Victim and Perpetrator Accounts of Hurtful Messages: An Actor–Partner Interdependence Model

This study examined how message characteristics and relational turbulence correspond with victim and perpetrator experiences of hurtful messages. Romantic partners described 2 events: one where each of them was a victim of the partner's hurtful message. Trained judges evaluated qualities of hurtful messages and participants reported relationship qualities, intensity of hurt experienced as a victim, and the partner's hurt feelings when the respondent was the perpetrator. Third‐party ratings of hurtfulness were associated with victims' intensity of hurt. For females, relational turbulence was associated with their intensity of hurt as victims. For males, relational turbulence was associated with their perception of the female victims' hurt. The authors discuss the implications for the work on hurtful messages and relational turbulence.     

Evaluating a Contextual Model of Responses to Relational Uncertainty Increasing Events

This study formulates and tests a contextual model of communication about events that increase relational uncertainty within courtship (N = 278 participants). Intimacy is examined as a feature of the distal context, and appraisals and emotions are investigated as features of the proximal context. As expected, intimacy coincided with positively‐valenced behaviors (Hypothesis 1). Appraisals also explained variance in behaviors (Hypothesis 2), especially attentional activity, relevance, obstacle, power, and legitimacy (Research Question 1). With some exceptions, emotions predicted behaviors beyond the effects of appraisals (Hypothesis 3, Research Question 2). Emotions partially mediated the association between appraisals and behaviors (Hypothesis 4), but intimacy, appraisals, and emotions were all unique predictors of behaviors (Hypothesis 5), and intimacy did not moderate the effects of appraisals or emotions on behaviors (Research Question 3). Although the pattern of covariation was consistent across the self‐reported and hypothetical events, the self‐reported events generated more negatively‐valenced appraisals, emotions, and behaviors than the hypothetical events (Research Question 4). The discussion examines how knowledge can accumulate by assimilating features of the distal and proximal contexts.     

Explaining Gender Differences in Responses to Supportive Messages: Two Tests of a Dual-Process Approach

We propose a comprehensive explanation for gender differences in responses to supportive communication grounded in a dual-process theory of communication outcomes. Two studies confirmed consistent gender differences in responses by US college students to supportive communication and assessed the mediating effects of an ability factor (cognitive complexity) and two motivational factors (expressive and instrumental orientations) on situation elaboration and message evaluation. Study 1 focused on everyday comforting contexts (N?=?318), whereas Study 2 focused on bereavement (N?=?103). Both studies found that cognitive complexity mediated gender differences in situation elaboration and further found that cognitive complexity and expressive orientation collectively mediated gender differences in evaluative responses to supportive messages. Theoretical and pragmatic implications of the results are discussed.     

Relational Uncertainty and Message Production Within Courtship: Features of Date Request Messages

This paper theorizes about how relational uncertainty may predict features of date request messages within courtship. It reports a study in which 248 individuals role‐played leaving a date request voice mail message for their partner. Relational uncertainty was negatively associated with the fluency (H1), affiliativeness (H2), relationship focus (H3), explicitness (H4), and perceived effectiveness (H5) of messages. Also as expected, relational uncertainty was negatively associated with people’s perceptions of the effectiveness of their messages after covarying the judgments of independent observers (H6). Relational uncertainty continued to predict features of messages when length of romantic interest was covaried (RQ1). The paper concludes by discussing the implications of the results for understanding the link between relational uncertainty and message production.     

Neural Responses to Partner Rejection Cues

ABSTRACT— Little is known about neural responses in the early automatic-stage processing of rejection cues from a partner. Event-related potentials (ERPs) offer a window to study processes that may be difficult to detect via behavioral methods. We focused on the N400 ERP component, which reflects the amount of semantic processing prompted by a target. When participants were primed by attachment-related contexts ("If I need help from my partner, my partner will be …"), rejection-related words (e.g., dismissing ) elicited greater N400 amplitudes than acceptance-related words (e.g., supporting ). Analyses of results for nonattachment primes suggest that these findings were not simply caused by target valence; the brain responds differentially to cues of partner rejection (vs. acceptance) in under 300 ms. Moreover, these early-stage neurophysiological responses were heightened or dampened as a function of individuals' adult attachment; women characterized by high anxiety and low avoidance showed the greatest N400 responses to cues of partner rejection (vs. acceptance).     

Why Some Women Consent to Unwanted Sex With a Dating Partner: Insights from Attachment Theory

Several studies have shown that many college women engage in unwanted sexual activity with a dating partner. However, little research has examined the differences between women who comply with requests for unwanted sexual activity and women who do not. This study utilized an attachment theory framework to investigate individual differences in women's compliant sexual behavior. An ethnically diverse sample of 125 college women who had consented to unwanted sex with a current dating partner completed measures of their attachment style, commitment to their current relationship, perceptions of their partner's commitment, and willingness to consent to unwanted sex in a hypothetical scenario. Results showed that attachment style and commitment perceptions were associated with women's willingness to consent to unwanted sex with a dating partner in the hypothetical scenario and their reasons for this decision. As predicted, anxiously attached women were the most willing to consent to unwanted sex, and they often cited fears that their partner would lose interest in them as reasons for their compliance. Contrary to hypotheses, avoidantly attached women were not the least willing to consent to unwanted sex. They often reported passively complying with a partner's sexual request in order to fulfill relationship obligations. The importance of sexuality to attachment formation in dating relationships and the potential consequences of consenting to unwanted sex are discussed.     

Gender Essentialism and Responses to Candidates’ Messages

People often form negative attitudes against those who deviate from gender norms. Within the political realm, this has the potential to translate into effects on perceptions of candidate likability and traits. Female candidates who tend to focus on issues stereotypically thought of as feminine are generally more positively evaluated than those who focus on stereotypically masculine domains. The current studies investigate whether these effects vary depending on the extent to which people endorse gender essentialism, which is the tendency to attribute gender differences to relatively more intrinsic, innate, and immutable factors versus believing that gender differences are largely due to cultural and learned factors. Current data with adults across two studies suggest a number of interesting findings: Evaluations of candidates depended on an interaction between respondents’ gender essentialism and whether or not the candidate’s message fit traditional stereotypes. In particular, high essentialist respondents felt significantly more negative toward male candidates with nonstereotypic messages.     

Campus Responses to Dating Violence and Sexual Assault: Information from University Representatives

Universities have an obligation to provide student victims with services that are easily accessible. This study focused on the provision of sexual assault and dating violence services of large, public 4-year institutions, as reported by university representatives. The sample included security officers from 45 universities who completed phone interviews between February and May 2013. Phone interviews consisted of 15 open-ended questions. The findings point to highly variable practices and services offered across campuses. The services most frequently reported by university representatives include counseling and police services. The findings also suggest that public 4-year institutions not only offer varied levels of services, but such services might not be readily available to student victims. Although many representatives identified underserved groups and suggestions for improvement, a sizable portion did not acknowledge any. Further, university representatives did not distinguish between services provided for dating violence and sexual assault.     

Mixed Messages: Co-Worker Responses to the Pregnant Employee

American organizations have been actively implementing work and family programs to meet employees' family demands. However, few comprehensive efforts to include the specific needs of pregnant employees into work and family programs have been taken. According to women who are or have been pregnant while employed, organizations must provide greater understanding and flexibility to pregnant employees. Women report mixed messages received from both co-workers and company policies. Based on the reports of pregnant women, recommendations are given which will guide co-workers on maintaining appropriate interactions with pregnant peers and help companies to better incorporate the concerns of pregnant employees into work and family initiatives.     

A Profile of Double Victims: Sexual Coercion by a Dating Partner and a Stranger

Victim profiles of sexual coercion might differ based on the type of perpetrator that initiates the coercion—namely, a stranger versus a dating partner. Some victims experience coercion from both types of perpetrators—referred to here as “double victims.” Survey data from 2,322 undergraduates at two relatively large U.S. universities in the Midwest and Southeast revealed in a multinomial logistic regression analysis that victims of distinct types of perpetrators had unique predictors as part of their overall profiles. Background characteristics associated with each type were identified. In comparison to nonvictims, a profile of double victims emerged—a White female who had been abused as a child, who had cohabited with a partner, used alcohol or drugs, had been emotionally abused by a partner, had lied to a partner, used the Internet to find a partner, had dated interracially, and had engaged in sex in a noncommitted relationship. Implications and limitations of these findings are included in the discussion.     

Adolescent Neural Responses to Antismoking Messages,Perceived Effectiveness,and Sharing Intention

ABSTRACT

Health communication delivered via media channels can substantially influence adolescents’ choices, and the effects of messages are amplified through interpersonal sharing. However, the underlying psychological and neurocognitive mechanisms that influence message effectiveness and likelihood of sharing are not well understood, especially among adolescents. Based on research in adults, we hypothesized and preregistered that message-induced neural activation in regions associated with self-reflection, social processing, and positive valuation would be related to greater perceived ad effectiveness and intentions to share messages. We focused on brain activity in meta-analytically defined regions associated with these three processes as 40 adolescent nonsmokers viewed advertisements from “The Real Cost” antismoking campaign. Perceived message effectiveness was positively associated with brain activity in the hypothesized social processing regions and marginally associated with brain activity in self-relevance regions, but not associated with brain activity in valuation regions. By contrast, intentions to share the messages were not associated with neural response in these 3 systems. In contrast to previous neuroimaging studies with adult subjects, our findings highlight the role of social cognition in adolescent processing of persuasive messages. We discuss the possibility that the mental processes responsive to effective and shareworthy messages may reflect developmental processes pertinent to media effects.     

Effects of Cognitive Complexity and Emotional Upset on Processing Supportive Messages: Two Tests of a Dual‐Process Theory of Supportive Communication Outcomes

We report tests of hypotheses derived from a theory of supportive communication outcomes that maintains the effects of supportive messages are moderated by factors influencing the motivation and ability to process these messages. Participants in two studies completed a measure of cognitive complexity, which provided an assessment of processing ability, and reported their degree of upset with a problem situation, which was hypothesized to impact both motivation and ability; they subsequently evaluated the helpfulness of comforting messages that varied in person centeredness. Consistent with predictions, an index of message processing depth—the degree to which participants discriminated between the helpfulness of better and worse supportive messages—was associated with the factors additively in both studies and interactively in one study.     

Dimensions of Masculinity: Relations to Date Rape Supportive Attitudes and Sexual Aggression in Dating Situations

Sexual assault in general and date rape in particular are major issues for practitioners, educators, and researchers in counseling. This study sought to extend and refine existing research on the links between masculine gender roles and date rape by exploring 3 masculinity-related constructs that, until recently, have received relatively little attention in the context of rape research: masculinity ideology, attitudes toward feminism, and homophobia. In general, combinations of masculinity-related constructs were found to predict self-reported acceptance or perpetration of sexually coercive behaviors. Specifically, multiple regression analyses revealed that attitudes toward feminism and various, specific dimensions of masculinity ideology (vs. a global assessment, as in previous research) predicted unique variance in several types of date rape-supportive attitudes and beliefs: the Facade/Counterdependence dimension of masculinity ideology also predicted unique variance in self-reported history of sexual coercion. Implications for prevention, education, and future research are discussed.     

Using Relational-cultural Theory to Negotiate Relational Rebuilding in Survivors of Intimate Partner Violence

In this article, the authors describe the application of relational-cultural theory (RCT) for survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV). RCT’s philosophical foundation and core processes work effectively within the context of the counseling session. Through the RCT lens, the authors examine how the theory’s approaches can be utilized for relational rebuilding. Finally, RCT strategies are included for working with women who have experienced shame and relational disconnections as the result of IPV.     

To Apologize or Justify: Leader Responses to Task and Relational Mistakes

Abstract

Leadership roles are complex, creating an environment where leaders are likely to make mistakes that result in negative outcomes. We shift the conversation in the literature from examining the effectiveness of mistake responses toward exploring why leaders use different mistake recovery methods. We employ an online experimental method to distinguish between task and relationship mistakes for leaders and suggest that different attributions are made for these two types of mistakes (Study 1). We found that task mistakes are viewed by leaders as more specific and less personal, and that relationship mistakes are viewed as more global, describing the leader’s stable characteristics rather than a specific event. From these findings, we predict that leaders are more likely to apologize for task mistakes and are more likely to justify their relationship mistakes rather than admit wrongdoing for them. We find support for these predictions using a mixed methods approach, employing a laboratory experiment (Study 2) and a critical incident method surveying a panel of leaders (Study 3). As such, this paper extends our understanding of the mistake recovery process for leaders by demonstrating that 1) leaders’ relationship mistakes are viewed as more globally representative of the leader than task mistakes, and 2) leaders are more likely to apologize for task mistakes but more likely to justify relationship mistakes. Relational and task mistakes, however, were not found to be different in regard to their ambiguity or the extent to which they were viewed as a mistake.     

The Influence of Supportive Parenting and Racial Socialization Messages on African American Youth Behavioral Outcomes

A warm and supportive parent–child relationship is one of the most crucial determinants of positive outcomes in racially and socioeconomically diverse youth. There is, however, limited understanding of the diverse and unique parenting practices of racially diverse families, particularly those from under-resourced communities. Little empirical research has considered the utility of combining universal and culturally-specific parenting strategies to benefit under-resourced racially diverse youth outcomes. Thus, the purpose of our study was to examine the real-world impact of our proposed model of integrated parenting practices on under-resourced African American youth. We therefore examined parental perception of the direct and interactive effects of (culturally-specific) racial socialization messages and (universal) supportive parenting practices on behavioral outcomes in under-resourced African American youth. A community sample of 150 parents (mean age = 41.32, SD = 1.71) provided self-report responses regarding their use of supportive parenting behaviors, racial socialization messages and their observations of problem behaviors. Consistent with our hypotheses, supportive parenting was associated with fewer maladaptive child behaviors. Regression analyses indicated that the combination of racial pride messages and supportive parenting practices predicted parental reports of observed negative internalizing and externalizing behaviors. We discuss results in the context of their implications of our integrative model of racial socialization and supportive parenting in promoting adaptive functioning in under-resourced African American families.     

Ethnicity of Dating Partner,Pressure for Thinness,and Body Dissatisfaction

Two studies explored the relation between ethnicity, attitudes toward body weight, dating behavior, and female body satisfaction. Study 1 found that White men expressed a lighter female ideal weight, more resentment about their girlfriend's weight, and more pressure for their partner's thinness than did Black men. Study 2 found that regardless of their own ethnicity, women who dated White men had lower body mass index (BMI), lower ideal weights, and reported experiencing lower levels of body acceptance by their dating partners. This lack of acceptance was associated with lower levels of body satisfaction. These results support the view that the differing aesthetic preferences of Black and White men contribute to differing levels of body satisfaction among Black and White women.     

Intimate Partner Violence and Subsequent Depression: Examining the Roles of Neighborhood Supportive Mechanisms

This study examines the direct effects of neighborhood supportive mechanisms (e.g., collective efficacy, social cohesion, social networks) on depressive symptoms among females as well as their moderating effects on the impact of IPV on subsequent depressive symptoms. A multilevel, multivariate Rasch model was used with data from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods to assess the existence of IPV and later susceptibility of depressive symptoms among 2959 adult females in 80 neighborhoods. Results indicate that neighborhood collective efficacy, social cohesion, social interactions, and the number of friends and family in the neighborhood reduce the likelihood that females experience depressive symptoms. However, living in areas with high proportions of friends and relatives exacerbates the impact of IPV on females’ subsequent depressive symptoms. The findings indicate that neighborhood supportive mechanisms impact interpersonal outcomes in both direct and moderating ways, although direct effects were more pronounced for depression than moderating effects. Future research should continue to examine the positive and potentially mitigating influences of neighborhoods in order to better understand for whom and under which circumstances violent relationships and mental health are influenced by contextual factors.     

Need for Cognition Moderates Responses to Framed Smoking‐Cessation Messages1

Smoking‐cessation messages usually emphasize the costs of continuing to smoke (loss‐framed). However, prospect theory suggests that messages that instead emphasize the benefits of quitting smoking (gain‐framed) could be more effective than loss‐framed messages because smoking cessation is likely viewed as a cancer‐prevention behavior with a certain rather than a risky outcome. In this study, smokers at public events read brochures containing brief gain‐ or loss‐framed smoking‐cessation messages. The influence of framing was moderated by participants' need for cognition (NFC). Individuals lower in NFC had greater intention to quit after reading a gain‐framed message than after reading a loss‐framed message a finding consistent with our predictions whereas framing did not affect the persuasiveness of messages among people higher in NFC.     

Responses to Self-Threat: Linking Self and Relational Constructs with Approach and Avoidance Motivation

Over the past few decades, researchers have amassed a large body of evidence documenting the consequences of self-esteem (SE), attachment styles, rejection sensitivity (RS), domain-specific aspects of SE (e.g., contingencies of self-worth), and RS (e.g., race-RS; appearance-RS) following self-threats. The present article suggests that these personality constructs share a common substrate reflecting approach and avoidance temperament and motivation. Approach and avoidance temperaments are theorized to interact with intrapersonal and interpersonal experiences to shape approach and avoidance motivation. Personality constructs serve as dispositional markers of underlying approach-avoidance motivational orientations, which, in turn, lead to predictable patterns of goal pursuit following self-threats. Individuals who feel self-confident and relationally secure (e.g., high SE, securely attached, and low RS individuals) respond to self-threats by adopting approach-motivated goals to attain positive outcomes. Individuals who lack self-confidence and feel less relationally secure (e.g., low SE, avoidantly attached, and high RS individuals) respond to self-threats by decreasing approach motivation and/or increasing avoidance-motivated goals to prevent negative outcomes. Consequences of adopting approach- and avoidance-motivated goals are discussed.