The association between intimacy goals and plans for initiating dating relationships

This research examines the association between the strength of an individual’s intimacy goals in dating and preferences for dating partners, relationship initiation strategies, and contexts in which to pursue dating. Two studies demonstrate that intimacy goal strength positively corresponds with preferring partners who have strong intimacy and are warm and open, similar in attitudes and interests, and securely attached. The strength of intimacy goals also positively corresponds with the perceived use and effectiveness of emotional involvement as a strategy for initiating dating and negatively with meeting potential partners at campus parties. Data collected at a 4‐month follow‐up indicate that a stronger focus on intimacy goals is associated with entering a dating relationship for men, but not for women.     

“I changed and hid my old ways”: How social rejection and social identities shape well‐being among ex‐prisoners

Being a member of a rejected group negatively affects well‐being but can also increase group identification, which can have positive effects on well‐being. However, this rejection‐identification model has never been investigated among the highly stigmatized group of ex‐prisoners. Furthermore, the potential buffering role of multiple group memberships has never been investigated within the rejection‐identification model. We conduct a novel investigation of a combined rejection‐identification and social cure model of group‐based rejection among ex‐prisoners. A survey of 199 ex‐prisoners found that experiencing group‐based rejection was associated with poorer well‐being and increased ex‐prisoner identification. However, identification as an ex‐prisoner magnified, rather than buffered, the relationship between rejection and reduced well‐being. Furthermore, the negative relationship between rejection and well‐being was particularly pronounced among ex‐prisoners with a higher number of group memberships. Ex‐prisoners with a greater number of group memberships experienced greater levels of rejection, suggesting group memberships increase their exposure to rejection. We therefore provide evidence of a boundary condition for the social cure properties of groups. Among members of strongly rejected social groups, multiple group memberships can be a social curse rather than social cure.     

Interference and facilitation from partners in the development of interdependence within romantic relationships

To clarify how interdependence develops, we employ Berscheid's (1983) emotional investment perspective to illuminate the ways intimacy maps onto interference and facilitation from romantic partners. We conducted a cross‐sectional, self‐report study involving 498 individuals. As anticipated, we found a small nonlinear association between intimacy and interference from partners, a positive association between intimacy and facilitation from partners, and an interaction between intimacy and influence from partners that predicted interference. Notably, however, intimacy did not interact with influence to predict facilitation. Interference and facilitation were positively correlated at the bivariate level and negatively correlated when influence was covaried. We discuss how our findings characterize developing interdependence across the life span of courtship.     

Identity,Couple and Intergroup Dynamics in Intercultural Families: Implications on Life Satisfaction of Partners

The current study analyzed how identity, couple, and intergroup dynamics are related to life satisfaction among 210 intercultural partners living in Italy. Three levels of analysis were considered: a micro level, taking into account the identity aspect of each partner in terms of self- or hetero-ethnic identification; a meso level, examining the passion, commitment, and intimacy of the couple sphere of the partners; a macro level investigating the discrimination that partners can perceive by the community as an effect of the relationship between dominant and minority groups. The results show that for both partners, foreign and Italian, the variables that have a predictive value on life satisfaction bring into play the couple and the intergroup dynamics, leaving out the identitary one. Specifically, increased perceived discrimination as a member of a mixed couple leads to decreased life satisfaction by partners. In turn, we can see that a strong intimacy between partners enhances their life satisfaction. These results introduce a reflection on the role of the differences about the ethnic identity, considered erroneously the main cause of dissatisfaction in the mixed couple. The implications of the study are described and suggestions for future research discussed.     

The individual and relational risks of providing support to an inconsolable partner

The two studies in this article examined how perceptions of partner inconsolability are associated with the self‐esteem and relationship satisfaction of the caregiver. Study 1 documented a negative correlation between perceptions of partner inconsolability and relationship satisfaction, particularly among those high in rejection sensitivity. This association held even when controlling for both self‐ and partner‐reported levels of caregiving, as well as individual characteristics of both partners that may bias perceptions of inconsolability. In Study 2, participants who recalled a time when their partner was inconsolable reported lower state self‐esteem, and among individuals high in rejection sensitivity, lower relationship satisfaction.     

Daily Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptom Accommodation and Relationship Functioning in Military Couples

Romantic partners’ accommodation of trauma survivors’ posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms (e.g., taking on tasks, survivors avoid participating in social withdrawal) is associated with lower relationship satisfaction for both partners and survivors. Little is known about associations of partner accommodation with other aspects of relationship functioning, like intimacy. Sixty‐four male military veterans with at least subclinical PTSD and their partners participated in a 2‐week daily diary study. Veterans completed nightly measures of PTSD symptoms, while female partners completed nightly measures of accommodating behaviors performed that day. Both partners reported feelings of intimacy each night. Multilevel models revealed that accommodation was significantly, negatively associated with feelings of intimacy, with stronger effects for partners (t = ?8.70) than for veterans (t = ?5.40), and stronger effects when veterans had lower (t = ?7.43) rather than higher (t = ?5.20) levels of daily PTSD symptoms. Therapists should consider accommodating behaviors as a potential impediment to relationship intimacy, particularly when veterans have less severe symptoms of PTSD. Accommodating behaviors are an ideal treatment target in behavioral couple therapies.     

The Effect of Self‐Efficacy and Issue Characteristics on Threat and Opportunity Categorization1

The purpose of the current study was to examine self‐efficacy and issue characteristics as antecedents of issue categorization. A laboratory experiment using 277 participants manipulated self‐efficacy, scenario category (threat/opportunity), and scenario strength (weak/strong), and subsequently measured perceptions of threat and opportunity. Results indicate that high self‐efficacy participants categorized scenarios as more representative of opportunity and that self‐efficacy influenced the framing of opportunity scenarios, but not threat scenarios. Parallel results were found across both categorical and dimensional threat and opportunity measures.     

Exploration of Male Attitudes on Partnerships and Sexuality with Female <Emphasis Type="Italic">BRCA1/2</Emphasis> Mutation Carriers

Women with BRCA mutations are inundated with decisions about managing cancer risks and childbearing considerations. Decisions become more complicated when women face disclosing their mutation and risk-reduction options to a romantic partner. This study identifies the concerns and perspectives of male romantic partners regarding these unique decisions. Twenty-five male participants completed an online survey posted to cancer support group message boards. Participants reported relationship changes regarding intimacy levels (n?=?9), attraction (n?=?2), and communication (n?=?22) after mutation disclosure. Participants whose partners had not undergone prophylactic mastectomy (n?=?14) reported concerns regarding sexual relations (n?=?5), post-surgical appearance (n?=?2), post-surgical attraction (n?=?5), and health/lifespan (n?=?9). Participants did not express attitude changes toward childbearing. While mutation disclosure conversations and surgical options are concerns for many BRCA mutation carriers in relationships, male partners share these concerns. Aspects of the relationship may change, but male study participants continued to support their partners. This information can benefit female BRCA mutation carriers, their current or future partners, and genetic counselors working with this particular population.     

Love,commitment, and response to conflict among Cypriot dating couples: Two models,one relationship

Rusbult's investment model of close relationships posits that commitment is a function of satisfaction with the relationship, investments made, and attractiveness of alternatives. Relationship quality is also affected by how partners handle distress and conflict. They may practise exit (leave the situation), voice (speak out their concerns), loyalty (wait loyally for the problem to pass), or neglect (passive‐aggressive or avoidant tactics). Sternberg's triangular theory of love, on the other hand, posits that the ingredients of a successful relationship are passion, intimacy, and commitment. All three are required to produce long‐lasting consummate love, whereas the absence of any of the components leads to other types of relationships such as friendships and infatuations. These models have received cross‐cultural validation in previous research. Their applicability to dating relationships in Cyprus was tested in this study. The primary aim was to examine the applicability of these models to dating relationships in Cyprus and the second aim was to examine whether a combination of these models predicts relationship commitment better than either model alone. An additional goal was to add to the particularly scarce research on intimate relationships among Cypriots. Results indicate that both models are predictive of commitment, but that the triangular model does not add to the predictive power of the investment model. On the contrary, the concept of investment, as measured by the investment model, appears to be important in the understanding of commitment in dating relationships. Conflict resolution styles were also related to relationship quality, consistent with the predictions of the investment model, but in variance with findings regarding married couples in Cyprus. Results are discussed in light of the relevant models, and in comparison to findings of prior research regarding the application of the investment model to marital relationships. The role of the cultural context is also addressed.     

Recovery from conflict and revival of intimacy in cohabiting couples

Couples who seek a stable and satisfying relationship must recover emotionally and reestablish their intimate connection after their conflicts are over. In a 3‐week diary study, 100 cohabiting couples reported on their daily moods, intimacy, relationship satisfaction, and conflicts. Results indicated that on days following a conflict, couple partners have worse mood, less satisfaction, and less self‐disclosure than on other days. Attachment security and intimacy partially moderated the ability of relationship partners to recover positive and reduce negative affect on days following conflict. Partners of anxiously attached individuals experienced more pronounced postconflict changes in mood and intimacy than partners of securely attached individuals. More intimacy in postconflict interactions was associated with a faster recovery from conflict.     

All you need is love: Is the sociometer especially sensitive to one's mating capacity?

Self‐esteem has been proposed to serve as a sociometer, a gauge of one's value as a relationship partner. Based on evolutionary reasoning, we hypothesized that the sociometer is particularly sensitive to “capacity rejection” in the mating domain. Capacity rejection implies that one has low potential to be an acceptable mate now and in the future. In Study 1, participants received no feedback or negative feedback regarding their capacity for being an acceptable mate or friend. Although participants in both mate and friend conditions felt rejected, only those in the mate condition exhibited significantly lower state self‐esteem. In Study 2, we examined sex differences in attributes relevant to mate capacity. Participants were given no feedback or negative feedback regarding their capacity as a mate: Some were told that their low mate capacity is due to their physical attractiveness whereas others were told it is due to their competence and status. Among men, state self‐esteem was lower only after competence and status‐based rejection; among women, state self‐esteem was lower only after physical attractiveness‐based rejection. In both studies, additional results revealed that even while self‐esteem decreased, positive beliefs about the self were maintained, suggesting that feelings and beliefs about the self react differently to rejection. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Perceived involvement of network members in courtships: A test of the relational turbulence model

We seek to understand how the climate of courtship predicts people’s appraisals of the behavior of close friends and family members. To that end, we employ the relational turbulence model to examine the associations among intimacy, relational uncertainty, interference and facilitation from partners, and perceived network involvement. We conducted a cross‐sectional study in which 260 participants reported their perceptions of how much network members help and hinder their courtships. As we hypothesized, people perceived the least helpfulness and the most hindrance from network members at moderate levels of intimacy. Relationship uncertainty mediated the concave curvilinear association between intimacy and perceived helpfulness from network members, but interference from partners mediated the convex curvilinear association between intimacy and perceived hindrance from network members. We discuss how our findings (a) contribute to the literature on perceived network involvement, (b) illuminate nuances in perceived hindrance from network members, (c) extend the relational turbulence model, and (d) suggest the utility of educating people about how the climate of courtship may color their views of network members.     

Caught in the rejection–abuse cycle: are we really treating perpetrators of domestic abuse effectively?

This article proposes that some perpetrators of domestic violence respond to their partners' apparent rejection of them with abusive behaviour, and that there exists a cycle of rejection and abuse. The model posits that some men, having experienced rejection within their families of origin or in relation to past partners, become sensitive to potential rejection in their current relationships. The cycle for rejection‐sensitive men consists of an event that constitutes a threat to self, leading to a defence against this threat which in turn results in psychological or physical abuse. This model was tested on sixty‐six male participants of perpetrator group programmes who completed a survey designed to measure each point in the proposed model through path analysis. There was support for the following model: rejection, threat to self‐defence against threat, abuse. Other paths were tested, but were not significant. These results are discussed in terms of the implications for treating perpetrators.     

Receptivity to sexual offers as a function of sex,socioeconomic status,physical attractiveness,and intimacy of the offer

The present research examined sex differences in the willingness to accept hypothetical sexual offers by different potential partners. In 2 experiments, participants were asked to imagine that 1 person with moderate socioeconomic status (SES) and moderate physical attractiveness was their current partner. In Experiment 1, 2 potential partners were either depicted as physically attractive or as having a high SES. For each of the 2 partners, American participants were asked to report their willingness to date, to kiss, to make out, to have sexual intercourse, and to leave their current partners. Results revealed that men always reported a greater willingness to accept the offer when the potential partner was physically attractive. Given a short‐term involvement, women also preferred the potential partner who was physically attractive. In contrast, given a long‐term involvement, they were equally willing to accept the offer of potential partners with high SES or with high physical attractiveness. In addition, whereas men reported a very similar willingness toward all kinds of offers, women reported a greater willingness to accept a less intimate, as opposed to an intimate, sexual offer. In a second experiment, these results were replicated with German respondents.     

Perceived trustworthiness of faces drives trust behaviour in children

Facial appearances can powerfully influence adults' trust behaviour, despite limited evidence that these cues constitute honest signals of trustworthiness. It is not clear, however, whether the same is also true for children. The current study investigated whether, like adults, 5‐year‐olds and 10‐year‐olds are more likely to place their trust in partners that look trustworthy than those that look untrustworthy. A second, closely related question was whether children also explicitly value the information from face cues when making trust decisions. We investigated these questions using Token Quest: an economic trust game that gave participants the opportunity to make investments with a series of partners who might (or might not) repay their trust with large returns. These interactions occurred under different conditions, including one in which participants were shown the face of each partner and another in which they could ‘purchase’ access to faces with a portion of their investment capital. Results indicated that, like adults, 10‐year‐old children selectively placed their trust in those partners they perceived as looking trustworthy and many were willing to ‘pay’ to purchase access to these face cues during the trust game. We observed a similar profile of trust behaviour in 5‐year‐olds, with no significant group difference in the impact of face cues on behaviour across the three age groups. Together, these findings indicate that the influence of face cues on trust behaviour emerges early, and highlight a capacity for sophisticated social cognition in young children.     

Rejection sensitivity and male violence in romantic relationships

Rejection sensitivity is the disposition to anxiously expect, readily perceive, and intensely react to rejection by significant others. A model of the role of this disposition in male violence toward romantic partners is proposed. Specifically, it is proposed that rejection sensitivity is a vulnerability factor for two distinct maladaptive styles of coping with intimate relationships. Rejection‐sensitive men may attempt to prevent anticipated rejection by reducing their investment in intimate relationships. Alternatively, they may become highly invested in intimate relationships in search of an unconditionally supportive partner. Their low threshold for perceiving and overreacting to rejection, however, heightens their risk of responding aggressively to their partners’negative or ambiguous behavior. Cross‐sectional data from 217 male college students supported predictions derived from the model. Among college men who reported relatively high investment in romantic relationships, anxious expectations of rejection predicted dating violence. Among men who reported relatively low investment in romantic relationships, anxious expectations of rejection predicted reduced involvement in discretionary close relationships with friends and romantic partners and, more generally, increased distress in and avoidance of social situations.     

The Association Between Current Intergenerational Family Relationships and Sibling Structure

The authors examined the relationship between sibling structure variables (i.e., gender, number of sisters, number of brothers, sibling spacing, number of siblings, and birth order, all men, and all women siblings) and current relationships with parents and spouse/partners. Participants included 519 adults between the ages of 19 and 59 years. Two separate canonical correlations were conducted. The results for men indicated that being a younger man with an all‐male sibling group was related to more intimacy with parents and more intimidation by parents. For women, being an older woman with more brothers and more siblings was related to less intimidation by parents and less intimacy with parents and spouses/partners.     

Trait Self‐Esteem Moderates the Effect of Initiator Status on Emotional and Cognitive Responses to Romantic Relationship Dissolution

ABSTRACT We hypothesized that the effect of initiator status on post breakup distress would vary as a function of trait self‐esteem, such that individuals with low self‐esteem would experience more distress after being rejected by their partners, whereas, among individuals with high self‐esteem, initiator status would not predict distress. We used a prospective design in which university students (N=66) were assessed for emotional responses following the dissolution of their real‐life romantic relationships, as well as a laboratory design in which students (N=190) imagined breaking up with their partners. As predicted, participants with lower trait self‐esteem exhibited greater distress after experiencing or imagining a romantic rejection than after ending or imagining themselves ending their relationships. Conversely, distress experienced by those with high trait self‐esteem did not differ as a function of who ended the relationship. Implications for understanding self‐esteem processes and the effects of romantic rejection are discussed.     

Using the relational turbulence model to understand negative emotion within courtship

We employ the relational turbulence model to deduce hypotheses about how intimacy, relational uncertainty, and interference and facilitation from partners predict people’s experience of negative emotion. We test our hypotheses using data from a self‐report, cross‐sectional study of 525 individuals involved in dating relationships. Results indicated that intimacy shared very small convex curvilinear associations with anger, sadness, fear, and jealousy (H1). Relational uncertainty and interference from partners were positively correlated with negative emotion (H2, H3), and facilitation from partners was negatively correlated with negative emotion (H4). Also as expected, relational uncertainty and interference from partners mediated the association between intimacy and negative emotion (H5). We interpret how our findings shed light on people’s experience of negative emotion within courtship.     

When and why do we want to know? How experienced regret promotes post‐decision information search

The effect of emotional and situational factors on the decision to seek out post‐decision information about un‐chosen alternative was examined in five experiments. Experiment 1 tested participants' willingness to find out the outcome of an un‐chosen investment that was likely to have a higher value than the chosen investment. It was found that participants were more willing to acquire information when they were responsible for the decision. Experiment 2 showed that responsibility affects information seeking, in particular when one suspects that a wrong decision was made. Experiments 3–5 examined the role of regret on information seeking. It was shown that regret about making the wrong investment (Experiment 3), forgetting to send in a lottery ticket (Experiment 4), and missing an opportunity to use a discount card after spending a month in Australia (Experiment 5), mediates the information‐seeking behavior. Experiment 5 also demonstrated that the experience of regret (and not its anticipation) influences post‐decision information seeking even when the information is of no future use. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.