Recent Decreases in Specific Interpretation Biases Predict Decreases in Neuroticism: Evidence From a Longitudinal Study With Young Adult Couples

Engaging in a romantic relationship represents one important life experience in young adulthood that has been shown to catalyze age‐related decrease in neuroticism (Neyer & Lehnart, 2007). The current research builds directly on this finding by investigating one process that underlies the partnership effect. We focused on the relationship‐specific interpretation bias (RIB; Finn, Mitte, & Neyer, 2013), which is the tendency to interpret ambiguous partner and relationship scenarios in a negative way. It was expected that the RIB decreases within relationships in young adulthood and that this decrease in turn predicts long‐term declines in neuroticism. A sample of 245 young adult romantic couples was assessed four times across 9 months. Actor and partner effects of changes in the RIB on changes in neuroticism were analyzed using a dyadic dual change model. Recent time‐to‐time decreases in the RIB predicted one's own (actor effect) decline in neuroticism across 9 months. Similarly, there was a trend for a partner effect. We conclude that changes in biased relationship‐specific interpretations reflect one unique process that contributes to the understanding of romantic relationship effects on personality development.     

KNOWLEDGE ECOLOGIES, “SUPPLE” OBJECTS,AND DIFFERENT PRIORITIES ACROSS WOMEN'S AND GENDER STUDIES PROGRAMS AND DEPARTMENTS IN THE UNITED STATES, 1970–2010

This article examines the evolving connections between local conditions and knowledge processes in women's and gender studies, a research field in the social sciences and humanities. Data are historical records from five early‐adopting women's and gender studies units in the United States and interviews with affiliated professors. In their formative years, these programs were consistent in their intellectual content. Scholars across sites defined the purpose of women's studies similarly: to address the lack of research on women and social problems of sex inequality. Gradually, scholars incorporated a range of analytic categories into women's studies’ agenda, including gender identities and masculinities, leading to diverse understandings and redefinitions of the central objects of analysis. Analytic shifts are reflected in differences in the institutional and intellectual composition of programs and departments. To explain how local departmental conditions affect the conception of core objects of study in gender research, the author builds on the literature on knowledge ecologies and introduces the concept of the “supple object.”     

Reply to Kurth,Crosby, and Basse’s review of Emotions,Values, and Agency

In this reply, I argue that the worries raised by Kurth and this coauthors are not fatal for the perceptual theory of emotions. A first point to keep in mind in discussing the analogy argument in favor of that account is that what counts is the overall balance of similarities and differences, given their respective weight. In any case, I argue that none of the alleged differences between sensory perceptual experiences and emotions are such as to rule out that emotions are a kind of perceptual experience which can confer epistemic justification of our evaluative beliefs. Finally, I suggest that the perceptual theory is in a position to nicely capture what happens when we disagree about evaluative issues.     

What makes for a good break? A diary study on recovery experiences during lunch break

This study investigated the role of four recovery experiences during lunch break for employees’ afternoon well‐being. We hypothesized that lunch‐break recovery experiences (psychological detachment, relaxation, control, and relatedness) reduce afternoon exhaustion and enhance afternoon work engagement via replenished personal resources (i.e., state of being recovered immediately after break and subsequent self‐efficacy regarding the upcoming tasks in the afternoon). One hundred and nine employees provided daily survey data three times a day (i.e., start of work, after lunch break, end of work) over a period of two workweeks. Multilevel path analysis showed that relaxation, control, and relatedness during lunch break negatively predicted afternoon exhaustion and positively predicted afternoon work engagement via state of being recovered. For relaxation and relatedness, we additionally found positive serial indirect effects on afternoon work engagement via state of being recovered and self‐efficacy. Psychological detachment was not related to personal resources and afternoon well‐being. This study demonstrates that experiencing control over lunch break and using the lunch break to relax and to relate to others are indirectly associated with improved afternoon well‐being via replenished personal resources.

Practitioner points

• Relaxation, control, and relatedness constitute lunch‐break recovery experiences that indirectly foster feeling confident, replenished, and engaged in the afternoon.
• Employees should strive to spend their lunch breaks in ways that help them feel relaxed, related, and in control.
• Organizations should provide their employees with sufficient break control and offer environments that facilitate relaxation and socializing during lunch break.

     

Differential age-related effects on conjunctive and relational visual short-term memory binding

An age-related associative deficit has been described in visual short-term binding memory tasks. However, separate studies have suggested that ageing disrupts relational binding (to associate distinct items or item and context) more than conjunctive binding (to integrate features within an object). The current study directly compared relational and conjunctive binding with a short-term memory task for object–colour associations in 30 young and 30 older adults. Participants studied a number of object–colour associations corresponding to their individual object span level in a relational task in which objects were associated to colour patches and a conjunctive task where colour was integrated into the object. Memory for individual items and for associations was tested with a recognition memory test. Evidence for an age-related associative deficit was observed in the relational binding task, but not in the conjunctive binding task. This differential impact of ageing on relational and conjunctive short-term binding is discussed by reference to two underlying age-related cognitive difficulties: diminished hippocampally dependent binding and attentional resources.     

Self-Competence and Depressive Symptom Trajectories during Adolescence

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between self-competence and subsequent depressive symptom trajectories, by gender, in a community sample of adolescents (N = 753; 53% female; 65% non-Hispanic White). Data were collected annually for three years beginning when adolescents were in the 10th and 11th grades (Age: M = 16.09, SD = 0.72 years). Adolescents provided self-reports of self-competence at baseline and depressive symptoms every year. In latent growth curve models examining the overall trajectory of depressive symptoms, higher global self-worth and self-competence in close friendships were significantly associated with greater decreases in depressive symptoms (ps < 0.05). In contrast, higher academic self-competence was associated with more attenuated decreases in depressive symptoms (p = 0.001). When examining subgroups of latent depressive symptom trajectories within the context of growth mixture modeling, higher self-competence in physical appearance was associated with a decreased likelihood of membership in trajectory classes characterized by high initial, then decreasing depressive symptoms or and low initial, then increasing depressive symptoms (ps < 0.01). Among girls, higher global self-worth and self-competence in close friendship and academic domains were associated with membership in a trajectory class distinguished by high stable depressive symptoms (ps < 0.01); these associations were not observed among boys (ps > 0.05). Findings suggest that the competence-based model of depression is valid and applicable during middle-to-late adolescence, and emphasize the importance of considering gender and individual differences in the developmental course of depressive symptoms to gain a more nuanced understanding of the role of self-competence in depressive symptom trajectories.     

Children's hostile intent attributions and emotional distress: What do parents perceive?

Traditionally, assessments of social information processing and associated emotional distress have used children's self‐reports. We posit that additional informants, such as parents, may help illuminate the association between these variables and aggression. Our sample was composed of 222 dual‐parent families of fourth‐grade children (103 boys; 119 girls). Children responded to instrumental and relational provocations and their parents read the same scenarios and responded the way they believed their child would. Peer nominations provided aggression scores. We explored how means differed by provocation type (relational vs. instrumental), informant (mother, father, and child), and gender of child. The results also suggest that parent perceptions may effectively predict children's participation in relational and physical aggression, above and beyond the child's self‐reports.

     

Patient Perspectives on Co-Therapists’ Behaviors in Group CBT

Journal of Contemporary Psychotherapy - Therapist behaviour influences group cohesion and the outcome of group psychotherapy. The group members make first hand observations of the therapists in...     

Parenting Adolescents with ADHD: Maternal and Adolescent Contributions and the Intervening Role of Stress

Journal of Child and Family Studies - Compared to parents of typically developing youth, parents of children and adolescents with ADHD tend to engage in fewer positive and more negative parenting...     

Maternal Experience with Online Information on Parenting and Infant Care: Qualitative Findings from Quebec,Canada

Journal of Child and Family Studies - Use of online health information is positively associated with citizen knowledge, empowerment, self-care, health outcomes, and quality of life. However, little...