Measuring perceived mutuality in close relationships: Validation of the Mutual Psychological Development Questionnaire.

In an initial validation study of the Mutual Psychological Development Questionnaire (MPDQ), a measure of perceived mutuality in close relationships, 345 respondents completed the scale for spouse or partner and friend relationships. Results indicated high interitem reliability. Construct and concurrent validity were demonstrated. MPDQ ratings were correlated with adequacy of social support, relationship satisfaction, and cohesion. Ratings correlated negatively with depression. Low spouse or partner mutuality was predictive of significant depressive symptoms in women but not in men. In a 2nd study, 81 respondents completed the scale at 2 time points. Test–retest reliability was satisfactory, and high interitem consistency was replicated. The substantive meaning of these findings, gender differences, and possible future research applications of the MPDQ are disscussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self-disclosure and liking: A meta-analytic review.

Self-disclosure plays a central role in the development and maintenance of relationships. One way that researchers have explored these processes is by studying the links between self-disclosure and liking. Using meta-analytic procedures, the present work sought to clarify and review this literature by evaluating the evidence for 3 distinct disclosure-liking effects. Significant disclosure-liking relations were found for each effect: (1) People who engage in intimate disclosures tend to be liked more than people who disclose at lower levels, (2) people disclose more to those whom they initially like, and (3) people like others as a result of having disclosed to them. In addition, the relation between disclosure and liking was moderated by a number of variables, including study paradigm, type of disclosure, and gender of the discloser. Taken together, these results suggest that various disclosure-liking effects can be integrated and viewed as operating together within a dynamic interpersonal system. Implications for theory development are discussed, and avenues for future research are suggested. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Physicians' liking for their patients: More evidence for the role of affect in medical care.

Examined correlates of physicians' liking for their patients among 17 internists at an HMO and 530 of their patients (aged 70+ yrs). Analyses were conducted for the entire sample as well as for individual physicians, whose results were combined by meta-analysis. Both kinds of analysis showed that patients were more liked when they were in better health (based on psychometric measures of social, emotional, functional, and overall self-rated health) and when they were more satisfied with their care. In addition, male patients were liked more than female patients, and physicians who were female and less experienced liked their patients more. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interpersonal liking and self-disclosure.

66 female college students viewed a videorecording of a female stranger who discussed her opinions about 10 social issues. After this, Ss rated the stranger on the Interpersonal Judgment Scale and indicated on the Self-Disclosure Questionnaire what topics they would be willing to discuss with the stranger. What the Ss would discuss was found to be positively related to their characteristic level of disclosure and their attraction toward the stranger. Implications for therapist–client interactions are discussed. (9 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Father-adolescent relationships and the role of genotype-environment correlation.

This study uses 2 samples of adolescents and parents--the child-based Nonshared Environment in Adolescent Development project (NEAD; D. Reiss, J. M. Neiderhiser, E. Hetherington, & R. Plomin, 2000; N = 395 families) and the parent-based Twin and Offspring Study in Sweden (TOSS; N = 909 twin family pairs)--to investigate passive and evocative genotype-environment correlation (rGE) on fathering. Both samples used the same measures of positivity, negativity, control, and monitoring. A previous report examining mothering found evidence for passive rGE for positivity and monitoring, and evocative rGE for negativity and control, although both types of rGE were suggested in many cases. The current report focuses on fathering. Father reports of positivity and control are influenced by evocative rGE, whereas father reports of negativity and monitoring are influenced by both passive and evocative rGE. Adolescent reports of father's positivity and negativity were influenced by both evocative and passive rGE, and control and monitoring by passive rGE. The most notable difference in findings for fathers and mothers is for positivity and the presence of rGE for father's control and monitoring. These findings and their implications are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of experience in liking "read-to-drink" alcoholic beverages.

Ready-to-drinks (RTDs) are composed of an alcoholic component and a soft-drink base and are primarily consumed by a youth market. The authors explored whether liking and experience with an RTD soft-drink base predicts liking for the RTD. Participants (N=350) from ages 12 to 30 years sampled 3 RTDs and their respective soft-drink and alcoholic components. For milk- and fruit-based RTDs, liking for and familiarity with their soft-drink base was the best predictor of liking for and familiarity with the RTD itself. For the Coke-based RTD, familiarity with and liking for bourbon best predicted familiarity with and liking for the RTD. All of these effects were consistent across blind and nonblind testing. The authors' results suggest that where there is perceptual similarity between the RTD and its soft-drink base, these beverages may provide an easy transition into alcohol consumption for novice drinkers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Multiple role relationships during internship: Consequences and recommendations.

Although the American Psychological Association's (1992) Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct mandates that most types of multiple or dual relationships be avoided, such relationships have been found to be quite prevalent (R. D. Glaser & J. S. Thorpe, 1986; K. S. Pope et al, 1979; Pope et al, 1987). This article examines a variety of dual role relationships that occur specifically during the internship year between interns and staff members or supervisors. A variety of such multiple roles are explored including sexual, social, therapy, and business relationships. In addition, the impact of these relationships on the individuals involved, others in the agency, the agency itself, and the profession is considered. Recommendations regarding these issues are also provided for internship training sites. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Unraveling the role of forgiveness in family relationships.

Testing the idea that the process of forgiveness is intrinsically different across diverse relationships, this study examined the role of forgiveness in different family relationships. In 2 laboratory sessions 1 year apart, 114 families (each including 2 parents and 1 child) completed a new measure of family forgiveness and many individual-level, relationship-level, and family-level variables that have been previously linked with forgiveness. After validating the measure of family forgiveness in cross-sectional analyses, investigators performed longitudinal analyses to examine the role of forgiveness in each family relationship over the 1-year interval. Results indicated many important positive consequences of forgiveness on individual traits, aspects of each family relationship, and general family environment. However, there were also important asymmetries in associates of forgiveness across parent-child and parent-parent relationships, demonstrating the relationship-bound nature of forgiveness. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Trainees' experiences of role conflict and role ambiguity in supervisory relationships.

The nature and extent of counselor trainees' experiences with role difficulties were examined in the context of supervision. Role ambiguity arises when trainees are unsure of supervisory expectations for their performance or evaluation; role conflict arises when trainees encounter opposing expectations for their behavior. The Role Conflict and Role Ambiguity Inventory was developed and validated with trainees and supervisors in practicum, internship, and postinternship settings. Results indicate that the inventory is both reliable and valid. As hypothesized, role difficulties were predictive of more work-related anxiety, general work dissatisfaction, and dissatisfaction with supervision. Beginning trainees reported higher levels of role ambiguity than did more experienced trainees. Role conflict seems to be problematic only for advanced trainees, for whom ambiguity is minimal. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Creativity, awareness, and liking.

As a follow-up to a previous investigation of F. Barron's creativity theory, and in order to extend previous findings, 302 undergraduates took an unusual uses test, the Barron-Welsh Art Scale (BWAS), and a polygon measure of complexity-simplicity. Ss also rated how much they liked being in the study on a 1-7 scale, and stated what they thought was the purpose of the research. The fluency and originality scores, derived from the unusual uses test, showed very high intercorrelations, while the BWAS and polygon measures were intercorrelated with each other and with originality and fluency. Although the results seem partially due to method variance, the correlations suggest, in contrast to several previous findings, that there are creativity measures which show a reasonable degree of interrelationship, thereby justifying subsuming them under the construct "creativity." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognitive and affective causes of interest and liking.

In this study, I investigated some of the cognitive and affective causes of interest and liking. In Experiment 1, 240 undergraduates read stories with endings that varied in the degree of surprise, outcome valence (i.e., goodness or badness of outcome), and incongruity resolution. The results did not support the hypothesis that degree of surprise per se causes interest (Schank, 1979). Instead, as suggested by Kintsch (1980), subjects rated high-surprise story endings as more interesting than low-surprise story endings for those conditions in which the postsurprise incongruity was resolved (p?p?     

Enhancing administrator-clinician relationships: the role of psychological type

The mechanical behaviour of the Castaman external fixator was determined using different mounting configurations in a system that simulated a long bone fracture during the formation of the bone callus. The first stage of the study was the determination of the stress-strain characteristics of the system with monolateral mounting. The second stage, the object of this study, is the analysis of the system with bilateral mounting and a comparison between the two configurations of the external fixator examined. Strain gauge analysis was used to determine the strains and stresses in the various elements of the system (fiches and external unit). Numerical techniques (FEM) were also used in order to confirm the results obtained using the simulation system. The results obtained show clearly the greater stiffness of the bilateral system. Combined bending and compressive stresses are present on both the screws and the external units, and reveal a little asymmetrical behaviour due to the conicity of the screws.     

Sex role identity and its relationships to sex role attributes and sex role stereotypes.

Examines J. Kagan's (1964) and L. A. Kohlberg's (1966) theories of sex role identity. Both premise relationships among an individual's sex role identity, perception of sex role stereotypes, and own masculine and feminine sex role attributes, but the theories specify different patterns of correlations among these variables. Kagan's theory views sex role identity as the product of the mutual influence of stereotypes and attributes, whereas Kohlberg's posits sex role attributes as the product of the stereotypes and identity. 104 male and 110 female college students were administered measures of each variable including the Personal Attributes Questionnaire (PAQ), modified versions of PAQ to measure stereotypes of men and women, and a measure of sex role identity developed by the present author. Results indicate an overall relationship between sex role identity and the other 2 variables. Results generally support Kohlberg's theory over Kagan's. Significant correlations were found where Kohlberg's theory would predict a relationship—between sex role stereotypes and sex role attributes. Nonsignificant correlations were found where Kagan's theory would predict a relationship—between sex role stereotypes and sex role identity. Results are compared to findings by J. T. Spence et al (1975), and questions are raised about the psychological constructs underlying measures of sex role attributes. (16 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Mutual influence in expressive behavior: Adult–adult and infant–adult dyadic interaction.

Reviews literature on the influence of speaker's expressive behaviors on another's behavioral response in adult–adult and infant–adult dyads. Expressive behaviors include noncontent speech variables; indicators of affiliation such as gaze, distance, orientation, and question intimacy; verbal disclosure; body movements; and general indices of involvement. Interspeaker influence includes both interspeaker matching and compensation in overt behavior. Matching predominates in noncontent speech, verbal disclosure, and gaze. Compensatory responses are prompted by question intimacy and proximity. Both reciprocal and compensatory responses show limits, and are attenuated and even reversed by moderator variables associated with person differences and social-normative expectations. Continuities between adult–adult and infant–adult dyads are found for vocalization and gaze. Explanations of expressive social interaction must be flexible enough to account for both compensation and matching as well as the limits to and moderators of these responses. (5? p ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Testosterone and child and adolescent adjustment: The moderating role of parent-child relationships.

In a sample of established middle- and working-class families with normally developing children and adolescents ranging in age from 6 to 18 years, sons' and daughters' testosterone levels showed little direct connection to risk behavior or symptoms of depression. In contrast, testosterone's positive relation with risk behavior and negative relation with depression were conditional on the quality of parent-child relations. As parent-child relationship quality increased, testosterone-related adjustment problems were less evident. When relationship quality decreased, testosterone-linked risk-taking behavior and symptoms of depression were more in evidence. Few relations were found between parents' testosterone and child behavior. Boys' and girls' ages and stages of pubertal development were important for understanding the expression of hormone-related problem behavior in some cases but not in others. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Wanting, liking, and preference construction.

According to theories on preference construction, multiple preferences result from multiple contexts (e.g., loss vs. gain frames). This implies that people can have different representations of a preference in different contexts. Drawing on Berridge's (1999) distinction between unconscious liking and wanting, we hypothesize that people may have multiple representations of a preference toward an object even within a single context. Specifically, we propose that people can have different representations of an object's motivational value, or incentive value, versus its emotional value, or likability, even when the object is placed in the same context. Study 1 establishes a divergence between incentive value and likability of faces using behavioral measures. Studies 2A and 2B, using self-report measures, provide support for our main hypothesis that people are perfectly aware of these distinct representations and are able to access them concurrently at will. We also discuss implications of our findings for the truism that people seek pleasure and for expectancy-value theories. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Adolescent sibling relationships in Mexican American families: Exploring the role of familism.

To address a significant gap in the literature on normative processes in minority families, the authors studied adolescents' sibling relationships in two-parent Mexican American families and explored connections between sibling relationship characteristics and familism. Participants were 246 adolescent Mexican American sibling pairs who participated in (a) home interviews during which adolescents described their sibling relationships and familism values and (b) a series of 7 nightly phone calls during which adolescents reported their daily activities, including time spent with siblings and family members. Siblings described their relationships as both intimate and conflictual, and daily activity data revealed that they spent an average of 17.2 hr per 7 days in shared activities. Sibling relationship qualities were linked to familism values and practices, and stronger patterns of association emerged for sisters than brothers. Discussion highlights the significance of studying the processes that underlie within-group variations among families of different cultural backgrounds. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Schopenhauer's Porcupines: Intimacy and Its Dilemmas.

The reviewer notes that this book's (D. A. Luepnitz [2002]; see record 2002-02413-000) title comes from German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer's parable about the porcupines who jostle perpetually between painful commingling with each other and chilly isolation on their own. Freud (1920/1959) picked up on this fable in Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego, suggesting that it portrayed well the tragicomic troubles human beings face with intimacy. Leupnitz's book is filled with such moments, managing to either find the simple but dead-on turn of phrase to make a difference with a patient, or writing a brilliant aside to her readers. The author wears her learning lightly. She is clearly at home with the classics; references to Darwin, Byron, Dickinson, the Bible, and the Talmud abound. But so do references to contemporary authors such as Doris Lessing and Jamaica Kincaid as well as retro pop-culture items. This level of erudition and style within psychoanalytic writing probably finds its match only in the work of Adam Phillips (1993, 1994). The theoretical asides are unobtrusive, and the most difficult ideas are consigned to endnotes, rendering the book accessible also to laypeople. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)