perceptions of reasons for the breakup were analyzed. Results indicated that there was no association between ex-partners in the level of distress experienced after the breakup. Ex-partners agreed about who had control and who was responsible for the breakup and about some of the specific reasons for the breakup. Fewer gender differences were found in this study than have been found in previous research on dating relationship breakups (e.g., Hill, Rubin, & Peplau, 1976). For example, men and women were similar in the overall distress they experienced after the breakup and in the reasons they gave for the breakup. Women were more likely than men to be seen as the initiator of the breakup, but only by women themselves. Additional analyses indicated that perceptions of control and the reasons for the breakup were related to emotional reactions after the breakup.     

Comprehensive stereotype content dictionaries using a semi‐automated method

Advances in natural language processing provide accessible approaches to analyze psychological open‐ended data. However, comprehensive instruments for text analysis of stereotype content are missing. We developed stereotype content dictionaries using a semi‐automated method based on WordNet and word embeddings. These stereotype content dictionaries covered over 80% of open‐ended stereotypes about salient American social groups, compared to 20% coverage from words extracted directly from the stereotype content literature. The dictionaries showed high levels of internal consistency and validity, predicting stereotype scale ratings and human judgments of online text. We developed the R package Semi‐Automated Dictionary Creation for Analyzing Text (SADCAT; https://github.com/gandalfnicolas/SADCAT ) for access to the stereotype content dictionaries and the creation of novel dictionaries for constructs of interest. Potential applications of the dictionaries range from advancing person perception theories through laboratory studies and analysis of online data to identifying social biases in artificial intelligence, social media, and other ubiquitous text sources.     

Blurring the Dichotomy of Good and Evil: The Idiosyncratic Helping Strategies Associated with Unmitigated‐Agentic and Unmitigated‐Communal Personalities

We theorized that unmitigated‐agentic personality constructs (UAPs)—prioritizing 'getting ahead’ over 'getting along’—and unmitigated‐communal personality constructs (UCPs)—prioritizing getting along over getting ahead—are associated with distinct affect‐regulatory helping strategies. In Study 1 (N = 179), UAPs, on average, related to greater negative‐affect versus positive‐affect induction helping tactics. In two experiments, UAPs, on average, related to a greater likelihood of selecting anger‐inducing versus love‐inducing or sadness‐inducing songs to help a target overcome a breakup (Study 2; N = 313) and greater selection of anger‐inducing and hubris‐inducing messages versus authentic‐pride‐inducing and love‐inducing messages to help a teammate struggling in a game (Study 3; N = 246). UCPs manifested the opposite patterns. Generally, these associations corresponded with helping‐strategy utility beliefs and were robust to moderators of helping target (self or other; Study 2) or altruistic versus selfish motives (Study 3). Study 4 (N = 205) provided some evidence of ecological validity in contexts of recalled everyday helping. Associations between personality constructs and relative helping strategies were about moderate in size (rs ~ .20) across these four studies. Findings suggest that UAPs are associated with helping strategies believed to promote ‘contemptuous’ self‐enhancement relative to ‘innocuous’ self‐enhancement and self‐transcendence, and vice versa for UCPs. © 2019 European Association of Personality Psychology     

Attachment styles and close relationships: A four-year prospective study

A longitudinal study of 177 adults examined the stability of adult attachment styles and of romantic relationships over a 4-year period. Findings included the following: (a) attachment styles were highly stable over time; (b) Time 1 attachment style was a significant predictor of Time 2 relationship status, but (c) this effect was mediated by concurrent attachment style at Time 2; (d) secure respondents were less likely than insecure respondents to report one or more breakups during the 4-year interval, but (e) paradoxically, ambivalent respondents were just as likely as secure respondents to be in a relationship with the same partner they had identified 4 years earlier; and (f) attachment stability was moderated to some extent by the experience of breakup or initiation of new relationships during the interim. Respondents' ability to recall their previous attachment style was also examined. Methodological and theoretical implications are discussed, particularly with respect to the conceptualization of attachment styles as traits versus reflections of current relationship status.     

Longing for Ex‐Partners out of Fear of Being Single

This research investigated whether people who fear being single have a more difficult time letting go of ex‐partners following a romantic breakup. Data were collected in a cross‐sectional study (N = 209, 64% women, M_age = 30 years old) as well as a 1‐month daily experience study of individuals who just went through a romantic breakup (N = 117, 44% women, M_age = 27 years old). Findings from both studies revealed that those with stronger fear of being single (Spielmann et al., 2013) reported greater longing for their ex‐partners. Pre‐ to post‐breakup analyses revealed that fear of being single increased after a breakup, regardless of who initiated the breakup. Within‐day analyses revealed that longing for an ex‐partner and attempts to renew the relationship were greater on days with stronger fear of being single. Lagged‐day analyses provided support for the conclusion that fear of being single increased longing and renewal attempts over time, but longing and renewal attempts did not influence fear of being single. These findings suggest that fear of being single is a particularly useful construct for understanding the romantic detachment process.     

Is Political Conservatism Adaptive? Reinterpreting Right‐Wing Authoritarianism and Social Dominance Orientation as Evolved,Sociofunctional Strategies

The Dual Process Model (DPM) explains prejudice and political conservatism as functions of Right‐Wing Authoritarianism (RWA) and a Social Dominance Orientation (SDO; Duckitt, 2001). From an evolutionary perspective, such orientations may represent specific adaptations to coalitional competition in the ancestral environment (Sinn & Hayes, 2016). Supporting this view, recent research suggests the two orientations represent divergent strategies, with RWA pursuing an honest‐cooperator strategy and SDO a deceptive, cooperation‐mimicking strategy (Heylen & Pauwels, 2015). In two studies, we examine additional evidence for an adaptationist interpretation of DPM. Utilizing life history theory, Study 1 finds that RWA reflects the predicted “slow” strategy by endorsing planning and control, investment in family relationships, altruism, and religiosity. In contrast, SDO reflects a “fast” strategy by devaluing planning and control, secure relationships, and altruism. Utilizing rank management theory, Study 2 finds that RWA reflects a prosocial orientation, endorsing coalition building and social networking while rejecting deception and manipulation. In contrast, SDO reflects an exploitive orientation, rejecting coalition building and networking but endorsing ruthless self‐advancement and deceptive tactics. These findings support an adaptationist revision of RWA to recognize its prosocial, honest‐cooperator dimension and of SDO to recognize proself, “dark” tactics seeking power within groups.     

Breaking-up is hard to study: A review of two decades of dissolution research

The dissolution of romantic relationships can be conceptualized in many ways, from a distressing event or a consequential life decision to a metric of a relationship's success. In the current review, we assess how relationship science has approached dissolution research over roughly the past 20 years. We identified 207 studies (from 195 papers) published between 2002–2020 that captured relationship dissolution events and coded the papers for relevant features. The most common methodological approach to studying breakups was a self-report study (92%) in which relationships were tracked over time (72%) and breakups were treated as an outcome variable (79%). These results suggest that most research on dissolution has focused on predictors of it, rather than processes required to uncouple and circumstances surrounding the breakup itself. Coding revealed heterogeneous theoretical approaches, with the most common perspective across papers—social exchange/interdependence theory—informing only 15% of the papers coded. A majority (61%) of samples were representative of the nations, regions, or localities in which the studies were conducted. Yet, samples still tended to be disproportionately comprised of young, white individuals from Western countries. We conclude by discussing potential avenues for moving our understanding of relationship dissolution forward.     

From ‘Virgin Births’ to ‘Octomom’: Representations of Single Motherhood via Sperm Donation in the UK News

The use of sperm donation by single women has provoked public, professional and political debate. Newspapers serve as a critical means of both broadcasting this debate and effecting a representation of this user group within the public sphere. This study uses the theory of social representations to examine how single motherhood by sperm donation has been represented in the UK news over time. The study sampled news coverage on this topic in eight British newspapers during three 4‐year periods between the years 1988 and 2012. The dataset of news reports (n = 406) was analysed using a qualitative approach. Findings indicated that UK media reports of single women using donor sperm are underpinned by conventional categories of the ‘personal’, the ‘traditional’ and the ‘natural’ that when paired with their corollaries produce a representation of this user group as the social ‘other’. The amount of coverage on this topic over time was found to vary according to the political orientation of different media sources. Using key concepts from social representations theory, this article discusses the relationship between themata and anchoring in the maintenance of representations of the social ‘other’ in mass mediated communication. Findings are explained in relation to theoretical conceptions of the mass media and its position within the public sphere. It is argued that the use of personal narratives in news reports of single mothers by sperm donation may have significant implications for public understandings of this social group. © 2016 The Authors. Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.     

Its ovr b/n u n me: Technology Use, Attachment Styles, and Gender Roles in Relationship Dissolution

Abstract Relationship dissolution now occurs through technologies like text messaging, e-mail, and social networking sites (SNS). Individuals who experience relationship dissolution via technology may differ in their attachment pattern and gender role attitudes from those who have not had that experience. One hundred five college students (males=21 and females=84) completed an online questionnaire about technology-mediated breakups, attachment style, and gender role attitudes. More than a quarter of the sample had experienced relationship dissolution via technology. Attachment anxiety predicted those subject to technology-mediated breakups. Attachment avoidance and less traditional gender roles were associated with increased likelihood of technology use in relationship dissolution. Implications are discussed in regards to future research and practice.     

“They Dumped Me Like Trash”: The Social and Psychological Toll of Victimization on Latino Day Laborers' Lives

Although recent rhetoric links undocumented immigrants to criminality, reports indicate undocumented immigrants commit less crime than their native-born counterparts and that this vulnerable group may be at increased risk for criminal victimization. Immigrants living in new immigrant settlement cities may be particularly at risk for exposure to criminal victimization due to the vulnerabilities associated with a lack of an established Latino community and limited availability of culturally appropriate social services to provide support. This ethnographic study examines the experiences of victimization and its social and psychological toll of a street-recruited sample of Latino day laborers (LDLs) (N = 25) living and working in Baltimore, a new immigrant settlement city. Findings elucidate and describe the specific types of victimization experienced by LDLs, including workplace victimization (wage theft, abandonment at the jobsite, poor working conditions, verbal abuse) and street-level victimization (assault and robbery), as well as reveal the social and psychological toll of victimization (sociocultural alienation, despair or desesperación, and problem drinking) on their lives. Findings have implications for community psychology, through research and practice, as they provide insights for prevention and intervention within the intersection of structural vulnerability (i.e., undocumented immigration status), violence, and mental health.     

Subjective Social Standing and Conflict Tactics Among Young Kenyan Men

Efforts to reduce intimate partner violence in sub‐Saharan Africa generally approach the issue through the lens of women's empowerment. These efforts include foci on women's relative power in the relationship, educational background, and earning potential. The social status of men has largely been ignored, reducing the potential to involve them in efforts to demote intimate partner violence. In this study we consider whether a man's perceived social status predicts conflict tactics, and whether these tactics are mediated by loneliness and collective self‐esteem from a community‐based sample in semi‐rural Kenya (n = 263). We find that men who reported lower perceived social status also reported significantly more frequent violent conflicts with their intimate partners. This association was significantly, and completely, mediated by lower collective self‐esteem and higher loneliness. There was no direct association between subjective social status and negotiation‐based conflict tactics, although there was an indirect association. Men with higher perceived social status reported higher collective self‐esteem, and men with higher collective self‐esteem reported more negotiation‐based conflict tactics. These findings inform efforts to reduce intimate partner violence by involving men, showing potential to reduce violence by building self‐esteem among men—particularly those with lower perceived social status.     

Attachment, breakup strategies, and associated outcomes: The effects of security enhancement on the selection of breakup strategies

People tend to use different strategies to dissolve their romantic relationships (Baxter, 1982). The factors predicting selection of breakup strategies, and especially personality factors, have received relatively little attention. In five studies, using community and students samples, we revised the measure used to assess breakup strategy use, examined the outcomes of the revised strategies, and investigated the associations of these strategies with attachment dimensions. Attachment avoidance was associated with using less direct breakup strategies; whereas attachment anxiety was associated with using strategies meant to keep open the option of getting back together. In Studies 4 and 5, attachment-security primes were found to decrease these tendencies. Implications for relationship dissolution and attachment theory are discussed.     

Gender differences in autonomous and social achievement orientations

This research examined gender differences in orientations toward autonomous and social achievement. Three independent samples of subjects (total N= 359 males and 574 females) completed measures of achievement orientation (including Strumpfer's [1975] Autonomous Achievement Values and Social Achievement Values scales) and relevant cognitive, affective, and behavioral variables. Correlational and factor analyses clearly identified distinct autonomous and social achievement factors for both men and women in each of the samples. Examination of the correlates of achievement orientation indicated that whereas an autonomous achievement orientation is similarly expressed in males and females, there are considerable sex differences in the expression of an orientation toward social achievement. In particular, a social achievement orientation was associated with concerns over social approval and responsiveness to social influence among males, but was generally unrelated to these factors among females. Findings are discussed in terms of several recent hypotheses concerning the effects of sex role norms on the development and expression of achievement needs in men and women.