Empathic accuracy and cognitions during conflict: An in‐depth analysis of understanding scores

Empathic accuracy research indicates that partners achieve only moderate success at reading each other's thoughts. The current study identifies specific patterns of online thought that contribute to empathic inaccuracy during conflict interactions. Married/cohabiting partners completed a conflict interaction and reported their own thoughts during video‐assisted recall of the interaction, also inferring the thoughts of the other partner. Content analysis of these online thoughts demonstrated a high degree of mindfulness about the process of communication, along with a perspective bias, in which partners tended to construe their own communication as constructive and the other partner's communication as avoidant and confrontational. Specific mind‐reading errors linked to both the thematic content and affective tone of online thought predicted lower overall empathic accuracy.     

Comparing the Anamnestic Comparative Self-Assessment (ACSA) to a Conventional Happiness Question Without Anchoring

The Anamnestic Comparative Self-Assessment (ACSA) uses a self-anchoring rating scale to measure subjective well-being. Because of its internal frame of reference, ACSA is argued to be less influenced by cultural relativities and psychological traits. We collect survey data in Flanders that contain both a conventional happiness question (CQ) and ACSA. It is the first time that ACSA data are collected in a developed country outside of a clinical setting. In line with previous research, we find that the mean score for ACSA is significantly lower than the mean CQ score and that both scores are positively correlated. Social life (family, relationships, and friends) is cited most when self-anchoring the best period in life, whereas health issues and personal events are most often linked to the worst period in life. These findings add to the idea that the anchors of the ACSA scale are universal. In a simple model, we find that ACSA is determined by two variables that can change over time: being employed and being in a relation. In an extended model, however, ACSA’s insensitivity to socio-demographic variables that are not amenable to change no longer holds and personality traits become important.

     

Confirming the three-factor structure of the quality of relationships inventory within couples

The current study further validates the Quality of Relationships Inventory (QRI; G. R. Pierce, I. G. Sarason, & B. R. Sarason, 1991) by evaluating its factor structure in a sample of 572 partners from 286 couples. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to compare 3 different models of the QRI and to investigate the invariance of the factor structure of the QRI across gender and across relationship satisfaction. Analyses revealed that a 3-factor solution--consisting of 3 different but interrelated factors (a 7-item support factor, a 12-item conflict factor, and a 6-item depth factor)--best accounted for the data. The authors' findings suggest that full metric invariance holds across gender and across relationship satisfaction in the female subsample, whereas only partial metric invariance could be established for relationship satisfaction in the male subsample.     

Emotional arousal and negative affect in marital conflict: the influence of gender,conflict structure,and demand‐withdrawal

This report covers two studies that examined how spouses' emotional arousal and negative affect in response to marital conflict are shaped by gender, conflict structure, and demand‐withdraw communication. In Study 1, 86 couples participated in a video analogue presentation procedure, and in Study 2, 32 couples participated in an observational methodology. In both studies, spouses' evaluative reports of their emotional arousal and negative affect were collected within two experimental conditions in which either the husband's or the wife's issue was discussed. In both studies, husbands—but not wives—reported lower levels of post‐interaction arousal and negative affect in the wife's issue condition than in the husband's issue condition. In both studies, husbands' as well as wives' level of emotional arousal was positively associated with their level of negative affect. In Study 2, husbands who were less demanding and more withdrawing during marital conflict were less aroused after the discussion. In contrast, wives reported more emotional arousal and negative affect as they were more withdrawing and less demanding, respectively. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

VIDANN: A video annotation system

VIDANN is a computer program that allows participants to watch a video on a standard TV and to write their annotations (thought/feeling entries) on paper attached to a writing tablet. The system is designed as a Microsoft ActiveXmodule. It can be further adapted by the individual researcherthrough the use of a VBScript. All data, including the participant’s handwriting, are stored in an XML database. An accompanying Wizard has been designed that enables researchers to generate VBScripts for standard configurations.     

The manageability of empathic (in)accuracy during couples’ conflict: Relationship-protection or self-protection?

The current study sought to expand upon research on motivated empathic (in)accuracy by testing assumptions underlying the empathic accuracy model, namely if a perceiver’s level of empathic accuracy is variable and might be associated with different outcomes depending the situation. More specifically, the model assumes that (a) the perception of threat in the thoughts/feelings of an interaction partner can result in a lower level of empathic accuracy, and (b) empathic accuracy can both improve and harm situational well-being on the personal and relationship level. These assumptions were tested in a laboratory-based study in which couples participated in a conflict interaction task and reported on their thought processes during a video-review task. All participants also completed a similar standard-stimulus task. A shift in participants’ motivation to be accurate to a motivation to be inaccurate in response to perceived threat could not be detected. Men’s higher levels of empathic accuracy for non-threatening feelings of their female partner were predictive of an increased feeling of closeness in men. Women’s higher levels of empathic accuracy for non-threatening feelings of the male partner were predictive for a better mood in women. A harmful effect of empathic accuracy for threatening thoughts/feelings on situational well-being was not found.     

PISA and the assessment triangle

PISA is a well-known and high profile Program for International Student Assessment with 4 editions since 2000. This study aims to examine the validity of PISA proficiency estimates, working with the framework provided by the assessment triangle. We pay explicit attention to how PISA proceeds as far as the three elements of the assessment triangle are concerned: cognition, observation, and interpretation. Results reveal not only the psychometrically sound proficiency estimates of PISA and the high standards reached, but also that there is room for improvement; for instance, cognitive diagnostic models could contribute both to test design and data analysis.     

Conflict and support interactions in marriage: An analysis of couples’ interactive behavior and on‐line cognition

The present study examined the similarities and differences in couples’ interactive behavior and interaction‐based cognition that emerged in comparisons of conflict and support interactions in marriage. In a laboratory experiment, 53 couples were randomly assigned to the conditions of a 2 (type of interaction: conflict vs. support) × 2 (initiator of interaction: man vs. woman) factorial design. Partners provided questionnaire data and participated in a joint interaction and video review task. The data revealed substantial behavioral similarities (i.e., some classes of validation/facilitation behaviors and neutral problem‐solving behaviors) as well as behavioral differences (i.e., some classes of invalidation/oppositional behaviors) between conflict and support interactions, controlling for levels of marital satisfaction. Partners’ interaction‐based cognition (e.g., feeling understood, satisfied) was especially affected by classes of validation/facilitation behaviors and was consistently related to marital satisfaction. In broad terms, the impact of a particular behavior on partners’ ongoing cognition did not depend on the interaction domain (conflict vs. support) in which the behavior occurred.