Trajectories of perceived superiority across the transition to marriage

ABSTRACT

Perceived superiority, the tendency to regard one’s own relationship as better than other people’s relationships, is a key relationship maintenance mechanism. Little is known about whether and how it changes during the transition to marriage, a pivotal moment in most couples’ life cycle. In a longitudinal study following 97 couples for three waves across the transition, men presented stable perceived superiority, whereas women presented a curvilinear change in superiority perceptions, with a substantial increase in perceived superiority between T1 and T2 and a significantly reduced change between T2 and T3. In addition, trajectories differed according to partners’ commitment level. More committed and less committed partners both showed a curvilinear change in perceived superiority, though following different patterns. Results point to the functional value of perceived superiority, which emerges as a strategy aimed at sustaining partners through the challenges deriving from the transition to marriage.     

Factors affecting perceived safety and enjoyment based on driver experience

A positive driving experience, especially for older drivers, increases the attention to the emotional dimensions of driving, such as the driver’s perceived safety. Therefore, this study empirically presents factors affecting driver experience and compares them between older and younger drivers. Consequently, we conducted a face-to-face survey on elderly and young drivers and analyzed the data of 246 drivers using structural equation modeling. The analysis presented measurements and structural model evaluations. Considering the analysis, it was found that driving-related information and car-exterior context affect the perceived safety and enjoyment of a driver’s experience. Additionally, car-exterior context exerts a greater influence on the perceived safety and enjoyment of the elderly drivers’ group than the young drivers’ group. The results of this study will empirically contribute to the satisfaction of driver experience and perceived safety improvement in the future. It also provides a basis for the development of driving interfaces to improve the quality of the driving experience of the elderly.     

Investigating curvilinear relationships of explicit and implicit aggression with workplace outcomes

ABSTRACT

Although previous research has demonstrated the value of integrating explicit and implicit measures of aggression for predicting workplace outcomes, such investigations only examined linear and interactive effects. Here we examine nonlinear (i.e., curvilinear) effects of explicit and implicit aggression, which revealed subtleties in the manifestation of aggression. We found significant curvilinear effects of explicit aggression on peer-reported deviance (property deviance, production deviance, and personal aggression). In each case, deviance was lowest when explicit aggression was low, and increased as explicit aggression increased. However, production and property deviance decreased at elevated levels of explicit aggression. In contrast, for disciplinary actions, explicit and implicit aggression interacted, but there was also a curvilinear effect of implicit aggression. This pattern led to discipline being highest when explicit and implicit aggression were very incongruent, but being quite low when they were congruent. The results show that examining nonlinear effects with respect to explicit and implicit aggression can reveal unexpected relationships when predicting peer-reported criteria or organizational personnel data. Propositions for future research on the relationship of personality to workplace outcomes are presented deriving from the trait activation model, and implications for workplace interventions are discussed.