Identity Development and Self-Esteem in Transgender Men: The Importance of Masculinity.

Because transgender people often suffer from concerns such as increased depression and anxiety, promoting positive and healthy mental well-being within this community is valuable. Two aspects of well-being that may be particularly relevant to the trans community are identity development and self-esteem. We hypothesized that a better overall transition experience (access to medical and psychological care, support from friends and family, etc.) would predict better identity development, individual self-esteem, and collective self-esteem in transgender men. This prediction was supported in a sample of 145 transmen from 15 different countries. Further exploratory analyses reveal that the direct effects of the transition process on identity development and individual self-esteem were significantly mediated by participants' perceived masculinity-but this mediation did not apply to collective self-esteem. We also found that when comparing overall transition experiences in the countries represented in our sample, the process was most positive in transmen from Australia and New Zealand, with experiences in the U.S., Canada, and Europe as less positive. Providing a supportive transition process and validating transmen's masculinity are important factors in paving the way for them to have healthy identity development and self-esteem.

When It Is Not So Funny: Prevalence of Friendly Sexist Teasing and Consequences to Gender Self-Esteem.

This research investigates the phenomenon of "friendly" sexist teases (FSTs), which we define as playful intergroup teases that are based on the negative gender stereotypes that devalue one's gender group. We first employed a diary study to explore the prevalence of FSTs in college students' everyday life and found that this type of teasing tends to occur in social situations and often between close others. In a second study, we experimentally manipulated perceived closeness with the teaser. We predicted that individuals teased by someone with whom they shared a perceived closeness would interpret FSTs as playful fun; therefore, the tease would not have a negative psychological effect. We further predicted that those teased by someone less close would likely focus on the literal content of the sexist tease, resulting in negative consequences to gender self-esteem. Results supported these predictions and provided insight into the phenomenon of FSTs.

Cognitive Reframing of Intimate Partner Aggression: Social and Contextual Influences.

Intimate partner aggression violates U.S. culturally-accepted standards regarding how partners should treat each other. Victims must reconcile the dissonance associated with being in what should be a loving and supportive relationship, while being in the same relationship that is personally and deeply harmful. To manage these clashing cognitions, victims consciously and unconsciously adopt perceptions to reframe their partner's aggression, minimizing and reinterpreting the occurrence or impact of aggressive acts, and justifying remaining in their relationship. The paper examines the multiple and nested influences that shape such perceptions, including individual, partner, relationship, and cultural factors. Each type of influence is discussed by reviewing previous research and including accounts from women who had experienced aggression. Greater awareness of such perceptions may afford greater control in changing harmful relationship patterns.

Perceptions of positive relationship traits in gay and lesbian couples.

The current research examined perceptions of positive traits in homosexual relationships. Students (n = 216) and professional counselors (n = 96) read one of three variations of a transcript of a couple's counseling session that were identical in all aspects except for the names of the couple members, which implied sexual orientation (either John and Amy, Amy and Jennifer, or John and David). Participants then rated the couple's level of commitment, satisfaction, investment, and closeness. Surprisingly, the student group perceived no differences between the couples, but the counselor group perceived the gay and lesbian couples as having higher levels of the positive relationship traits. Implications regarding counselor bias are discussed.

The simulacra effect: the effect of media simulations on eating disorder symptomology in gay men.

Researchers have uncovered a disturbing trend in the gay community: Gay men are at an increased risk for disordered eating. Researchers in this area generally support the existence of a sociocultural component to this phenomenon; however, these assertions have not been experimentally tested. We attempted to demonstrate that media representations targeted toward gay men have the potential to affect disordered eating and self-perception. Results showed that contrary to the hypothesis, the experimental group did not show an increase in eating disorder symptomology; in some cases, the opposite occurred. Implications of the importance of identifying with media images are discussed.

Sunken costs and desired plans: examining different types of investments in close relationships.

Although the concept of investments in romantic relationships has featured prominently in close relationships research, there have been no empirical analyses of different types of investments and their possible differential predictive power regarding relationship state or fate. With data from five independent samples, the authors offer and examine investments that differ in terms of their timing (past vs. planned) and materiality (tangible vs. intangible). Cross-sectional and longitudinal tests of hypotheses regarding these investment types provide evidence for the utility of considering specific types of investments in predicting a variety of important relationship factors, including commitment, stability, and the impact of breakup on relationship partners. Intangible investments and planned investments were found to be particularly robust predictors of key relational states and outcomes.

Relationship perceptions and persistence: do fluctuations in perceived partner commitment undermine dating relationships?

The authors propose specific temporal profiles that reflect certainty versus doubt about where a partner stands with respect to a dating relationship over time. Two multiwave longitudinal studies focused on within-participant changes in perceived partner commitment. Results from multilevel modeling indicate that individuals whose perceptions of partner commitment fluctuate over time were more likely to be in a relationship that eventually ended than were individuals whose perceptions remained relatively steady. For individuals in recently initiated relationships, the association of fluctuation in perceived partner commitment with later breakup was significant regardless of the initial level of perceived partner commitment or the trend, and for all participants, it remained significant when initial level, trend over time, and fluctuation over time of other meaningful variables were controlled.