The link between facets of neuroticism and dimensions of relationship commitment: Evidence from gay, lesbian, and heterosexual couples.

The link between six facets of both one's own and one's partner's neuroticism (anxiety, hostility, depression, self-consciousness, impulsiveness, and vulnerability) and two dimensions of one's own relationship commitment (attractions to the relationship and constraints against leaving the relationship) was examined for both partners from 33 gay, 40 lesbian, and 70 heterosexual couples. With controls for other facets of one's own and one's partner's neuroticism, only one's own depression was negatively related to one's own attraction commitment. Findings from mediational analyses were consistent with the view that one's own depression exerts its effect on one's own attraction commitment through two dimensions of one's own attachment style (positivity of the self and positivity of the other). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Rubber Hand Illusion Revisited: Visuotactile Integration and Self-Attribution.

Watching a rubber hand being stroked, while one's own unseen hand is synchronously stroked, may cause the rubber hand to be attributed to one's own body, to "feel like it's my hand." A behavioral measure of the rubber hand illusion (RHI) is a drift of the perceived position of one's own hand toward the rubber hand. The authors investigated (a) the influence of general body scheme representations on the RHI in Experiments 1 and 2 and (b) the necessary conditions of visuotactile stimulation underlying the RHI in Experiments 3 and 4. Overall, the results suggest that at the level of the process underlying the build up of the RHI, bottom-up processes of visuotactile correlation drive the illusion as a necessary, but not sufficient, condition. Conversely, at the level of the phenomenological content, the illusion is modulated by top-down influences originating from the representation of one's own body. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Prospective associations between marital discord and depressive symptoms in middle-aged and older adults.

Data from both spouses in a population-based sample of middle-aged and older adults (N = 1,869 couples) were used to evaluate the 2-year prospective association between marital discord and depressive symptoms. Nested path analyses indicated that (a) baseline marital discord predicted one's own depressive symptoms at follow-up, (b) baseline depressive symptoms predicted one's own marital discord at follow-up, (c) baseline depressive symptoms predicted partners' marital discord at follow-up, and (d) there were no gender differences in the magnitudes of the pathways between one's own baseline depressive symptoms and one's own marital discord at follow-up or between one's own baseline marital discord and one's own depressive symptoms at follow-up. These results suggest a bidirectional longitudinal association between marital discord and depressive symptoms in middle-aged and older adults. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relation between neuroticism and dimensions of relationship commitment: Evidence from gay, lesbian, and heterosexual couples.

The link between one's own and one's partner's neuroticism and components of one's own relationship commitment (perceived rewards, costs, match to ideal standard, alternatives, investments, and barriers) was examined for both partners from 61 gay, 42 lesbian, and 155 heterosexual couples. With controls for the other Big Five traits, one's own neuroticism and one's partner's neuroticism independently predicted costs, match to ideal standard, and alternatives. The link between one's neuroticism and these dimensions of one's commitment was mediated by one's life satisfaction, whereas the link between one's partner's neuroticism and these same dimensions was mediated by the partner's conflict resolution styles. It is concluded that neuroticism affects personal dedication to a relationship through both intrapersonal and interpersonal pathways. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A note on projection.

Projection if defined as "unwittingly attributing one's own traits to others" may be either defensive or predictive. It still needs much research effort. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Clinical cross-training: Compatibility of sport and family systems psychology.

Sport psychology offers unique opportunities for (a) expanding one's practice beyond areas regulated by managed care and (b) using one's knowledge of psychology to cultivate health, wellness, and positive aspects of life. This article describes how developing expertise in sport psychology may benefit a practitioner, with special attention to family systems psychologists evaluating their own suitability for working in the sport and exercise area. In addition to expanding one's practice, ways in which sport psychofogy expertise may enhance overall clinical skills are noted. The article concludes with a checklist to evaluate suitability for "cross-training" in sport psychology and recommendations for initiating the process. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Subjectivity, emotional resonance, and the sense of the real.

The assumption of being inextricably embedded in one's own subjective perspective, on the one hand, and yet of being able to attune affectively to the subjective emotional states of another, on the other hand, underscores central theoretical contradictions in the study of subjectivity and intersubjectivity. More closely examining the nature and experience of subjectivity, including the notion of human "sameness" and relatedness, provides one way to reconcile these theoretical and practical contradictions. It is concluded that one's embeddedness in one's subjectivity actually facilitates the reciprocal and mutual processes of emotional resonance and unconscious communication. In this light, the notion of the "sense of the real" is understood and elaborated in the context of an additional dimension of therapeutic action in psychoanalysis. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Causal focus and estimates of consensus: An examination of the false-consensus effect.

Examined one of the underlying mechanisms—people's causal attributions for their own behavior—of the "false-consensus effect" (the tendency to overestimate the commonness of one's own attitudes and behavior). It was hypothesized that when people view their responses as the result of external influences, they overestimate the commonness of those responses; when they see their behavior as stemming from their own personal characteristics or experiences, they make more unbiased estimates of consensus. Study 1 tested this notion by having 109 undergraduates make hypothetical behavioral choices and then manipulating their explanations for their choices. As predicted, Ss who were led to cite personal reasons for their choices made lower consensus estimates than Ss who either were led to cite situational reasons or were unconstrained in their explanations. This causal-focus manipulation also had significant effects on Ss' trait ratings of the kind of person who would choose each alternative. Study 2, with 20 undergraduates, extended these results by finding a significant correlation between the extent to which people perceive a false consensus for various issues and the extent to which those issues prompt situational explanations for one's responses. (13 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Body and separation: Three variations on a theme.

One of the central insights put forward by Freud in his 1920 essay "Beyond the Pleasure Principle" was that the task of negotiating a separation from the mother goes hand-in-hand with the development of a sense of one's body as a discrete, bounded entity. My suggestion in this article is that these tasks, of separation from the mother and the task of developing a discrete sense of one's own body, occur simultaneously, such that the particular form in which each aspect of this dual task is accomplished bears the marks of, and has implications for, the other. I illustrate my claim with three case examples, arranged to form a continuum, in which the tangling of fears regarding these twin developmental tasks has been particularly pronounced. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Emotional trade-offs of becoming a parent: How social roles influence self-discrepancy effects.

Why do some people suffer from becoming a parent, whereas others do not? New parents' actual selves were related to their own hopes for themselves (ideal self) and to their spouse's sense of their responsibilities (ought self). Prebirth actual–ideal discrepancies predicted increased sadness or dejection after birth (especially for couples in longer marriages), whereas prebirth actual–ought discrepancies predicted decreased nervousness or agitation after birth (especially for mothers and couples with a less "easy" child). Becoming a parent introduces new demands that both interfere with attaining one's own hopes (increasing dejection in parents high in ideal [own] discrepancy) and shift attention to the new parenting role (decreasing agitation in parents high in ought [spouse] discrepancy). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Attitudinal effects of choice in exposure to counterpropaganda.

Conditions are explored "under which exposure to information discrepant form one's own opinion produces cognitive dissonance and consequent attitude change… . The results were discussed in terms of the importance of prior choice in exposure in creating dissonance." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Differential learning and forgetting as a function of the social frame of reference.

"The present study was aimed at demonstrating how learning and recall become selective because of the relevant frames of reference… . Brahmins and Karana… were required to learn and recall… favorable and… unfavorable familiar stereotypes concerning themselves." Effectiveness of learning was seen to be dependent upon whether the stereotypes were identified with a caste different from one's own and whether they reflected favorable or unfavorable attitudes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Overevaluation of own groups product in ingroup competition.

"Four hundred and ten persons participating as members of 48 groups in human relations training programs, engaged in a parallel sequence of ingroup and intergroup activities. Groups were placed in competition in pairs, trios, and quartests of groups, with the outcome determined by the quality of the solutions created by the groups. Quality judgments were made by group members on a private, or personal, basis for the adequacy of their own and of the other group's positions. They resulted in one's own product being rated higher than that created by a competitor's. The results confirm the prediction that group members evaluate their own group product above the judgments they accord to the proposal from a comparison group." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Impact of psychotherapy supervision on therapist orientation and values.

Research has suggested that psychotherapy skills are developed and valued depending in part on the level of trainee experience. Beginning trainees tend to value and benefit from supervisor support, whereas later trainees tend to gravitate toward technical guidance. This cycle may be repeated with continuing experience. We present illustrative data from our own research to suggest that several years after training, early supervisory experiences may still exert an effect on one's theoretical position. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Objectivity in the Eye of the Beholder: Divergent Perceptions of Bias in Self Versus Others.

Important asymmetries between self-perception and social perception arise from the simple fact that other people's actions, judgments, and priorities sometimes differ from one's own. This leads people not only to make more dispositional inferences about others than about themselves (E. E. Jones & R. E. Nisbett, 1972) but also to see others as more susceptible to a host of cognitive and motivational biases. Although this blind spot regarding one's own biases may serve familiar self-enhancement motives, it is also a product of the phenomenological stance of naive realism. It is exacerbated, furthermore, by people's tendency to attach greater credence to their own introspections about potential influences on judgment and behavior than they attach to similar introspections by others. The authors review evidence, new and old, of this asymmetry and its underlying causes and discuss its relation to other psychological phenomena and to interpersonal and intergroup conflict. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Not all faces are processed equally: Evidence for featural rather than holistic processing of one's own face in a face-imaging task.

The present work considers the mental imaging of faces, with a focus in own-face imaging. Experiments 1 and 3 demonstrated an own-face disadvantage, with slower generation of mental images of one's own face than of other familiar faces. In contrast, Experiment 2 demonstrated that mental images of facial parts are generated more quickly for one's own face. Finally, Experiment 4 established that a bias toward local processing is advantageous for one's own face, whereas a global-processing bias produces an enhanced own-face disadvantage. The results suggest that own-face imaging is more synchronized with retrieval of face features and less attuned to a face's holistic pattern than is imaging of other people's faces. The authors propose that the salient information for own and other face identification reflects, in part, differences in the purpose and experiences (expertise) generally associated with processing of own and other faces. Consistent with work examining the range of face processing, including other-race faces, our results suggest that not all faces receive the same holistic emphasis. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Activation of self-observation: A core process among the psychotherapies.

Activation of self-observation is proposed as a core psychotherapy process. Self-observation entails an active scan of one's inner landscape (intentions, expectations, feelings, cognitions, and behaviors), the ability to introspect on one's own thoughts, and the realization of the relation of self to one's social and cultural environment. This process is collaboratively employed by psychotherapist and client within all psychotherapy orientations to help clients learn about their own functioning, change maladaptive responses, and generate new responses for the future. This article addresses (a) defining and distinguishing features of self-observation, (b) self-observation within the psychotherapeutic encounter, (c) ways in which psychotherapists accelerate this process, and (d) the implications of self-observation as a core psychotherapeutic process. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Gender identity: A multidimensional analysis with implications for psychosocial adjustment.

This study examined the relations between components of gender identity and psychosocial adjustment. The aspects of gender identity assessed were (a) feelings of psychological compatibility with one's gender (i.e., feeling one is a typical member of one's sex and feeling content with one's biological sex), (b) feelings of pressure from parents, peers, and self for conformity to gender stereotypes, and (c) the sentiment that one's own sex is superior to the other (intergroup bias). Adjustment was assessed in terms of self-esteem and peer acceptance. Participants were 182 children in Grades 4 through 8. Felt gender compatibility (when operationalized as either self-perceived gender typicality or feelings of contentment with one's biological sex) was positively related to adjustment, whereas felt pressure and intergroup bias were negatively associated with adjustment. The results provide new insights into the role of gender identity in children's well-being, help identify sources of confusion in previous work, and suggest directions for future inquiry. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Why are people reluctant to exchange lottery tickets?

Students were given lottery tickets and then were asked to exchange their ticket for another one, plus a small monetary incentive. Less than 50% agreed. In contrast, when given pens, and the same exchange offer, over 90% agreed. Experimental control rules out that the reluctance to exchange lottery tickets results from (1) overestimation of the winning probability of one's own ticket; (2) a concern that the ticket, once exchanged, might win in the hands of another; (3) from an overly low transaction cost; (4) "paranoia" due to the bizarreness of the social situation we created; or (5) "bonding" to the ticket. Rather, the possibility for ex post regret that exists when exchanging lottery tickets, but not pens, underlies this reluctance. The notion of regret is broader than previously supposed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Subjective, behavioral, and physiological reactivity to ethnically matched and ethnically mismatched film clips.

This study examined whether individuals from 4 major ethnic groups within the United States (African American, Chinese American, European American, and Mexican American) showed greater subjective, behavioral, and physiological responses to emotional film clips (amusement, sadness, and disgust) with actors from their own ethnic group (ethnically matched) compared with actors from the other 3 ethnic groups (ethnically mismatched). Evidence showed greater responsivity to ethnically matched films for African Americans and European Americans, with the largest effect for African Americans. These findings were consistent across both sex and level of cultural identification. Findings of ethnic difference notwithstanding, there were many areas in which ethnic differences were not found (e.g., little or no evidence was found of greater response to ethnically matched films in Chinese-American or Mexican- American participants). These findings indicate that the emotional response system clearly reacts to stimuli of diverse ethnic content; however, the system is also amenable to subtle "tuning" that allows for incrementally enhanced responding to members of one's own ethnic or cultural group. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)