SELF-PRESENTATIONS OF ATTITUDES FOLLOWING COMMITMENT TO PROATTITUDINAL BEHAVIOR

Attitude statements present a particular image of the respondent to onlookers and can be tactically used for self-presentational purposes. The present study investigated the relationship between variables relevant to self-presentation and attitude statements following proattitudinal actions. Under conditions of high or low decision freedom, female subjects committed themselves to argue for a proattitudinal issue. The experimenter described the issue as either low or high in importance, and subsequent attitudes toward the issue were measured in a way which allowed low (subjects did not sign their questionnaires and placed them in a collection box) or high (subjects signed their questionnaires and handed them to the experimenter) personal association with attitude statements. A triple interaction of the variables was found on subjects'statements of personal involvement with the issue. As suggested by a self-presentation approach, subjects expressed more involvement under no-choice/low-association/high-importance conditions than under choice/low-association/high-importance conditions. Subjects who were denied personal responsibility and close association with an important action apparently increased their involvement to gain responsibility. The findings failed to support self-perception predictions of more favorable attitudes under choice rather than no-choice conditions.     

Partner support and marital satisfaction: Support amount,adequacy, provision,and solicitation

To compare the extent to which (a) amount versus adequacy of received support and (b) support provision versus solicitation behaviors predict marital satisfaction, married couples from the United States (N= 275) provided perceptions of received support and participated in 2 support transactions. Actor–partner interdependence modeling and structural equation modeling techniques were employed. Husbands’ perceptions of support adequacy predicted marital satisfaction more than their perceptions of support amount, whereas the results were generally the opposite for wives. Husbands’ provision and wives’ solicitation behaviors predicted marital satisfaction. Results suggest the need to move beyond simple counts of support received to examining support adequacy—and the various behaviors and roles involved in supportive transactions—to enhance theories of support and relationship functioning.