Development of interpersonal understanding: A longitudinal and comparative study of normal and disturbed youths.

Using an interview procedure, levels of interpersonal understanding were assessed for 17 behaviorally and emotionally disturbed boys and were compared longitudinally, across 3 assessments at 2- and 4-yr intervals, with those of 17 better-adjusted male peers matched for age, race, SES, and WISC-R IQ. Ss were in Grades 1–6 at Time 1, 3–8 at Time 2, and 7–22 at Time 3. Results suggest that the sequence of progression through levels of interpersonal understanding was the same for both disturbed and normal samples but that the developmental trend of trouble Ss lagged behind that of the higher-functioning group. However, longitudinal follow-up results suggest that the developmental lag of the disturbed Ss was diminishing with time. An exploratory study conducted during Time 3 suggested that relatively low levels of interpersonal understanding were related to the self-reported use of physical and avoidant strategies to resolve conflicts. Results are considered in the context of theoretical relations between thought and action. (23 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Teachers’ stressors and strains: A longitudinal study of their relationships.

[Correction Notice: An erratum for this article was reported in Vol 17(1) of International Journal of Stress Management (see record 2010-02418-002). In the article, “Teachers’ Stressors and Strains: A Longitudinal Study of Their Relationships” by Arie Shirom, Amalya Oliver, and Esther Stein (International Journal of Stress Management, 2009, Vol. 16, No. 4, pp. 312-332), the two co-authors’ affiliations were incorrectly listed. The co-authors’ correct affiliations are as follows: Amalya Oliver, Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Esther Stein, Beit Berl Educational College.] The authors tested the hypothesized unidirectional or bidirectional effects of 5 types of teachers’ work-related stressors on each of the 4 types of psychological strain: somatic complaints, burnout, and intrinsic and extrinsic job dissatisfaction. The authors used structural regression analyses to analyze the responses of a representative sample of 404 high school teachers who had completed both our T1 (beginning of school year) and T2 (end of school year) questionnaires. The authors found support for the expected unidirectional effects of the T1 work-related stressors on the respondents’ T2 somatic complaints (with baseline somatic complaints controlled for), and also for the expected unidirectional effects of T1 intrinsic and extrinsic job dissatisfaction on the T2 values of the five types of stressors (with baseline stressors controlled for). Only partial support was found for the expected bidirectional relationships between the stressors and teachers’ burnout. The authors suggest that the directionality across time of the relationships between stressors and strains may depend on the intrinsic properties of the strain under consideration. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Subjective probabilities of interpersonal relationships.

"Subjective probabilities of the existence of various interpersonal relationships under various conditions were obtained with a questionnaire given male college students. Positive affective relationships were regarded as generally most probable, and negative affective relationships as least probable." Various aspects of the interpersonal relationship, e.g., "likes," "trusts," "confides in," "feels superior to," etc., were discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Personality types in adolescence: Change and stability and links with adjustment and relationships: A five-wave longitudinal study.

We examined change and stability of the 3 personality types identified by Block and Block (1980) and studied their links with adjustment and relationships. We used data from a 5-wave study of 923 early-to-middle and 390 middle-to-late adolescents, thereby covering the ages of 12–20 years. In Study 1, systematic evidence for personality change was found, in that the number of overcontrollers and undercontrollers decreased, whereas the number of resilients increased. Undercontrol, in particular, was found to peak in early-to-middle adolescence. We also found substantial stability of personality types, because 73.5% of the adolescents had the same personality type across the 5 waves. Personality change was mainly characterized by 2 transitions: overcontrol → resiliency and undercontrol → resiliency. The transitional analyses implied that the resilient type serves more often as the end point of personality development in adolescence than do overcontrol and undercontrol. Analyses of the personality type trajectories also revealed that the majority of adolescents who change personality type across 5 years made only 1 transition. Study 2 revealed systematic differences between resilients and overcontrollers in anxiety. Stable resilients were less anxious over time than were stable overcontrollers. Further, change from overcontrol to the resilient type was accompanied by decreases in anxiety, whereas change from the resilient type to overcontrol was accompanied by an increase in anxiety. Similarly, systematic differences between personality types were found in the formation of intimate relationships. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Prosocial development: A longitudinal study.

Examined, using a longitudinal methodology, (1) the development of prosocial moral judgment and (2) the relation between prosocial moral judgment and both prohibition-oriented moral judgment and maternal childrearing practices. Three samples were tested: 33 82–99 mo olds were interviewed 3 times; 16 49–67 mo olds were interviewed twice; and 30 2nd graders were interviewed once. From preschool to elementary school years, needs-oriented (empathic) reasoning increased in frequency of use, whereas hedonistic reasoning decreased. Significant changes continued from the preschool years to 2nd grade, although change could be noted even before entry into school (over a 1-yr period from ages 4–5 to 5–6 yrs). The relation between level of prosocial reasoning and prohibition-oriented reasoning was low to moderate, depending on the measures that were intercorrelated. Level of reasoning was related to nonauthoritarian, nonpunitive maternal practices, but the role of empathic, supportive maternal practices appeared to change with age. (26 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A longitudinal analysis of logical reasoning relationships: Conservation and transitive inference.

102 children originally assessed in 1973 were retested 1 yr later on a series of conservation and transitive inference tasks (length and weight content areas). An additional sample of matched cohort/grade Ss (1st- and 4th-grade levels) were assessed in the 2nd yr only to permit evaluation of repeated measurement biases for the longitudinal sample. Results indicate that there were no effects of presentation order, selective survival, repeated measurement, sex, or content area; these variables did not interact with each other. Analyses of the longitudinal Ss' conservation task performances over the annual interval indicated significant grade-level distinctions, Yr 1 vs Yr 2 differences, and type of conservation distinctions (identity vs equivalence). Identity conservation scores were consistently superior to equivalence conservation scores, a superiority most notable for the youngest Ss. Transitive inference tasks were significantly less difficult than equivalence conservation tasks. Most importantly, evidence for a developmental mastery sequence (transitivity-conservation) was demonstrated. Identity-equivalence conservation task distinctions were most apparent for the without verbal justification response criterion. (26 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effect of interpersonal relationships upon verbal conditioning.

"Two conditioning experiments were conducted in which E used 'mmm-hmm' to reinforce sentences which S began with pronouns 'I' or 'We.' Experiment I relied upon instructions to create a condition of either High- or Low-Attraction between S and E. Experiment II utilized… [a] scale to establish Compatible and Incompatible groups in terms of interpersonal needs… . Ss who were incompatible, or not attracted to E, suppressed the effects of reinforcement until removed from E's presence. The implications of these findings for generalizing from verbal conditioning situations to the patient-therapist relationship in clinical settings was discussed." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychotherapy recapitulates ontogeny: The epigenesis of intensive interpersonal relationships.

Clients in psychotherapy and people in other intensive relationships seem to confront a predictable sequence of stages or emotional issues in the development of those relationships. The sequence can be described by analogy with the human life cycle using E. H. Erikson's (see PA, Vol 39:10989) "eight ages of man." This progression of psychosocial nuclear conflicts can be understood as a dialectic in which each new synthesis, a positive resolution of a conflict, begets a specific antithesis which is the negative pole of the next stage. This dialectical logic accounts for the content, progression, and impetus of the stages in the epigenesis of interpersonal relationships. (39 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Group cohesiveness as interpersonal attraction: A review of relationships with antecedent and consequent variables.

The cohesiveness of small groups is defined in terms of intermember attraction and the rationale for such an approach is discussed. The empirical literature, restricted primarily to investigations published 1950-1962, is reviewed with the aim of evaluating the status of variables hypothesized as having antecedent or consequent relationships with interpersonal attraction. To this end, studies from diverse fields, for example, group dynamics, personality, and learning, are brought together and categorized. Theoretical positions concerned with the development of liking between persons and the effects which liking has upon subsequent behavior are also examined by specifying predictions from systematic formulations and comparing them with the research data. The major intent of this paper is to document relationships which have been clearly established and to identify those which are still equivocal or unexplored. (7 p. ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Gender characteristics and adjustment: A longitudinal study.

[Correction Notice: An erratum for this article was reported in Vol 64(1) of Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (see record 2010-03552-001). The authors would like to acknowledge that the age 41 longitudinal data used in their study were collected by David McClelland, Carol Franz, Joel Weinberger, Richard Koestner, and Joseph Healy. This data collection was supported by a grant from the Seaver Institute. The data are currently being archived at the Henry Murray Research Center of Radcliffe College, Cambridge, Massachusetts.] Used a prospective longitudinal design to investigate the long-term developmental implications of gender-related interests and traits. Archival data were available for Ss in the R. R. Sears et al (1957) study. Men, who at age 12 yrs endorsed interests and undesirable traits more typically associated with women, had poorer social–personal adjustment at ages 31 and 41 yrs. No effects were found for women. Feminine expressive traits at age 31 yrs did not impact on 41-yr-old adjustment for either men or women, whereas masculine instrumental traits were positively related for both. These findings support a multidimensional view of gender and indicate that harsher consequences follow when adolescent boys endorse nontraditional gender-related interests and undesirable traits than when girls do so. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Bulimia: A review of the literature.

This overview of bulimia research reports findings concerning demographic variables, psychopathology, and treatment outcome effects. While both bulimics and sufferers of anorexia nervosa are abnormally concerned with body weight, the bulimics tend to fluctuate between weight loss and weight gain. The incidence of bulimia in the general population is generally unknown; however, it is more prevalent in women than men. Bulimic individuals are obsessed with thoughts of food and weight; they also experience depression and anxiety. While treatment approaches have included anticonvulsive medication and other drugs, group experiential-behavioral treatment, a cognitive behavioral approach, and behavior therapy, it appears that interventions based on behavior therapy generate the best evidence for successful outcome in treating this eating disorder. (42 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Artistic creativity and interpersonal relationships across and within generations.

772 artists from diverse historical periods were assessed for achieved eminence, and their relationships with other artists were gauged in terms of both quantity and quality. These social relationships could concern predecessors (paragons, masters, and parents), contemporaries (rivals, collaborators, associates, friends, copupils, and siblings), and successors (apprentices and admirers). Aggregate measures of group artistic activity (zeitgeist) were also defined for both contemporary and preceding generations. Five relationships—paragons, rivals, associates, apprentices, and admirers—emerged as the most consistent correlates of artistic eminence, although the aggregate measures provided useful predictors over and above the individual-level effects. The impact of the various interpersonal relationships was often moderated by the mean age difference between the artist and the fellow artists entering a given social interaction. For example, artistic eminence is a curvilinear inverted backward –U function of the mean artist–paragon age gap, in which the optimum point varies as a negative monotonic function of the number of paragons emulated. (22 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Organizational characteristics, work characteristics, and relationships with psychologic work reactions in nursing: A longitudinal study.

The aim of this study was to investigate longitudinal relationships between (a) organizational characteristics and work characteristics and (b) organizational characteristics and psychologic work reactions. To get insight into patterns of relationships, self-administered questionnaires were distributed to 596 nurses at time 1 and 379 at time 2. A two-wave full crosslagged structural panel model was used to analyze the data. With regard to the relationships between organizational characteristics and work characteristics, the crosslagged analyses showed stronger support for a pattern of reversed "causation." Considering relationships between organizational characteristics and psychologic work reactions, no reversed crosslagged relationships were found, although hypothesized cross-sectional relationships were supported. This lack of relationships over time was explained by methodological as well as theoretical arguments. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Assessment center validity: A longitudinal study.

Data on 254 managers attending an assessment center were examined for changes in validities over time. 24 predictors were correlated with a criterion of salary growth measured 1, 3, and 5 yrs after Ss were assessed. Before conducting the analyses, Ss were grouped into 3 generations based on the year they were assessed. Peer and assessor ratings, along with linear combinations, were significantly correlated with the criterion. The multiple correlations generalized well across time and generations. A general increasing trend in the validity coefficients was noted over time. Comparison of overall assessor rating with multiple correlation did not indicate any marked superiority for actuarial prediction. (21 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Creating good relationships: Responsiveness, relationship quality, and interpersonal goals.

Perceived partner responsiveness is a core feature of close, satisfying relationships. But how does responsiveness originate? Can people create relationships characterized by high responsiveness and, consequently, higher quality relationships? The authors suggest that goals contribute to cycles of responsiveness between two people, improving relationship quality for both of them. The present studies examine (a) how interpersonal goals initiate responsiveness processes in close relationships, (b) the self-perpetuating nature of these processes, and (c) how responsiveness evolves dynamically over time through both intrapersonal projection and reciprocal interpersonal relationship processes. In a semester-long study of 115 roommate dyads, actors' compassionate and self-image goals predicted a cycle of responsiveness between roommates, occurring within weeks and across the semester. In a 3-week study of 65 roommate dyads, actors' goals again predicted cycles of responsiveness between roommates, which then contributed to both actors' and partners' relationship quality. Results suggest that both projection and reciprocation of responsiveness associated with compassionate goals create upward spirals of responsiveness that ultimately enhance relationship quality for both people. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social-motivational processes and interpersonal relationships: Implications for understanding motivation at school.

Social-motivational processes and socialization experiences can play a critical role in students' academic success. However, the search for specific mechanisms and processes that explain these social influences on motivation is still in its inception. The purpose of this article was to begin to articulate some of these processes in the hope that more precise explanations of influence will emerge. The 1st section of the article focuses on ways in which social-motivational processes are relevant for understanding motivation to achieve academically, using goal pursuit as a case in point. Models describing complementary, developmental, and hierarchical relations among social and task-related goals and their implications for understanding student achievement are presented. Then, ways in which students' social encounters and experiences with parents, teachers, and peers might influence their adoption and internalization of socially valued goals are examined. New directions for theoretical and empirical inquiry are presented. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Separation-individuation and adjustment to college: A longitudinal study.

Aimed to (1) chart late-adolescent individuation from freshman to junior year in college, (2) further examine previously reported sex differences in separation–individuation and college adjustment, and (3) assess the within-year and across-year association between individuation and adjustment. As part of an ongoing longitudinal project, 130 students completed measures of separation–individuation and college adjustment early in their freshman year (D. K. Lapsely et al, 1989). In the present follow-up study, 81 of those original Ss completed measures in their junior year. The results indicated significant increases in individuation from parents over time along most but not all dimensions of individuation for both men and women. Gender specific patterns of individuation/adjustment emerged in freshman and junior year. In general, independence from parents in freshman year did not predict junior year college adjustment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Inhibiting effects of reciprocation wariness on interpersonal relationships.

Students with high reciprocation wariness, a general fear of exploitation in interpersonal relationships, showed (1) a markedly reduced positive response to cooperative communication in a Prisoner's Dilemma bargaining task, (2) a greater negative response to uncooperative communication, and (3) an increased positive response to the prospect of long-term interaction. Friends and roommates of high-wary students evaluated them as unsympathetic, inconsiderate, and manipulative. Students who were supervised by high-wary dormitory resident assistants evaluated them as unapproachable, hesitant to develop close relationships, and unresponsive to student needs. Wariness was found to be unrelated to social goal orientation and Machiavellianism. Reciprocation wariness appears to inhibit the establishment and strengthening of interpersonal relationships. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Five domains of interpersonal competence in peer relationships.

In three studies we investigated the utility of distinguishing among different domains of interpersonal competence in college students' peer relationships. In Study 1 we developed a questionnaire to assess five dimensions of competence: initiating relationships, self-disclosure, asserting displeasure with others' actions, providing emotional support, and managing interpersonal conflicts. Initial validation evidence was gathered. We found that self-perceptions of competence varied as a function of sex of subject, sex of interaction partner, and competence domain. In Study 2 we found moderate levels of agreement between ratings of competence by subjects and their roommates. Interpersonal competence scores were also related in predictable ways to subject and roommate reports of masculinity and femininity, social self-esteem, loneliness, and social desirability. In Study 3 we obtained ratings of subjects' competence from their close friends and new acquaintances. Relationship satisfaction among new acquaintances was predicted best by initiation competence, whereas satisfaction in friendships was most strongly related to emotional support competence. The findings provide strong evidence of the usefulness of distinguishing among domains of interpersonal competence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Relationship Closeness Inventory: Assessing the closeness of interpersonal relationships.

Describes the development of the Relationship Closeness Inventory (RCI), which draws on the conceptualization of closeness as high interdependence between two people's activities proposed by Kelley et al. (1983). The current "closest" relationship of individuals (N?=?241) drawn from the college student population served as the basis for RCI development, with the closest relationship found to encompass several relationship types, including romantic, friend, and family relationships. The development and psychometric properties of the three RCI subscales (Frequency, Diversity, Strength), their scoring, and their combination to form an overall index of closeness are described. The RCI's test–retest reliability is reported and the association between RCI score and the longevity of the relationship is discussed. RCI scores for individuals' closest relationships are contrasted to those of not-close relationships, to a subjective closeness index, and to several measures of relationship affect, including Rubin's (1973) Liking and Loving scales. Finally, the ability of the RCI to predict relationship break up is contrasted to that of the Subjective Closeness Index, an index of the emotional tone of the relationship, and to relationship longevity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)