Dyadic co-regulation,affective intensity and infant's development at 12 months: A comparison among extremely preterm and full-term dyads

Extremely low gestational age children (ELGA, born below 28 weeks of GA) represent the most at-risk preterm group in terms of survival, developmental sequelae and rates of impairment and cognitive delays. However, the impact of an extremely preterm birth on mother–infant co-regulation and affective intensity which may affect early infant's development has not been investigated. Based on a relational dynamic system approach, our study aimed to investigate the quality of co-regulation and affective intensity during spontaneous play interaction in 20 mother–infant ELGA dyads compared to 20 full-term (FT) dyads at 12 months (corrected age for ELGA infants). Relationships between the quality of dyadic co-regulation and the infant's level of cognitive, motor and language development were also investigated. The quality of dyadic co-regulation was assessed using the Revised Relational Coding System (R-RCS) by Fogel et al. (2003), the mothers’ and infants’ affective intensity was coded using a coding system by Lunkenheimer, Olson, Hollenstein, Sameroff, and Winter (2011). Infants’ development was assessed using the Bayley Scales (BSID-III, 2006). With respect to FT dyads, ELGA dyads were characterised by less frequent symmetric and more frequent unilateral co-regulation patterns and by less positive and more neutral affective intensity of both infants and mothers. Cognitive, motor and language scores were lower in ELGA infants than in FT infants. Symmetrical co-regulation was related to motor scores in ELGA infants, and to cognitive scores in FT infants. Our findings contribute to the literature by demonstrating the difficulties of ELGA mother–infant dyads at 12 months in sharing the symmetric co-regulation and positive affective intensity and how symmetric co-regulation is strictly related to motor development in ELGA infants. Based on these findings, intervention programmes to foster joint attention, active involvement and positive affective intensity in ELGA dyads and infants’ development in the first year of life should be designed.     

The exam-specific strategic approach to coping scale and interpersonal resources

We addressed the role of interpersonal resources and coping during an oral examination. Assessing exam-specific coping strategies with a German adaptation of the Strategic Approach to Coping Scale (GSACS-Exam), examinees were given the opportunity to rate their individual as well as communal coping efforts facing an oral examination of personal significance. Interpersonal resources of examiner and examinee such as mutual trust and dyadic coping assistance had an impact on individual and communal coping. Examinees who expressed trust in their examiner 8 weeks prior to an oral examination relied more on prosocial than antisocial coping strategies during their oral examination. Supportive and delegated dyadic coping assistance were determinants of both functional and dysfunctional coping. The implications for educational practice are discussed.     

Counterfactual closeness and predicted affect

Empirical research on counterfactual thinking has found a closeness effect: people report higher negative affect if an actual outcome is close to a better counterfactual outcome. However, it remains unclear what actually is a “close” miss. In three experiments that manipulate close counterfactuals, closeness effects were found only when closeness was unambiguously defined either with respect to a contrasted alternative, or with respect to a categorical boundary. In a real task people failed to report greater negative affect when encountering a close numerical miss, while they predicted greater negative affect hypothetically. These results show that counterfactual closeness effects on affect depend on closeness being accessible and unambiguously defined.     

Actor,partner, and similarity effects of personality on global and experienced well-being

The current study examined actor, partner, and similarity effects of personality on a variety of well-being indices, including both global and experiential measures of well-being, in 2578 heterosexual couples (N = 5156 individuals; M_age = 51.04, SD = 13.68) who completed the 2016 Wellbeing and Daily Life supplement to the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID). Among actor effects, those for conscientiousness, agreeableness, extraversion, and neuroticism were the most robust predictors of well-being. Among partner effects, conscientiousness and neuroticism were the most robust predictors of well-being. Consistent with past research, similarity effects on well-being were generally small and not always significant. The results are discussed in the context of experiential conceptualizations of well-being and operationalizing similarity in relationship research.     

Quantifiers and propositional attitudes: Quine revisited

Quine introduced a famous distinction between the ‘notional’ sense and the ‘relational’ sense of certain attitude verbs. The distinction is both intuitive and sound but is often conflated with another distinction Quine draws between ‘dyadic’ and ‘triadic’ (or higher degree) attitudes. I argue that this conflation is largely responsible for the mistaken view that Quine’s account of attitudes is undermined by the problem of the ‘exportation’ of singular terms within attitude contexts. Quine’s system is also supposed to suffer from the problem of ‘suspended judgement with continued belief’. I argue that this criticism fails to take account of a crucial presupposition of Quine’s about the connection between thought and language. The aim of the paper is to defend the spirit of Quine’s account of attitudes by offering solutions to these two problems. See also chapters four and five of Word and Object (Quine, 1960) and ‘Intensions Revisited’ (Quine, 1977).     

Nonconscious Feelings of Closeness toward African Americans and Support for Pro-Black Policies

In a democratic political system, where decisions are made by majority rule, the permanent exclusion of minorities is always a possibility. This raises a crucial question: what psychological mechanisms may allow members of a majority to identify with the political goals of a minority group? One possibility is that they are precisely the same mechanisms responsible for motivating minority members themselves to identify with the minority's political goals. According to the racial attitudes literature, African Americans are motivated by feelings of closeness toward Blacks to support pro‐Black policies. This study investigates the possibility that feelings of closeness toward Blacks may also motivate White Americans to support pro‐Black policies. To circumvent possible social desirability effects often associated with questions of race, feelings of closeness are measured both on the conscious (explicit) and nonconscious (implicit) levels. The implicit closeness measure is based on the idea of “cognitive self‐other overlap” ( Aron, Aron, Tudor, & Nelson, 1991 ) and has previously been used to measure nonconscious feelings of closeness in individual relationships. This study represents an application of this measure to the group level of racial intergroup relations. The study is based on a sample of 555 college students of diverse racial backgrounds. Results of a Granger‐causality test support the construct validity of the implicit closeness measure. Furthermore, explicit and implicit feelings of closeness toward African Americans predict pro‐Black policy support whether White participants are considered alone or together with participants of other backgrounds. Political and methodological implications of these findings are discussed.     

Understanding response patterns in dyadic conflict: An interactive approach combining self‐construal and opponent's dominance‐submissiveness

Previous works on the effect of self‐construal in interpersonal behaviours tend to adopt a main effect approach. The present research proposes an interactive approach in understanding two response patterns in dyadic conflict by combining self‐construal and the stance of the opponent. Independent self‐construal was hypothesised to be associated with a self‐centred pattern of conflict response, which is characterised by taking contending responses regardless of whether the stance of the opponent is dominant or submissive. Relational self‐construal was hypothesised to be associated with a tuning‐in pattern of conflict response, which is characterised by showing contending responses when the opponent is submissive but yielding responses when the opponent is dominant. With trait self‐construal measured and opponent's stance manipulated, Study 1 provided initial support for the hypotheses. Study 2 showed a three‐way interaction effect between trait self‐construal, manipulated self‐construal and the opponent's stance on actual conflict responses during discussion of a scenario. The effect of self‐construal manipulation was only observed among people who were low in trait independent self‐construal and average in trait relational self‐construal. The results pinpoint the importance of considering personal and opponent factors simultaneously in understanding the dynamics of dyadic conflict processes.     

Deleterious Effects of Stress on Time Spent Together and Parents' Relationship Satisfaction

Data from 90 German committed heterosexual couples who had a least one child were used to examine the associations between chronic minor external stress, quantity and quality of time spent together as a couple, and partners' relationship satisfaction. Using an extended version of the Actor Partner Interdependence Model, the authors found significant negative indirect effects from mothers' chronic minor external stress via quality, but not quantity, of shared time to both parents' reported relationship satisfaction. Mothers' chronic minor external stress was associated with fewer reported quality time activities, which were also associated with lower reports of relationship satisfaction for both mothers and fathers. The authors did not find indirect effects for fathers' chronic minor external stress. Overall, the frequency of quality time activities may be more important for mothers, as it explained 25% of variance in their relationship satisfaction, compared with 15% in fathers' relationship satisfaction. Implications for relationship researchers and clinicians are discussed.     

Impressions formed in response to public self-evaluation maintenance strategies

Two studies examined the impressions formed in response to public self-evaluation maintenance strategies. According to Tesser’s (1988) self-evaluation maintenance (SEM) model, a person who has been outperformed by a close other perceives the field of performance as less relevant to preserve self-evaluation. Tesser and Paulhus (1983) showed that this same strategy is used for the purpose of impression management, or public self-evaluation maintenance. The present research examined the SEM model variables from the view of impression formation. In the first study, information regarding field relevance and psychological closeness was conveyed by the experimenter. In this context, field relevance had a significant impact on perception of competence. In the other study, in which the information was conveyed by the target person, relevance and closeness influenced the perception of manipulativeness and sociability. The results are discussed in terms of the importance of investigating the SEM processes from the impression formation perspective.     

The limited effects of power on satisfaction with joint consumption decisions

We conduct three experiments in which participants in dyads choose between two restaurants, each of which is preferred by only one participant, and one participant has the power to decide which restaurant both will patronize. We find that the power to make a joint decision increases satisfaction with the choice only when those involved have a competitive decision orientation, a weak or anonymous relationship, and the outcome they choose is subsequently available. Participants who have a cooperative orientation are satisfied whether or not they have power and whether or not the resulting choice is consistent with their initial preferences.