Rational Selective Exploitation Among Americans and Chinese: General Similarity, With One Surprise

A cross-cultural experiment tested predictions regarding reward allocation decisions among subjects in the United States and Taiwan. The experiment included five independent variables—two between-subject factors (American vs. Chinese; instrumental vs. unspecified vs. social-emotional allocator orientation) and three within-subject factors (high vs. low employee competence, social skill, and mobility). In general, Americans and Chinese distributed rewards quite similarly: In both cultures, allocators distributed greater rewards to employees who were more competent and possessed greater social skill. In both cultures, instrumental allocator orientation induced stronger tendencies to base allocations on competence; social-emotional allocator orientation induced stronger tendencies to base allocations on social skill. In both cultures, subjects engaged in competence-based "rational selective exploitation"—among highly competent employees, those with greater professional mobility received larger portions of the reward pool than did counterparts with constrained mobility. In both cultures, subjects also evidenced an unexpected social-skill-based rational selective exploitation—among employees with good social skill those with greater professional mobility received larger portions of the reward pool than did counterparts with constrained mobility. However, there were a number of interactions with culture that ran contrary to our a priori predictions: We hypothesized that Americans would exhibit greater individualism by focusing on competence in allocating outcomes, and that Chinese would exhibit greater collectivism by focusing on social skill. Although Americans did attend to employee competence more than Chinese, Americans also attended to employee social skill more than Chinese. These findings are discussed in terms of an expanded conceptualization of the nature of individualism and collectivism.     

Self-respect and pro-relationship behavior in marital relationships

This work advances an interdependence theoretic analysis of the role of self-respect in ongoing close relationships. Self-respect is defined as the tendency to perceive the self as a principled person who is worthy of honor and high regard and is argued to rest on moral integrity. Consistent with predictions, results from a study of marital relationships revealed that individual self-respect is positively associated with both the individual's and the partner's pro-relationship behavior (accommodation, forgiveness, conciliation). Mediation analyses revealed that self-respect not only exhibits direct associations with each person's behavior, but also exhibits indirect associations with each person's behavior, via the impact of each person's actions on reciprocal pro-relationship behavior from the partner. Mediation was more reliably observed for the association of self-respect with partner behavior than for the association with individual behavior. Both individual pro-relationship behavior and partner pro-relationship behavior are positively associated with couple well-being, which in turn is positively associated with personal well-being (life satisfaction, physical health, psychological adjustment). These associations were evident in both within-participant and across-partner analyses and for both self-report and interaction-based measures of behavior. Self-respect reliably accounts for unique variance beyond variance attributable to self-esteem.     

Dealing with betrayal in close relationships: does commitment promote forgiveness?

This work complements existing research regarding the forgiveness process by highlighting the role of commitment in motivating forgiveness. On the basis of an interdependence-theoretic analysis, the authors suggest that (a) victims' self-oriented reactions to betrayal are antithetical to forgiveness, favoring impulses such as grudge and vengeance, and (b) forgiveness rests on prorelationship motivation, one cause of which is strong commitment. A priming experiment, a cross-sectional survey study, and an interaction record study revealed evidence of associations (or causal effects) of commitment with forgiveness. The commitment-forgiveness association appeared to rest on intent to persist rather than long-term orientation or psychological attachment. In addition, the commitment-forgiveness association was mediated by cognitive interpretations of betrayal incidents; evidence for mediation by emotional reactions was inconsistent.     

Empathic accuracy and accommodative behavior among newly married couples

An established method for assessing empathic accuracy was used to examine the consequences of accurate understanding during the early years of marriage. Structural equation modeling analyses simultaneously examined within–individual and across–partner associations among variables (actor effects and partner effects). During the first year of marriage, actor effects and partner effects were observed for two presumed consequences of empathic accuracy—accommodative behavior and couple well–being. Actor effects, partner effects, or both were observed for three possible determinants of empathic accuracy—commitment level, partner perspective–taking, and psychological femininity. Levels of empathic accuracy reliably declined following the first year of marriage, as did the strength of the above–noted associations with empathic accuracy.     

Perceived Support for Promotion-Focused and Prevention-Focused Goals: Associations With Well-Being in Unmarried and Married Couples

ABSTRACT— Perceived emotional support from close relationship partners in times of stress is a major predictor of well-being. However, recent research has suggested that, beyond emotional support, perceived support for achieving personal goals is also important for well-being. The present study extends such research by demonstrating that associations of perceived goal support with well-being differ depending on how people represent their goals and the general motivational context in which they pursue these goals. Among unmarried romantic partners, for whom the context of the relationship presumably is largely attainment oriented, perceived support for attainment-relevant (or promotion-focused ) goals independently predicted relationship and personal well-being, whereas perceived support for maintenance-relevant (or prevention-focused ) goals did not. In contrast, among married partners, for whom the context of the relationship presumably is both attainment and maintenance oriented, perceived support for both promotion-focused and prevention-focused goals independently predicted well-being. We discuss the implications for forecasting and improving well-being among married couples.     

Information availability,goodness of outcome,and attributions of causality

H. H. Kelley's (American Psychologist, 1973, 28, 107–128) framework for studying attribution processes is introduced as a means of accounting for characteristic asymmetries in success/failure attributions. It is argued that while success/failure asymmetries should occur in the presence of single-observation information, asymmetries should be eliminated when individuals are allowed to observe the covariation between their own actions and outcomes. Subjects participated in a 15-trial stock market simulation in which type of information (single-observation or covariation) and goodness of outcome (relative success or failure) were manipulated. The obtained results supported the experimental hypotheses. Given single-observation information, subjects were more likely to accept personal responsibility for good than for poor outcomes. However, subjects' attributions were not affected by goodness of outcome when they were provided with covariation information. The implications of these findings are discussed in terms of the current debate between motivational and information-processing explanations of asymmetries in success/failure attributions.     

Commitment and satisfaction in romantic associations: A test of the investment model

Two experiments were designed to test the adequacy of the investment model of developing relationships in predicting satisfaction with and commitment to ongoing associations. According to the investment model, attraction to and satisfaction with a relationship is a function of a comparison of the relationship outcome value (both rewards and costs) to the individual's expectations, or comparison level. Commitment to a relationship is said to be a function not only of the relationship outcome value, but also the quality of the best available alternative and the magnitude of the individual's investment in the relationship. The intrinsic or extrinsic investment of resources serves to increase commitment by increasing the costs of leaving the relationship. Thus, increases in investment size, decreases in alternative value, and increases in relationship value should increase commitment to an ongoing relationship. In Experiment 1, a role-playing study, commitment to relationships increased with intrinsic and extrinsic investment size and decreased with the value of alternatives, but was not appreciably affected by relationship costs. Satisfaction/attraction significantly increased as relationship costs decreased. In Experiment 2, a survey of ongoing romantic associations, satisfaction/attraction was predicted by relationship reward value and relationship cost value. Commitment to relationships increased as relationship reward value and investment size increased and as alternative value and relationship cost value decreased, although the effects of cost value were weak.     

Perceived superiority in close relationships: why it exists and persists

Two studies used a thought-listing technique to examine perceived superiority, or the inclination to regard one's own relationship as better than (and not as bad as) others' relationships. Consistent with the claim that this is a motivated phenomenon-and motivated in part by strong commitment-Study 1 revealed that (a) tendencies toward perceived superiority and (b) the commitment-superiority link are both strongest given psychologically threatening instructions and weakest given accuracy instructions (control instructions are intermediate). Consistent with the claim that this phenomenon serves a functional purpose, Study 2 revealed that earlier perceived superiority predicts later relationship status (persisted vs. ended) and increases over time in dyadic adjustment. Also, commitment accounts for unique variance in perceived superiority beyond self-esteem.     

Executive self, self-esteem, and negative affectivity: relations at the phenotypic and genotypic level

Complementary approaches examined the relations among executive self, self-esteem, and negative affectivity. A cross-sectional (N = 4,242) and a longitudinal (N = 158) study established that self-esteem mediated the relation between executive self and negative affectivity. A 3rd study (N = 878 twin pairs) replicated this pattern and examined genetic and environmental influences underlying all 3 phenotypes. Covariation among the 3 phenotypes reflected largely common genetic influences, although unique genetic effects explained variability in both executive self and negative affectivity. Executive self was influenced by shared environmental influences unique from those affecting self-esteem and negative affectivity. Non-shared environmental influences accounted for the majority of variance in each construct and were primarily unique to each. The unique genetic and non-shared environmental influences support the proposition that the executive self, self-esteem, and negative affectivity capture distinct and important differences between people.     

Effects of resource availability and importance of behavior on the experience of crowding.

According to the interference formulation, participants in a crowded setting will experience interference to the extent that behavioral goals conflict with environmental conditions. The importance of the behavioral goals directly affects not only the magnitude of the interference but also the mechanism by which people cope with interference. It was reasoned that important goals would induce a more active coping strategy in a crowded setting than in an uncrowded setting and would maintain task performance at the price of increasing crowding stress. When the behavioral goal is unimportant, decrements in task performance preclude a rise in stress. A laboratory study manipulated group size, in order to vary the availability of resources, and the importance of the task behavior. The predictions were confirmed, and partial confirmation was obtained for predictions involving the effects of the internal-external personality dimension. The meaning of the results is discussed in terms of other findings in the literature on crowding and the mediating role of the type of mechanism used to cope with interference.