Trust and partner-enhancing attributions in close relationships

A cross-lagged panel design was used to examine the links between trust and attributional processes in a sample of 75 married couples throughout a period of 2 years. During the first phase of the study, participants completed a measure of marital trust, engaged in a laboratory problem-solving discussion of a recurrent conflict-related issue, and then rated their partner's behavior and motives. Approximately 2 years later, 54 couples were again contacted and measures of trust were obtained. Forty of these couples also viewed a videotape of their laboratory problem-solving discussion from 2 years previously and rated their partner's behavior and motives. Results suggested a reciprocal causal pattern by which partner-enhancing attributions predict changes in trust and trust predicts changes in partner-enhancing attributions.     

Trust and communicated attributions in close relationships

The attributional statements intimate partners communicate to one another were examined as a function of trust. In discussions by 35 married couples, 850 attributions and corresponding events were coded on dimensions of valence, globality, and locus. Results of regression and contingency analyses indicate that attributional statements expressed in high-trust relationships emphasized positive aspects of the relationship. Medium-trust couples actively engaged issues but focused more on negative events and explanations. Low-trust couples expressed more specific, less affectively extreme attributional statements that minimized the potential for increased conflict. Results could not be accounted for by relationship satisfaction. These findings also highlight the importance of focusing on features of the events for which attributions are expressed.     

The crystal globe: Emotional empathy and the transformation of self

To test whether emotional empathy is linked to altered perceptions of self in relation to other and/or context, participants read one of two tragic news stories and then completed a self-report empathy measure, as well as an abridged version of Hood's (1975) Mysticism scale either before or after the article. Exposure to a needy other in the story tended to result in greater self-reported mystical experience. Men with a history of mystical experience reported more empathy, but the latter was disconnected from on-line reports of mystical experience. Women's history of mystical experience did not predict empathic responding overall, but their reported empathy was linked to on-line experiences of oneness, absorption into something larger, and space-time distortion with imputed religious significance. Directions for future research, including the possible facilitative role of oxytocin, are discussed.     

Hate: Evidence for a motivational conceptualization

Motivation and Emotion - Four studies (three Canadian, one African) tested whether lay understandings of hate are congruent with conceptualizing hate as a motive with the goal of diminishing or...     

Behavioral, normative and control beliefs underlying low-fat dietary and regular physical activity behaviors for adults diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and/or cardiovascular disease

Promoting healthy lifestyle behaviors is an important aspect of interventions designed to improve the management of chronic diseases such as Type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. The present study used Ajzen's (1991) theory of planned behavior as a framework to examine beliefs amongst adults diagnosed with these conditions who do and do not engage in low-fat dietary and regular physical activity behaviors. Participants (N = 192) completed a questionnaire assessing their behavioral, normative and control beliefs in relation to regular, moderate physical activity and eating foods low in saturated fats. Measures of self-reported behavior were also examined. The findings revealed that, in general, it is the underlying behavioral beliefs that are important determinants for both physical activity and low-fat food consumption with some evidence to suggest that pressure from significant others is an important consideration for low-fat food consumption. Laziness, as a barrier to engaging in physical activity, also emerged as an important factor. To encourage a healthy lifestyle amongst this population, interventions should address the perceived costs associated with behavioral performance and encourage people to maintain healthy behaviors in light of these costs.     

The illusion of clarity: Image segmentation and edge attribution without filling-in

It comes as no surprise that viewing a high-resolution photograph through a screen reduces its clarity. Yet when a coarsely quantized (i.e., pixelated) version of the same photo is seen through a screen its clarity is increased. Six experiments investigated this illusion of clarity. First, the illusion was quantified by having participants rate the clarity of quantized images with and without a screen (Experiment 1). Interestingly, the illusion occurs both when the wires of the screen are aligned with the blocks of the quantized image and when they are shifted horizontally and vertically (Experiments 2 and 3), casting doubt on the hypothesis that a local filling-in process is involved. The finding that no illusion occurs when the photo is blurred rather than quantized (Experiment 4) and that the illusion is sharply reduced when visual attention is divided (Experiment 5) argue for an image segmentation process that falsely attributes the edges of the quantized blocks to the screen. Finally, the illusion is larger when participants adopt an active rather than a passive cognitive strategy (Experiment 6), pointing to the importance of cognitive control in the illusion.