Regulatory Focus and the Interpersonal Dynamics of Romantic Partners’ Personal Goal Discussions

Guided by regulatory focus theory, we examined how romantic partners’ chronic concerns with promotion (advancement) and prevention (security) shape the interpersonal dynamics of couples’ conversations about different types of personal goals. Members of 95 couples (N = 190) first completed chronic regulatory focus measures and then engaged in videotaped discussions of two types of goals that were differentially relevant to promotion and prevention concerns. Participants also completed measures of goal‐ and partner‐relevant perceptions. Independent observers rated the discussions for support‐related behaviors. Highly promotion‐focused people approached their partners more, perceived greater partner responsiveness, and received more support when discussing goals that were promotion‐relevant and that they perceived as less attainable. When partners’ responsiveness to promotion‐relevant goals was low, highly promotion‐focused people reported greater self‐efficacy regarding these goals. Highly prevention‐focused people perceived more responsiveness when partners were less distancing during discussions of their prevention‐relevant goals, and greater responsiveness perceptions reassured them that these goals are less disruptive to the relationship. These findings suggest that chronic concerns with promotion and prevention orient people to their relationship environment in ways that are consistent with these distinct motivational needs, especially when discussing goals that increase the salience of these needs.     

Commitment, pro-relationship behavior, and trust in close relationships

The present work advances and tests an interdependence-based model of the associations among commitment, pro-relationship behavior, and trust. Findings from two longitudinal studies revealed good support for model predictions. Commitment-inspired acts such as accommodation and willingness to sacrifice provide diagnostic information regarding a partner's pro-relationship motives. Individuals come to trust their partners when they perceive that their partners have enacted pro-relationship behaviors, departing from their direct self-interest for the good of the relationship. The results of mediation analyses are consistent with a model of mutual cyclical growth in which (a) dependence promotes strong commitment, (b) commitment promotes pro-relationship acts, (c) pro-relationship acts are perceived by the partner, (d) the perception of pro-relationship acts enhances the partner's trust, and (e) trust increases the partner's willingness to become dependent on the relationship. Auxiliary analyses revealed that self-reported attachment style does not account for substantial variance beyond the features of interdependence that form the basis for the present model.     

The Association between Symptom Accommodation and Emotional Coregulation in Couples with Binge Eating Disorder

Intense negative emotions and maladaptive behavioral strategies to reduce emotional distress occur not only in patients with various forms of psychopathology but also in their committed partners. One common strategy to reduce distress is for partners to accommodate to the symptoms of the disorder, which reduces distress short term but maintains symptoms long term. Accommodation is believed to be motivated by the partner reacting behaviorally to the patient's emotions, but the emotions of the partner in this context have yet to be examined. This pilot study examined how partner accommodation related to specific patterns of emotional coregulation between patients with binge eating disorder (BED) and their partners, before and after a couple‐based intervention for BED. Vocally encoded emotional arousal was measured during couples’ (n = 11) conversations about BED. As predicted, partners’ emotional reactivity to patients’ emotional arousal was associated with high accommodation before treatment. Thus, partners may use accommodation as a strategy to reduce both the patients’ and their own distress. After treatment, partners’ arousal was no longer associated with the patients’ emotional arousal; instead, partners showed greater emotional stability over time, specifically when accommodation was low. Additionally, patients were less emotionally aroused after treatment. Therefore, treatment may have decreased overall emotionality of patients and altered the association between accommodation and partners’ emotional reactivity. If replicated, this understanding of the emotional context associated with accommodation in BED can inform couple‐based treatment by targeting specific emotional precipitants of behaviors that maintain symptoms.     

The reciprocal cycle of self‐concealment and trust in romantic relationships

We propose that perceived partner concealment, self‐concealment from one's partner (i.e., keeping secrets from one's partner), and trust in one's partner form a reciprocal cycle in romantic relationships. In Study 1, participants in a romantic relationship (N = 94) completed a two‐time point survey within a span of 8 to 10 weeks. Results revealed that perceived partner concealment was associated with a loss of trust in partner, and low trust in partner was associated with an increase in self‐concealment from one's partner. Furthermore, the association between perceived partner concealment and self‐concealment from one's partner was mediated by trust. In Study 2, couples (N = 50) completed daily records for 14 consecutive days. Multilevel analyses indicated that on the days the individuals reported more self‐concealment, their partners reported lower trust in them. Moreover, on the days the partners reported lower trust, the partners also reported higher self‐concealment. These findings suggest that self‐concealment in romantic relationships can create a reciprocal cycle that involves loss of trust and more self‐concealment between partners, which would slowly deteriorate the relationship well‐being. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Gender Differences,Infidelity, Dyadic Trust,and Jealousy among Married Turkish Individuals

In the present study, relationships among gender, emotional response to partner’s imagined infidelity (emotional and sexual infidelity), and dyadic trust (low and high levels of trust) were investigated as functions of married Turkish individuals’ jealousy types (cognitive, emotional, and behavioral). Five hundred thirty seven (276 women and 261 men) married individuals living in urban areas in Turkey participated in the study. Results of the Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) revealed significant main effects for gender, infidelity types, and dyadic trust. Particularly, married Turkish men in this study were found to be more emotionally jealous than women. Participants who responded to sexual infidelity as more upsetting had higher levels of emotional jealousy when compared to the participants who found emotional infidelity more upsetting. Moreover, participants with low dyadic trust for their partners were found to be high in their cognitive jealousy and behavioral jealousy reactions. Results are discussed in details with implications for future research and suggestions for mental health practitioners.     

高确定性情绪（开心、愤怒）与低确定性情绪（悲伤）对信任的影响

本研究通过信任游戏的实验范式探讨了在与“受信任者”高/低可信赖性有关的信任线索时,具体情绪的确定性维度对信任行为的影响。实验一发现,当被试被告知“受信任者”在可信赖量表上的得分（高/低）时,个体在高确定性情绪（开心和愤怒）下的信任判断比低确定性情绪（悲伤）下的信任判断上更容易被受信任者的“可信赖性”水平的高低所影响;实验二发现,当告知被试“受信任者”的群体身份（内/外群）时,个体在高确定性情绪（开心和愤怒）下的信任判断比低确定性情绪（悲伤）下的信任判断更容易被受信任者的“内外群”身份所影响。上述结果表明,高确定性的情绪比低确定性的情绪更容易使被试的信任判断受到与“受信任者”是否值得信赖有关的线索所影响。     

Why do close partners snoop? Predictors of intrusive behavior in newlywed couples

Existing research shows that intrusive behavior has detrimental consequences for relationships. Surprisingly, little is known about why close relationship partners snoop. This study examined why romantic partners engage in intrusive behavior among newlywed couples in the Netherlands. As predicted, the results showed that perceiving a lack of partner disclosure is linked to intrusive behavior, and importantly, that trust moderates this link. Only when people did not trust their partner were their perceptions of partners' low disclosure associated with intrusive behavior. When people trusted their partner, perceived partner disclosure was not associated with intrusive behavior. These results help to explain why people snoop and highlight the importance of trust as a powerful protective buffer against intrusive behavior in close relationships.     

Working models of attachment and reactions to different forms of caregiving from romantic partners

Inspired by attachment theory, the authors tested a series of theoretically derived predictions about connections between attachment working models (attachment to one's parents assessed by the Adult Attachment Interview; M. Main & R. Goldwyn, 1994) and the effectiveness of specific types of caregiving spontaneously displayed by dating partners during a stressful conflict-resolution discussion. Each partner first completed the Adult Attachment Interview. One week later, each couple was videotaped while they tried to resolve a current problem in their relationship. Trained observers then rated each interaction for the degree to which (a) emotional, instrumental, and physical caregiving behaviors were displayed; (b) care recipients appeared calmed by their partners' caregiving attempts; and (c) each partner appeared distressed during the discussion. Individuals who had more secure representations of their parents were rated as being more calmed if/when their partners provided greater emotional care, especially if they were rated as more distressed. Conversely, individuals who had more insecure (dismissive) representations of their parents reacted more favorably to instrumental caregiving behaviors from their partners, especially if they were more distressed. The broader theoretical implications of these findings are discussed.     

Emotion Regulation and Perceptions of Hostile and Constructive Criticism in Romantic Relationships

Perceptions of hostile criticism (PHC) from close others are associated with poor individual functioning and low relationship satisfaction, whereas perceptions of constructive criticism (PCC) are associated with better relationship satisfaction. There is little empirical knowledge, however, regarding individual factors that contribute to such perceptions. The present study examined associations of overall emotion regulation difficulties, as well as the specific use of expressive suppression and cognitive reappraisal, with PHC and PCC. Both partners of 63 community couples completed global self-report measures. Sixty-one couples also completed similar measures immediately following each of three discussions during a laboratory session. Multilevel modeling analyses of global data indicated that individuals’ reports of PHC were higher when they used more suppression and when both they and their partners reported greater difficulty in emotion regulation. Results with discussion-specific data were similar: Participants reported higher PHC in discussions when both they and their partners reported using more suppression or when they had more difficulties in emotion regulation during the discussions. Individuals reported higher levels of PCC when their partners reported using less suppression, both globally and in discussions. Finally, participants also reported higher levels of PCC in discussions when they reported using more reappraisal.     

Getting off on the right foot: The role of openness to experience in fostering initial trust between culturally dissimilar partners

Cross-cultural partnerships can provide a competitive edge for organizations, but also hinder trust between individuals, and thus the flow of diverse knowledge that facilitates positive organizational outcomes. We investigate whether openness to experience (openness, in short) protects against lower trust in cross-cultural partnerships by weakening the effect of cultural diversity on trust formation processes (defined by perceived similarity and trustworthiness, serially). We randomly assigned White, American participants to partners from either the same or different (i.e., Chinese) cultural background. After introductions, participants rated their partner’s similarity and trustworthiness, and played a game assessing behavioral trust. Openness was measured 3–7 days prior. People high (versus low) on openness were more trusting towards culturally dissimilar partners because they perceived them as more similar, and thus more trustworthy.     

INVESTIGATING THREE EXPLANATIONS OF WOMEN'S RELATIONSHIP AGGRESSION

This study investigated explanations of women's partner aggression in a sample of 358 women. Women completed measures of physical aggression, control, and fear. Three explanations of women's partner aggression were explored: (a) that its use is associated with fear, (b) that it is reciprocal, and (c) that it is coercive. Each explanation received partial support, with multivariate analysis showing that collectively they explained significant proportions of the variance in women's self-reported use of physical aggression toward their male partners. These results indicate that women's physical aggression toward male partners cannot be understood using a unitary explanation.     

Writing Movements as Indications of the Writer's Social Behavior

Abstract

Two experiments investigated set size effects in self-disclosure behavior. In Experiment 1, subjects received information about the topics a partner was willing to discuss. Set size was manipulated by giving subjects bogus information that their partner had chosen high intimacy topics (2, 4, or 6 topics). Results show that the larger the set, the greater the partner's perceived liking, trust, and intimacy. In Experiment 2, intimacy level (high or low) was crossed with set size (2, 4, or 6 intimate topics chosen). High intimacy data replicated results found in Experiment 1. A set size effect was also found for low intimacy topics but in the opposite direction, in accord with additive model predictions.     

Attitude alignment increases trust,respect, and perceived reasoning ability to produce attraction

When others disagree with us, we like them more if they shift their attitude toward ours (i.e., engage in attitude alignment), but why? This article examined the effects of partner attitude alignment on dyadic (trust, inferred attraction) and personal (respect, perceived reasoning ability) evaluations. In two experiments, participants received feedback that imagined (Experiment 1) or real (Experiment 2) partners engaged (vs. did not engage) in attitude alignment; rated partners on trust, inferred attraction, respect (Experiments 1 and 2), and perceived reasoning ability (Experiment 2); and reported attraction. Individuals were more attracted to partners who engaged in attitude alignment because they viewed them as more trustworthy and worthy of respect and as possessing greater reasoning ability. The role of inferred attraction was unclear.     

The effects of attentional focus and partner arousal on sexual responding in functional and dysfunctional men

The effects of attentional-focus instructions (self vs partner focus) and level of partner arousal (high, low and ambiguous) on sexual responding, both objectively and subjectively measured, were examined with sexually-functional (N = 8) and sexually-dysfunctional (N = 8) men. These instructional sets were delivered just before the subjects viewed an erotic film depicting a heterosexual couple in which they identified with the male. When both groups were focusing on themselves rather than their partner, higher tumescence was observed when their partner was displaying low arousal. When the partner's level of arousal was ambiguous, highest tumescence was achieved during partner attentional focus. When the partner was displaying high sexual arousal, functional subjects reached highest levels of tumescence during partner focus, while dysfunctional subjects reached highest levels of tumescence during self focus. In fact, high partner arousal seemed to inhibit dysfunctional subjects' tumescence under partner focus. Examination of self-report of arousal data as measured by a subjective lever revealed interesting group differences. Results are discussed in light of possible maintaining factors in sexual dysfunction and their treatment implications.     

A multiple‐stimulus‐without‐replacement assessment for sexual partners: Purchase task validation

The current study developed and tested a multiple‐stimulus‐without‐replacement (MSWO) assessment for potential sexual partners for use in research on human immunodeficiency virus. College students (N = 41) first completed an MSWO assessment and then completed a hypothetical purchase task for encounters with partners identified by the MSWO as high, median, and low preference. Overall, hypothetical purchase task responding was consistent with that from the MSWO, in that the highest valuation was observed for the high‐preference partner and the lowest for the low‐preference partner. Potentially interesting individual differences in purchase task responding, however, were obtained; some subjects showed differentiated responding among the 3 preference levels (n = 15), whereas others similarly valued high‐ and median‐preference partners (n = 5), and others similarly valued low‐ and median‐preference partners (n = 18).     

Longitudinal Associations Among Service Members’ PTSD Symptoms,Partner Accommodation,and Partner Distress

Romantic partners’ accommodation of trauma survivors’ posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms (e.g., participating in avoidance and safety behaviors, not expressing one’s thoughts and feelings) is a putative mechanism linking PTSD symptoms and partner distress, but this hypothesis has never been empirically tested. The current study investigated this proposed within-couple mediation process from service members’ PTSD symptoms to partners’ depressive symptoms and relationship satisfaction through partner accommodation, as well as between-couple associations among these constructs and the possible moderating role of partners’ conflict avoidance and helplessness (CAH) motivations for accommodating service members’ PTSD symptoms. We examined these questions in 272 male service member/female civilian couples assessed four times over an 18-month period using the multiple-group version of the random intercept cross-lagged panel model. Within couples, service members’ higher levels of PTSD symptoms at one time point significantly predicted partners being more accommodating at the next time point (βs = .14–.19), which, in turn, significantly predicted higher levels of partner depressive symptoms at the subsequent time point (βs = .09–.19) but did not predict partners’ subsequent relationship satisfaction. At the between-couple level, partner accommodation was significantly positively associated with partners’ depressive symptoms only among those endorsing high CAH motivations for accommodation (r = .50). In addition, accommodation was significantly negatively associated with partners’ relationship satisfaction regardless of CAH motivation level (rs = −.43 to −.49). These findings are discussed in light of the potential for couple-based treatments for PTSD to enhance partner individual and relational well-being.     

Discounting input from older adults: the role of age salience on partner age effects in the social contagion of memory

Three experiments examined the impact of partner age on the magnitude of socially suggested false memories. Young participants recalled household scenes in collaboration with an implied young or older adult partner who intentionally recalled false items. In Experiment 1, participants were presented with only the age of their partner (low age-salience context); in Experiment 2, participants were presented with the age of their partner along with a photograph and biographical information about their partner (high age-salience context); in Experiment 3, age salience was varied within the same experiment. Across experiments, participants in both the low age-salience and high age-salience contexts incorporated their partners’ misleading suggestions into their own subsequent recall and recognition reports, thus demonstrating social contagion with implied partners. Importantly, the effect of partner age differed across conditions. Participants in the high age-salience context were less likely to incorporate misleading suggestions from older adult partners than from young adult partners, but participants in the low age-salience context were equally likely to incorporate suggestions from young and older adult partners. Participants discount the memory of older adult partners only when age is highly salient.     

Resilience in the face of romantic rejection: The automatic impulse to trust

Can heeding the automatic impulse to trust one's romantic partner increase physical and psychological resilience in the face of doubts about a partner's responsiveness? Experimental participants were led to believe that their partner perceived a long list of faults in them. All participants then gave a speech about their future career goals while their partner watched. The results revealed impulsive trust (i.e., evaluative associations to the partner on the Implicit Associations Test) increased resilience to partner-criticism for people who heed their automatic impulses (i.e., low in working memory capacity). Specifically, for people low in working memory capacity and high in impulsive trust, partner-criticism increased resilience relative to control participants (i.e., expecting a more approving partner reaction to their speech, cardiovascular reactivity consistent with a positive challenge response). In contrast, for people low in working memory capacity and low in impulsive trust, partner-criticism decreased resilience relative to control participants (i.e., expecting a more disapproving partner reaction, cardiovascular reactivity consistent with a negative threat response).     

Attachment and anger in an anxiety-provoking situation.

In this study, women were told they would engage in an anxiety-provoking activity. Women then waited with their dating partner for the activity to begin. During this 5-min "stress" period, each couple's interaction was videotaped unobtrusively. Each couple was then told that the woman would not have to do the stressful activity, and each couple was unobtrusively videotaped again during a 5-min "recovery" period. The behavior of both partners was then coded during both periods. The major results revealed that more-avoidant men displayed greater anger during the stress period, especially if their partners were more anxious or distressed or sought more support from them. More-avoidant women also displayed greater anger, particularly if they were highly anxious or distressed and received little support or encountered anger from their partners. During the recovery period, highly ambivalent women behaved more negatively toward their partners if they had been more anxious in the stress period or had sought more support from their partners. These results are discussed in terms of attachment theory.     

When increasing liking for a communicator decreases opinion change: An attribution analysis of attractiveness

Fifty-six female subjects were asked to discuss, through passing notes, a personal injury case with a partner. Liking for the partner was manipulated by informing subjects either that their partner was very cold and penurious (low attractiveness), or was very warm and generous (high attractiveness). During the discussions, the partners' notes were replaced by notes that argued for either a very low or a very high amount of compensation. Though the general rule is that influence should mirror liking, attribution theory (Kelley, 1967) leads to the expectation that in this setting the persuasiveness of the liked versus the disliked partner should depend on the amount of compensation advocated, with low compensation arguments being more persuasive when believed to be given by the liked partner, but high compensation arguments more influential when believed to be given by the disliked partner. The results supported attribution theory. Implications for the way attractiveness has been conceptualized in the social psychology literature are discussed.