Human Affection Exchange: II. Affectionate Communication in Father-Son Relationships

Abstract

The father-son dyad might be the most socially significant male-male relationship in the life course, yet its negative qualities have been the sole focus in most research on the relationship. One communicative aspect that has received little scholarly attention is the expression of affection between fathers and sons, despite the strong correlation of affectionate communication with positive involvement, closeness, and relational satisfaction for fathers and sons. In 2 studies, the authors tested hypotheses about father-son affection that were derived from affection exchange theory (K. Floyd, in press). Results indicated that U.S. men are more affectionate with biological sons than with stepsons or adopted sons and that they are more affectionate with their biological sons than their biological sons are with them.     

Human affection exchange: VI. Further tests of reproductive probability as a predictor of men's affection with their adult sons

The authors examined the communication of affection in men's relationships with their fathers. Drawing from Affection Exchange Theory, the authors advanced four predictions: (a) heterosexual men receive more affection from their own fathers than do homosexual or bisexual men, (b) fathers communicate affection to their sons more through supportive activities than through direct verbal statements or nonverbal gestures, (c) affectionate communication between fathers and sons is linearly related to closeness and interpersonal involvement between them, and (d) fathers' awareness of their sons' sexual orientation is associated with the amount of affection that the fathers communicate to them. Participants were 170 adult men who completed questionnaires regarding affectionate communication in their relationships with their fathers. Half of the men were self-identified as exclusively heterosexual, and the other half were self-identified as exclusively homosexual or bisexual. The results supported all predictions substantially.     

Emotional communication in close relationships

Emotional communication patterns characterizing interactions between partners in close relationships were investigated by asking 29 couples who were married or living together to engage in a videotaped discussion of a problem they were having in their relationship. In a later experimental session, partners identified specific communications that they believed had an important influence on the discussion and then rated the communications in terms of the feelings the communicator intended to convey and the recipient's reactions. Partners attempted to reciprocate both the positive and negative feelings that they perceived their partner to express toward them. However, only negative feelings were actually reciprocated. This was because subjects were sensitive to differences in the negative feelings their partners reported expressing and interpreted those feelings correctly, but they were inaccurate in perceiving their partners' expressions of positive feelings. Men (but not women) interpreted their partners' failures to express love as an indication of hostility, whereas women (but not men) interpreted their partners' lack of hostility as an indication of love. These and other results were conceptualized in terms of a general model of emotional communication. Parameters of the model pertaining to the hostility of partners' communications were often related to women's satisfaction with their relationship and their beliefs about relationships in general. However, they were unrelated to men's satisfaction and general beliefs. This suggested that women are generally more adversely affected by overt expression of hostility than are men.     

Decoding affective communication in intimate relationships

Situational and personality variables influencing the accurate understanding of partners' communications in intimate couples were studied. The situation was varied by inducing either partner-focused or self-focused attention. The personality variables were gender-role attitudes, control orientation, and empathy. Thirty couples who had been living together for at least 12 months discussed an issue which was important to both partners. Afterwards, each selected their partner's most ‘important’ statement from their videotaped discussion. The two statements were then rated by each of the partners in respect of their own and their partner's emotional reaction to them (intentionally sent and actually experienced emotions). Analyses of variance with correctness of decoding as a dependent variable demonstrated strong effects of other-focused attention and gender as independent variables. Femininity and secondary control correlated positively with correct decoding. These results are interpreted in a theoretical framework of empathy and communication.     

Constructing intergroup relationships in social communication

Abstract:  People communicate with each other about their ingroup and outgroup in a social context. These social communications may have profound effects in constructing intergroup relationships. In this paper, we outline how different combinations of the social identities of the sender, receiver, and target of the social communication may give rise to differing face concerns of the ingroup and outgroup, and may result in different patterns of communications about them. People may enhance or protect their ingroup social identity, and derogate the outgroup social identity to their ingroup audiences; however, they are more likely to enhance and protect their outgroup's social identity when communicating with outgroup audiences. Two studies tested these predictions. Study 1 used real groups of Australian and Asian students communicating about an Asian student in an Australian university context. In Study 2, participants assigned to two fictitious groups communicated about their ingroup and outgroup. In both studies, the findings were interpreted within the framework of intergroup communication, although there were some notable deviations from the predictions. Future directions of the research were also discussed.     

No crossed wires: cell phone communication in parent-adolescent relationships

Parents' ability to parent their adolescents may be extended by using a cell phone. At the same time, using the cell phone, adolescents can seek out parental interaction. The outcomes of parent-adolescent interactions via cell phone are not well understood. In this study, 196 parent-adolescent dyads (13 percent father-son, 11 percent father-daughter, 30 percent mother-son, and 46 percent mother-daughter) completed questionnaires about their cell phone calls to one another, parenting processes, self-esteem, and self-efficacy. Parents reported greater communication and closeness when adolescents initiated calls seeking social support. Adolescents reported greater conflict when parents called for monitoring activity, for tracking schoolwork, and when upset. Calls to ask and confer by adolescents and to track school work positively related, but parental calls when upset negatively related to parental self-esteem. Adolescent self-esteem is predicted by calls seeking support and negatively associated with parents calling when upset.     

Coworker exchange: relationships between coworkers,leader-member exchange,and work attitudes

The study of leadership exchanges is extended by studying both leader-member exchanges (LMXs) and coworker exchanges (CWXs). Data from 110 coworker dyads were used to examine relationships between LMXs and CWXs and between exchange relationships and work attitudes. As predicted, the interaction between 2 coworkers' LMX scores predicted CWX quality for the coworker dyad. Also, after controlling for LMX, greater diversity in a worker's CWX relationships was negatively related to his or her organizational commitment but not job satisfaction. The quality of a worker's CWX relationships, however, did not moderate the relationship between CWX diversity and work attitudes.     

Keeping track of needs in communal and exchange relationships

Keeping track of needs in communal and exchange relationships was investigated in two experiments. In both, subjects could check to see if another person needed help. The first experiment tested the hypotheses that When there is no opportunity for the other to reciprocate in kind, keeping track of the other's needs will be greater if the person desires a communal relationship with the other than if the person desires an exchange relationship with the other. If the person desires an exchange relationship with the other, keeping track of the other's needs will be greater when an opportunity for the other to reciprocate in kind exists than when it does not. If a communal relationship is desired, the existence of an opportunity for the other to reciprocate in kind will not influence keeping track of the other's needs. The results of the first experiment supported all three hypotheses. The second experiment tested and found support for the hypothesis that even when nothing can be done to help the other, keeping track of the other's needs will be greater if a communal relationship is desired with the other than if an exchange relationship is desired.     

Coping with ambiguity and uncertainty in patient-physician relationships: II.Traditio argumentum respectus

A methodology of argumentation and a perspective of incredulity are essential ingredients of all intellectual endeavor, including that associated with the art and science of medical care.Traditio argumentum respectus (tradition of respectful argumentation) as a principled system of assessing the validity of beliefs, opinions, perceptions, data, and knowledge, is worthy of practice and perpetuation, because assessments of validity are susceptible to incompleteness, incorrectness, and misinterpretation. Since the latter may lead to ambiguity, uncertainty, anxiety, and animosity among the individuals (patients and physicians) involved in such dialogue, objective analyses and criteria are desirable. A tradition of respectful argumentation is a means to this end—to maximize objectivity and minimize subjectivity as part of decision-making processes and to preserve the integrity of the participants in a patient-physician relationship. During such discourse one must always be cognizant of fallacious arguments—material, verbal, and formal fallacies—since they compromise the validity of assertions. This essay summarizes a classification of fallacious arguments, by definition and by example, predicated upon the intellectual tradition of Occidental Society; and advocates a tradition of respectful argumentation to nullify them.     

Social anxiety and self-protective communication style in close relationships

People with higher social anxiety tend to reveal less information about themselves in interactions with strangers, and this appears to be part of a self-protective strategy adopted in situations in which the risk of negative evaluation is judged to be particularly high. This research examined whether a similar style of communication may be adopted by people with higher social anxiety in their close relationships, and whether it may be associated with decrements in the quality (support, depth, conflict) of these relationships. Over 300 people from the community completed a series of online questionnaires measuring social anxiety and depression, and disclosure in and quality of their close friendships and romantic relationships. After controlling for levels of depression, social anxiety was associated with a paucity of disclosure in both romantic relationships and close friendships in females, but not males. There was an indirect association between higher social anxiety and lower relationship quality (lower support, with a trend towards greater conflict) via lower self-disclosure in women's romantic relationships, but not their close friendships. Addressing disclosure in the context of close relationships may assist socially anxious women to develop more fulfilling and harmonious close relationships.     

Attraction and exchange in continuing and noncontinuing dating relationships

Measures enabling one to assess general feelings about a relationship, social exchange behaviors, and the particularism and symbolism of resources given to and received from another were examined longitudinally in 38 dating couples. These variables were first measured shortly after a couple began to date and again approximately 4 months later. We found that in contrast to what might be expected from prevailing theories of relationship development, the later status of couples (still dating or broken up) could be predicted with a high degree of accuracy from the initial measures. This finding corroborates and extends previous work dealing with same-sex friendships. Couples who were still dating 4 months later demonstrated greater love, more relationship-maintaining behaviors, more favorable evaluations of the dating relationship, and greater amounts of self-disclosure at the time of initial contact than did couples who broke up. Over time, these differences (as well as others) between couples who did and who did not continue dating intensified. In terms of the types of resources subjects gave and received from their dating partner, more particularistic and more symbolic resources were exchanged in continuing couples only later. Although both continuing and noncontinuing couples showed a decrease in the correlation between the love that members reported, this was offset in continuing daters by increasingly similar reports of reward, equity, and liking. Results are discussed in terms of initial versus gradually evolving differences between continuing and noncontinuing relationships.     

Sexual satisfaction in long-term heterosexual relationships: The interpersonal exchange model of sexual satisfaction

This study examined the validity of the Interpersonal Exchange Model of Sexual Satisfaction (IEMSS) in long-term, heterosexual sexual relationships. The IEMSS proposes that sexual satisfaction depends on one's levels of rewards and costs in the sexual relationship, one's comparison levels (CL) for rewards/costs, and one's perceptions of the dyadic equality (EQ) of these rewards/costs. Sexual satisfaction is expected to be greater to the extent that, over time, levels of rewards (REW) exceed levels of costs (CST), relative reward levels (CLREW) exceed relative cost levels (CLcst ), and interpersonal equality of rewards (EQrew ) and of costs (EQCST) is perceived to exist. Married/cohabiting community volunteers and university alumni/staff completed two questionnaires, 3 months apart. The results obtained from this well-educated, relationally satisfied sample (N= 143) provided excellent support for the IEMSS. Hierarchical regression analysis revealed that each component of the model (REW - CST, CLrew - CLcst , and EQrew , EQcst ) added to the prediction of sexual satisfaction as expected, accounting for 75% of the variance. Repeated measurement of the IEMSS components offered a better prediction of sexual satisfaction than a one-time measure alone. Neither gender nor relationship satisfaction interacted with the IEMSS components. However, including relationship satisfaction (but not gender) in the model significantly improved the prediction of sexual satisfaction. It was concluded that the model should be revised to include relationship satisfaction. Both the exchange components of the IEMSS and sexual satisfaction uniquely predicted relationship satisfaction. The IEMSS offers a promising approach for understanding sexual satisfaction and its relationship to relationship satisfaction, as well as for reconciling inconsistent findings in the literature.     

Human psychobiology in Scandinavia: II. Psychoneuroendocrinology—human stress and coping processes

This paper reviews psychoneuroendocrine research on stress and coping in Scandinavia during the last two decades. Two laboratories in Stockholm, led by Marianne Frankenhaeuser and Lennart Levi, respectively, have played a particularly important role for the development of this research area, where interest is concentrated on two neuroendocrine systems, the sympathetic-adrenal medullary and the pituitary-adrenal cortical systems. Stress research in Scandinavia first followed the pioneering work by Cannon and focussed on the adrenal medullary system and the secretion of the two catecholamines adrenaline and noradrenaline. The adrenal cortical system and the secretion of the corticosteroids (cortisol), which is the basis of Selye's formulations on stress and the “general adaptation syndrom”, has been studied too, during the last 10 years. During the 1960's, pharmacological experiments were performed in order to explore the relation between psychological and physiological arousal. Psychophysiological arousal was related to performance efficiency, subjective well-being, and social adjustment. In the beginning of the 1970's systematic relationships were demonstrated between psychosocial stimulation and neuroendocrine activity. Later, the modifying influence of cognitive factors on these relationships was examined in experimental studies performed in the laboratory as well as in natural settings. The results were fitted into theoretical models, describing the possible mechanisms involved in the relationship between psychosocial stress, psychoneuroendocrine response patterns and mental and physical health. During the last decade, parallel research has been carried out in the laboratory and in real life situations. A specific Scandinavian contribution has been the combination of social psychological and psychobiological strategies in the examination of stress at the work place. Another major line of research has been the study of sex differences in psychobiological stress responses.     

Close encounters in the liminal zone: experiments in imaginal communication Part II

The phenomenology of the experience of being in psychic contact with another person was explored in a series of observations using a novel dyadic interaction in imaginal space. Research participants working in pairs with eyes closed received instructions to imagine being in mental contact with one another for three minutes while they observed their internal experiences. Their reports indicated that the imagined contact was experienced as real, as intimate, and aroused the ambivalences usually associated with intimacy as well as phenomena suggestive of projective identification effects. This first part demonstrated that the liminal zone, or the transitional space between individuals, can be experimentally observed through the imagination. Part II of this report will present evidence that the experienced psychic contact was more than 'just imagination', and involved transpersonal interactions, including suggestions of synchronicity and telepathy.     

On Affectionate Respect in Gender Justice: An Inquiry into the Cultural Abuse of Sex

Phallogocentrism as cultural abuse of sex is a difficult issue that has been addressed by many modem Western feminist philosophers.By comparing their insights with those deriving from Chinese Confucianism and Daoism,I propose the concept of "affectionate respect" as an intellectual counterbalance to phallogocentrism.In this essay,I have discussed certain arbitrary fallacies based on masculine predominance and spotlighted the merits of being female in balancing emotion and reason,justice and fairness,and institutionally-biased powers and the human rights of innate dignity.To achieve gender justice and equality before God and under Heaven must be logically and morally extended to law and politics.     

Psychotherapists' attitudes towards and observations of nonverbal communication in a greeting situation: II. Relationships to background variables.

An interview study of 79 Swedish psychotherapists was performed to investigate their attitudes towards and observation of nonverbal communication in a reference situation in relation to background factors such as gender, length of professional experience, and theoretical approach. The greeting situation, i.e., the first time a therapist and patient meet in a waiting-room, was chosen as the reference situation. Face communication in that greeting situation was significantly less achieved by male psychotherapists with relatively short experience than by female therapists. However, this sex difference was not significant among therapists whose psychotherapeutic experience was longer than 13 years. Attaching great importance to nonverbal communication in psychotherapy was related to an intention to be well-kept and to perform correctly in front of the patient, to establish direct communication in the greeting situation, and to background factors such as frequent work in psychotherapy and an eclectic psychotherapeutic approach.     

The effects of information exchange and communication in an asymmetrical negotiation situation

Seventy-eight dyads of male university students participated in a bargaining experiment. The bargaining situation was asymmetrical insofar as the two players had different payoff possibilities. Experimental instructions did not provide information about the opponent's payoff possibilities but players could ask each other for such information (except in the control condition). It was found that the players in the advantaged position (with better payoff possibilities) bluffed more frequently and communicated less with the opponent than their disadvantaged opponents. But there were no differences in the frequency of refusing to give requested information, nor in the frequency of requesting information. Verbal communication opportunities reduced the frequency of bluffing (false information) but did not by themselves lead to smaller payoff differences between the two players. Payoff differences were smallest when information exchange was obligatory and truthful and they were greatest when neither information exchange nor communication was possible.     

The study of emotional processes in communication: II. Peripheral blood flow as an indicator of emotionalization

Traditional methods of analyzing human peripheral blood flow (PBF) do not account for its continuous nature or small-scale variation. Sequel transformation is presented as a new methodology for measuring these variations. This analysis generates a richer record of aspects of activation of the autonomous nervous system than traditional interbeat-interval (IBI) measurement. Presumably, in addition to heartbeat (i.e., IBI), other information can be extracted that is consistent with the influence of several physiological and psychological factors. This kind of variation is reflected in the PBF signal. After determining and extracting relevant events from vascular volume data generated by sequel transformation, we demonstrate the use of template analysis to analyze patterns of events as time courses of activation. All procedures are included in the computer program VASC Analyzer.