Second‐Generation Leader Categorization Research: How Subordinates' Self‐ and Typical Leader Perceptions Moderate Leader Categorization Effects

Leader categorization theory proposes that the more leaders match their subordinates' cognitive image (prototype) of an ideal leader the easier it is for subordinates to “categorize” them as leaders and consequently follow their leadership. Based on self‐concept research, we extend this perspective and argue that the relationship assumed in leader categorization theory should be stronger when subordinates perceive themselves to represent the ideal leader prototype. Further, this moderating effect should be stronger when subordinates perceive the ideal leader prototype to not only be an abstract ideal category, but one that is generally also met in reality; i.e., when it is met by typical leaders. Findings of a cross‐sectional study with employees in Germany (N = 297) support both predictions.     

Personality similarity,perceptual accuracy,and relationship satisfaction in dating and married couples

The association between actual and perceptual personality similarity and perceptual accuracy on relationship satisfaction is examined in 191 couples. Self‐ and partner ratings of personality were assessed using the Revised NEO Personality Inventory ( P. T. Costa & R. R. McCrae, 1992 ) and relationship satisfaction using the Relationship Assessment Scale ( S. S. Hendrick, A. Dicke, & C. Hendrick, 1998 ). Actual and perceptual similarity and perceptual accuracy were quantified using the index of profile agreement (R. R. McCrae, 1993 ) and L. J. Cronbach and G. C. Gleser's (1953) D‐indices. These indices showed large variability in personality profiles within couples and considerable perceptual accuracy between raters. Actual similarity was positively associated with female relationship satisfaction, controlling for personality traits of both partners. Moreover, partial support was obtained for the positive associations between perceptual similarity and accuracy and relationship satisfaction.     

Self-Presentation and Exercise

Preliminary research indicates that self-presentation may be an important antecedent and consequence of physical activity because it may affect people's exercise cognitions, attitudes, and behaviors. The specific purposes of this article were to review the literature on self-presentational processes with regard to (a) exercise behavior, (b) motivation to engage in physical activity, (c) the characteristics of the exercise environment, (d) subjective responses to acute exercise, and (e) the effects of exercise interventions on self-presentational concerns. Implications of a self-presentational perspective for examining exercise adherence and developing physical activity interventions are discussed.     

Knock,knock, anybody home? Psychological availability as link between work and relationship

This research investigated how negative and positive residuals of the workday spill over into the partner relationship. To unravel the mechanism of this spillover, this study introduces the concept of “psychological availability,” which refers to the individual's ability and motivation to direct psychological resources at the partner. A survey was conducted among 313 Dutch dual‐earner couples with children, using dyadic data analysis to analyze both partners simultaneously in 1 model. Psychological availability mediated the link between negative and positive work‐related residuals (i.e., work‐related negative mood, exhaustion, rumination and work‐related positive mood and vigor, respectively) and marital behavior. The findings suggest that partners' workday residuals spill over into the marital relationship through being more or less psychologically available for each other.     

Directed Evolution

Though we humans are immensely more gifted than other animals, yet we are not the outcome of an inevitable selection of the 'fittest'. Nor on the other hand is our importance diminished by our evolutionary inheritance. Besides, we are already here! Faith in inevitable progress is a 'scientific', not a Christian, delusion. We realise that the universe has its own rules and complications which intrude on our lives and often thwart our choices. It is therefore legitimate to talk of chance, but we often fail to appreciate the real significance of this word. Chance is not a cause; in essence it refers to our own consciousness that we are immersed in circumstance, and it has no reality without our own purposiveness. Thus chance is not some blind and indifferent or even hostile cosmic mystery; it is the occasion of our own responses, and it even offers the opportunity of human growth. Just as we accept the laws (and dangers) of physics (e.g. gravitation), as the framework of our ordered existence, so also we may accept the surprises of chance without any despairing conclusion either from our latest researches in astronomy or from a fatal accident in the street.     

The actor–partner interdependence model for categorical dyadic data: A user‐friendly guide to GEE

The actor–partner interdependence model (APIM) has been widely used for the analysis of pairs of individuals who interact with each other. The goal of this article is to detail in a nontechnical way how the APIM for binary or count outcomes can be implemented and how actor and partner effects can be estimated using generalized estimating equations (GEE) methodology. Both SPSS‐ and SAS‐syntax needed to estimate the model and the interpretation of the output are illustrated using data from a study exploring the effect of satisfaction with the relationship before the breakup on unwanted pursuit behavior after the breakup in formerly married partners. The use of this GEE method will allow researchers to test a wide array of research hypotheses.     

Sexual similarity,complementarity, accuracy,and overperception in same‐sex couples

We examined whether similarity, complementarity, accuracy, and positive illusions exist within the sex lives of same‐sex romantic couples. Partners had similar and complementary sexual desires and they perceived each other's desires with considerable accuracy; these effects were greater than in randomly matched pseudocouples. As evidence of positive sexual illusions, people overperceived sexual similarity and complementarity, and they overperceived the accuracy with which their partner knew their desires. Using actor–partner interdependence models (D. A. Kenny, D. A. Kashy, & W. L. Cook, 2006), similarity, complementarity, and positive illusions predicted sexual satisfaction, but a partner's actual accuracy did not. In parallel with earlier findings from heterosexual couples, this work indicates that positive sexual illusions are motivated cognitive processes that benefit sexual satisfaction, as theories of relationship maintenance suggest.