Attachment,partner choice,and perception of romantic partners: An experimental test of the attachment-security hypothesis

We propose that the primary attachment process that influences partner choice is a normative one, the desire to form a secure attachment bond, and that a potential partner's attractiveness is, in part, a function of the degree to which the partner can offer the opportunity to form a secure attachment bond. An experimental test of the attachment-security hypothesis was conducted with male and female (N= 282) heterosexual college students in the southeastern United States who had previously been classified as having one of four attachment styles: secure, preoccupied, fearful, or dismissive. Participants read scenarios (derived from Pietromonaco & Carnelley, 1994) that depicted a relationship with an opposite-sex partner who displayed one of the four attachment styles, rated their reactions to the relationship, and assessed the imaginary partner on 20 personality traits. Results provided support for the attachment-security hypothesis in two ways: (a) secure partners elicited more positive and less negative emotions than all other partners, followed by preoccupied partners, who elicited more positive emotions than either avoidant type, and (b) for the explicit choice of romantic partners, secure partners were preferred to all insecure types, who did not differ from each other. Both preoccupied and dismissive participants saw partners similar to themselves as more secure than did the other participants.     

Intimate partner support: A comparison of gay,lesbian, and heterosexual relationships

In this investigation, intimate partner support, relationship satisfaction, and separation proneness were assessed for four types of people: men in a relationship with a woman (MRW), men in a relationship with a man (MRM), women in a relationship with a man (WRM), and women in a relationship with a woman (WRW). Men and women in same‐sex relationships received more support, were more satisfied, and reported fewer thoughts of separating than their counterparts in opposite‐sex relationships. The effect of relationship type on satisfaction was not significant once the amount of received support was controlled. The implications of these findings for understanding the support process in same‐sex relationships are discussed.     

INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN INTERVIEWER RATINGS: THE IMPACT OF STANDARDIZATION, CONSENSUS DISCUSSION, AND SAMPLING ERROR ON THE VALIDITY OF A STRUCTURED INTERVIEW

This research investigated empirical issues regarding the validity of individual interviewers'( N = 62) ratings collected after a structured interview. Each interviewer rated an average of 25 interviewees. One hypothesis examined but not supported was that systematic interviewer errors will attenuate interview validity when data are aggregated across interviewers. Also investigated was the validity of ratings averaged across interviewers compared to consensus ratings; consensus ratings were shown to have significantly but probably not practically higher validities. Third, a meta-analysis of individual interviewer validities revealed that all of the variance in validities could be attributed to sampling error. Results and implications are discussed.     

Professions, Trades, and the Obligation to Inform

ABSTRACT The concept of a 'professional', as distinguished from that of a 'tradesman', encompasses both white collar workers and those who produce excellent work in any occupation. These divergent meanings have a common philosophical source in the way workers justify their work. A worker becomes a professonal by professing reasons for doing his work in a certain way. A worker is a tradesman if the value of his work in trade is the sole justification for the way it is done. Workers can be both professionals and tradesmen, unless what the consumer will buy and what is proper are different, placing 'reason value'and 'trade value'into conflict. Value conflicts are most likely in occupations involving a high level of theoretical knowledge, where the consumer has trouble judging what is proper. Thus, we say that professional persons work in white collar occupations, but that is misleading, for 'professional'is a way of handling value conflicts, not a kind of work. In value conflicts the worker has an obligation to inform the consumer—to profess reasons—about what is proper work.