Men's and women's reactions to fair and unfair treatment in relationship conflict

Abstract Evidence of gender differences in reactions to experienced fair and unfair treatment in relationship conflict was examined in 4 studies among dating, cohabiting, and married participants in The Netherlands. Using a critical incidents method and a scenario, this research provided convergent results suggesting that the relationship between fairness of treatment and affective feelings or relationship satisfaction is stronger for women than for men. This gender difference disappeared under conditions of high relationship commitment. Furthermore, men who identified strongly with their relationship showed stronger reactions to fair treatment than men who identified weakly with their relationships. Finally, the manipulation of relationship salience led to heightened sensitivity to fairness of treatment among men, but not among women.     

Estimating group size: effects of category membership,differential construal and selective exposure

The present study investigates the role of category membership, differential construal and selective exposure in consensus estimation concerning a relatively involving social categorization, namely religion. Christians, differing in their degree of religious involvement, and non-believers were asked to estimate the percentage of Christians in the general population. Respondents were expected to construe the general category of Christians differentially as a function of their own (religious) behaviours. These differential construals were expected to mediate respondents' estimates. Further, selective exposure, i.e. the religious behaviours of friends and relatives, was expected to affect the estimates. Results show a negative relationship between religious involvement and the estimated percentage of Christians, indicating a False Uniqueness Effect. As predicted, estimates were mediated by respondents' construal of the general category; involved Christians construed this category in more narrow terms than did the other two groups and that construal was related to lower consensus estimates. Further, selective exposure was positively related to consensus estimates. Thus, construal processes and selective exposure had opposing effects on respondents' consensus estimates.     

Are we going into town? Differential construal and group-based expectations mediating popularity ratings

In the present study it was predicted that men and women may differentially construe an ambiguous activity (going into town). Further, it was predicted that subjects would judge the popularity of the ambiguous activity among men and women on the basis of this differential construal and differential expectations about men and women. Results confirmed these predictions.     

Changes in contact and support exchange in personal networks after widowhood

The convoy model conceptualizes older adults’ networks of personal relationships as convoys of social support. This prospective study examined how contact and support in several relationships changed due to widowhood. Using observations between 1992 and 2002 from the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam, multilevel models describe change in contact and support of 227 widowed and 408 married older adults. Contact and support were low before widowhood and increased in all relationships after widowhood, and more so in child and sibling relationships. Around 2.5 years after widowhood, contact and support started to decrease. Our findings increase our understanding of the heterogeneity of network changes in old age and of the instability of the network as a social convoy in late life.     

A test of the joint model of causal attribution

The joint model integrates Mill's methods of difference and agreement for making causal attributions, and introduces a novel type of context attributions which reflect the opposite categories of the standard attribution responses provided in previous covariation research external versus the person, general versus the stimulus, and stable versus the occasion). The joint model predicts that attributions to standard causes require Mill's method of difference and that attributions to context causes require Mill's method of agreement. Two empirical studies demonstrated that the joint model fitted adequately with all of subject's standard and context attribution responses, in contrast to earlier theorizing and data involving only the method of difference (cf. Cheng & Novick, 1990) or only the method of agreement (cf. Hilton, Smith & Kim, 1995) which received less empirical support. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

SPOKEN LANGUAGE INDICES OF UNCERTAINTY

The present study investigates two propositions of uncertainty reduction theory and examines their effects on language use. Linguistic diversity and verbal immediacy were measured in two conversational segments taken from different periods of the entry phase of 72 interviews. A discriminant analysis function accounted for 19.36% of the variance in the measures. A sign test of the discriminant function coefficients showed a significantly consistent shift, across individuals, from the earlier conversational segment to the later. The results are consistent with the propositions of uncertainly reduction. Implications of this interpretation are discussed.     

The Relationship Between Diverse Components of Intelligence and Creativity

Intelligence and creativity are accounted for in terms of two different mental operations referred to as ‘convergent thinking’ and ‘divergent thinking’, respectively. Nevertheless, psychometric evidence on the relationship between intelligence and creativity has been controversial. To clarify their relationship, we characterized the relationship between diverse components of intelligence and creativity through the administration of psychometric tests on a large sample (WAIS, RPM, and TTCT‐figural: n = 215; TTCT‐verbal: n = 137). The general intelligence factor (g) score showed significant correlations with both TTCT‐figural and TTCT‐verbal scores. However, sub‐dimensional analysis demonstrated that their association was attributable to the specific components of both TTCTs (TTCT‐figural: Abstractness of Titles, Elaboration, and Resistance to Premature Closure; TTCT‐verbal: Flexibility) rather than to their common components (Fluency and Originality). Among the intelligence sub‐dimensions, crystallized intelligence (gC) played a pivotal role in the association between g and the specific components of both TTCTs. When the total sample was divided into two IQ groups, these phenomena were more evident in the average IQ group than in the high IQ group. These results suggest that the mental operation of creativity may be different from that of intelligence, but gC may be used as a resource for the mental operation of creativity.