Actor and partner power are distinct and have differential effects on social behavior.

Interpersonal power involves how much actors can influence partners (actor power) and how much partners can influence actors (partner power). Yet, most theories and investigations of power conflate the effects of actor and partner power, creating a fundamental ambiguity in the literature regarding how power shapes social behavior. We demonstrate that actor and partner power are distinct and have differential effects on social behavior. Six studies (total N = 1,787) tested whether actor and partner power independently predicted behavioral inhibition (expressive suppression) and communal behavior (prioritization of partners' needs) within close relationships, including during couples' daily life (Study 1), lab-based social interactions (Studies 1-5; 1,012 dyadic interactions), and general responses during conflict (Studies 5 and 6). Actor power was negatively associated with behavioral inhibition, indicating that actors' low power prompts self-focused inhibition to prevent negative outcomes that low power actors are unable to control. Partner power was positively associated with actors' communal behavior, indicating that high partner power prompts other-focused behavior that prioritizes partners' needs and goals. These differential effects of actor and partner power replicated in work-based relationships with bosses/managers (Study 6). Unexpectedly, partner power was negatively associated with actors' behavioral inhibition within close relationships, consistent with a desire to prevent negative outcomes for low power partners. We present a framework that integrates the approach-inhibition and agentic-communal theories of power to account for the differential effects of actor and partner power. We describe the implications of this framework for understanding the effects of power in both close and hierarchical relationships. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Holding on & letting go: romantic attachment and fading affect bias.

The current research examined the phenomenon of fading affect bias - the tendency for affect associated with negative events to fade more than affect associated with positive events - within the context of romantic relationships. Participants recalled and evaluated positive and negative relationship-specific and non-relationship autobiographical events. Participants also completed measures of attachment avoidance and anxiety. Multi-level modeling demonstrated fading affect bias for relationship and non-relationship events, but that affect fade was shaped by attachment orientations. Specifically, higher attachment anxiety, and lower attachment avoidance predicted greater importance of relationship events which predicted lower fading of affective intensity of memories. Thus, attachment anxiety sustained, while attachment avoidance suppressed the affect of relational memories. We discuss implications of these findings for relationship maintenance.

Latent Transition Analysis indicates four relatively stable profiles of loneliness in New Zealand.

OBJECTIVE: We investigated the characteristics of loneliness by identifying distinct 'profiles' of loneliness and investigating transitions between those loneliness profiles over two years. METHOD: We conducted Latent Transition Analyses on two years of data from the New Zealand Attitudes and Values Study (N=15,820) and modelled how people's health and age were associated with changes in profile membership. RESULTS: Four loneliness profiles emerged: 'low-loneliness' (58% of the sample), 'high-loneliness' (5%), 'appreciated outsiders' (28%; perceived acceptance from others but felt like social outsiders), and 'superficially connected' (9%; lacked acceptance from others but felt socially included). Profile membership was relatively stable over time and transitions were most likely from higher to lower loneliness. Younger people and people reporting poorer health were more likely to transition into profiles with greater loneliness indicators. CONCLUSIONS: Findings replicated a four-profile pattern of loneliness, supported the theorised 'trait-like' structure of loneliness and identified the possibility that moderate states of loneliness are transitional states into/from low and high loneliness. IMPLICATIONS FOR PUBLIC HEALTH: The stability of loneliness across years reiterates the need for societal interventions, particularly interventions that are adaptive to whether people's loneliness forms as a lack of acceptance/value or a lack of social inclusion.

Depressive symptoms, stress, and poorer emotional support when needed by intimate partners.

Intimate relationships are a principal source of emotional support, which fosters recipients' health and well-being. Yet, being in a position to provide support can be stressful, particularly if people are burdened with their own emotional difficulties, and such stress may interfere with people's ability to behave in emotionally supportive ways. Three dyadic studies tested whether greater depressive symptoms were associated with experiencing stress when in a position to provide support to intimate partners, and whether greater stress in turn predicted partners receiving less emotional support. Greater depressive symptoms were associated with experiencing greater stress during couples' discussions about partners important personal goal (Study 1) or significant personal challenge (Study 2) and on days when partners reported needing greater support (Study 3). Greater stress when in a position to provide support to partners was, in turn, associated with partners reporting they received lower emotional support (Studies 1 through 3). The results replicated when examining providers' own reports of emotional support (Studies 1 through 3), were specific to depressive symptoms and not due to other factors shown to undermine support (low self-esteem and higher attachment insecurity; Studies 1 through 3), were not simply due to low mood or sadness (Study 3) and occurred irrespective of the importance or severity of the topic discussed (Studies 1 and 2). These results highlight an important emotional process central to effective support provision: being in a position to provide support can be stressful, especially when people lack the emotional resources and capacity to be emotionally supportive toward their partners. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Individuals' number of children is associated with benevolent sexism.

Is having children related to benevolent sexism? Two theoretical accounts-benevolent sexism as role justification and benevolent sexism as a mating strategy-suggest the possibility of a positive and bidirectional association. Gender disparities in childrearing could prompt inequality-justifying endorsement of benevolent sexism and/or endorsing benevolent sexism could promote traditional gender roles that facilitate having more children. We assessed the bidirectional associations between individuals' number of children and their endorsement of benevolent sexism over a two-year period in a large national panel sample of New Zealanders (N = 6,017). Zero-inflated structural equation modeling indicated that having a greater number of children was associated with stronger endorsement of benevolent sexism two years later, but no evidence emerged for the reverse direction. This study illustrated ways to tentatively test predictions of theoretical accounts on sexism and identified new, though small, evidence for the role justification perspective.

Divergent Functions of Tissue-Resident and Blood-Derived Macrophages in the Hemorrhagic Brain.

Background and Purpose: Brain tissue-resident microglia and monocyte-derived macrophages (MDMs) are innate immune cells that contribute to the inflammatory response, phagocytosis of debris, and tissue repair after injury. We have previously reported that both microglia and MDMs transition from proinflammatory to reparative phenotypes over days after an intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH). However, their individual functional properties in the brain remain largely unknown. Here we characterized the differences between microglia and MDMs and further elucidate their distinct activation states and functional contributions to the pathophysiology and recovery after ICH. Methods: Autologous blood injection was used to model ICH in mice. Longitudinal transcriptomic analyses on isolated microglia and MDMs from mice at days 1, 3, 7 and 10 after ICH and naive controls identified core transcriptional programs that distinguish these cells. Imaging flow cytometry and in vivo phagocytosis assays were used to study phagocytic ability of microglia and MDMs. Antigen presentation was evaluated by ovalbumin-OTII CD4 T-cell proliferation assays with bone marrow­derived macrophages and primary microglia cultures. Results: MDMs had higher phagocytic activity and higher erythrophagocytosis in the ICH brain. Differential gene expression revealed distinct transcriptional signatures in the MDMs and microglia after ICH. MDMs had higher expression of MHCII (major histocompatibility complex class II) genes than microglia at all time points and greater ability to induce antigen-specific T-cell proliferation. Conclusions: The different ontogeny of microglia and MDMs lead to divergent responses and functions in the inflamed brain as these 2 cell populations differ in phagocytic functions and antigen-presenting capabilities in the brain after ICH.

Machine learning uncovers the most robust self-report predictors of relationship quality across 43 longitudinal couples studies.

Given the powerful implications of relationship quality for health and well-being, a central mission of relationship science is explaining why some romantic relationships thrive more than others. This large-scale project used machine learning (i.e., Random Forests) to 1) quantify the extent to which relationship quality is predictable and 2) identify which constructs reliably predict relationship quality. Across 43 dyadic longitudinal datasets from 29 laboratories, the top relationship-specific predictors of relationship quality were perceived-partner commitment, appreciation, sexual satisfaction, perceived-partner satisfaction, and conflict. The top individual-difference predictors were life satisfaction, negative affect, depression, attachment avoidance, and attachment anxiety. Overall, relationship-specific variables predicted up to 45% of variance at baseline, and up to 18% of variance at the end of each study. Individual differences also performed well (21% and 12%, respectively). Actor-reported variables (i.e., own relationship-specific and individual-difference variables) predicted two to four times more variance than partner-reported variables (i.e., the partner's ratings on those variables). Importantly, individual differences and partner reports had no predictive effects beyond actor-reported relationship-specific variables alone. These findings imply that the sum of all individual differences and partner experiences exert their influence on relationship quality via a person's own relationship-specific experiences, and effects due to moderation by individual differences and moderation by partner-reports may be quite small. Finally, relationship-quality change (i.e., increases or decreases in relationship quality over the course of a study) was largely unpredictable from any combination of self-report variables. This collective effort should guide future models of relationships.

Men's Hostile Sexism and Biased Perceptions of Partners' Support: Underestimating Dependability Rather Than Overestimating Challenges to Dominance.

Hostile sexism expresses derogation of women's competence and emphasizes that women will exploit men's relational dependence. Men who endorse hostile sexism perceive their female partners more negatively, but do these negative perceptions stem from motives for dominance or insecurities about dependence? We tested both perspectives by assessing bias in perceptions of partners' behaviors that challenge dominance (criticism, instruction, taking over) versus affirm partners are dependable (love, care, availability). Both members of 100 heterosexual couples reported how much they received and enacted these behaviors in (a) a lab-based discussion and (b) six monthly retrospective reports about an ongoing important goal. In both support contexts, men's hostile sexism was associated with underestimating dependability-relevant support, particularly when partners reported providing low support. This pattern did not emerge for dominance-relevant behaviors. These results indicate that men's hostile sexism involves insecurities about dependence, producing perceptions that female partners are less dependable than they actually are.

Do habitual emotional suppression measures predict response-focused situational suppression during social interactions?

Greater habitual emotional suppression (ES)-assessed by the suppression subscale of the emotion regulation questionnaire (ERQ-ES; Gross & John, 2003) and the Courtauld emotion control scale (CECS; Watson & Greer, 1983)-is associated with a range of negative outcomes, which are assumed to arise because habitual ES measures capture the tendency to use ES in response to emotions. The current studies directly test whether habitual ES measures actually capture the response-focused use of ES when emotions arise within social interactions. We conduct these validation tests by integrating measures of habitual ES with naturalistic assessments of negative emotions and the situational use of ES during emotionally relevant interactions with romantic partners (Study 1, N = 200; Study 3, N = 170) and social interactions with close others in daily life (Study 2, N = 430). Greater ERQ-ES and CECS scores predicted greater average levels of situational ES, but only greater scores on the ERQ-ES consistently predicted greater situational ES in response to negative emotions, including greater situational ES for people who experienced more negative emotions than others and when people experienced greater negative emotions than their own average. These results support that the ERQ-ES captures a response-focused pattern of situational ES that is sensitive to varying negative emotions within specific interactions. The CECS may capture a more pervasive, consistent use of ES across situations. Our novel tests offer an important framework for how to validate emotion regulation assessments to advance both theory and methodology. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Visual Outcomes, Visual Quality and Patient Satisfaction: Comparing a Blended Bifocal Approach to Bilateral Extended Depth of Focus Intraocular Lens Implantation.

PURPOSE: To compare visual outcomes, quality of vision and patient satisfaction between a blended apodized diffractive bifocal lens combination and bilateral implantation of an extended depth of focus intraocular lens (IOL). PATIENTS AND METHODS: Subjects implanted with either the blended bifocal (Blended) or bilateral extended depth of focus (EDOF) IOL combinations were examined 3 to 24 months after second eye surgery. The primary outcome measure was the patient's best distance-corrected near visual acuity (VA) at 40cm. The secondary outcome measures were scores on the Quality of Vision Survey, the Catquest-9SF and the Visual Functioning Questionnaires, uncorrected binocular intermediate and near VA at 4-6m, 60cm and 40cm, the manifest refraction and the best-corrected monocular and binocular distance VA. RESULTS: Twenty-five EDOF subjects and 23 blended subjects were analyzed. The uncorrected and best-distance corrected intermediate VA was statistically significantly better in the EDOF group (p < 0.05); no other significant differences were noted at distance or near. The EDOF group had significantly higher percentage of patients having no difficulty with hobbies and handicrafts (p < 0.05). Eighty-seven percent of the blended subjects and 79% of the EDOF subjects were "very" or "fairly" satisfied with their vision (p = 0.52). The frequency, severity and degree of bother from visual disturbances were comparable between the two groups; however, more subjects in the EDOF group reported severe disturbances (36% vs 4%). CONCLUSION: Distance and near VA are similar with both IOL designs, but intermediate VA was better with the EDOF IOL resulting in lower difficulty with intermediate tasks such as hobbies and handicrafts. Despite the difference at intermediate VA, satisfaction was similar between the two groups and there were greater reports of severe visual disturbances in the EDOF group.

Facilitating autonomy in interdependent relationships: Invisible support facilitates highly avoidant individuals' autonomy.

Maintaining autonomy in interdependent relationships is challenging, particularly for people high in attachment avoidance, who prioritize independence. Invisible support involves indirect, subtle behaviors that minimize the salience of dependence and encourage self-driven problem solving and thus should facilitate autonomy. The current research tested whether partners' invisible support during couples' discussions of personal goals (N = 200 dyadic discussions) facilitated goal-related autonomy immediately and across time for recipients high in attachment avoidance. Highly avoidant individuals experienced lower autonomy immediately after dependence-based discussions with their partners, but they experienced the same levels of autonomy as did those low in avoidance when their partners provided greater invisible support. Furthermore, highly avoidant individuals generally experienced lower commitment, but they experienced the same levels of commitment as did those low in avoidance when they experienced greater autonomy. The results illustrate how bridging self-determination and attachment theories advances understanding of how to facilitate need fulfillment in intimate relationships. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Thinking about negative life events as a mediator between depression and fading affect bias.

The current research examined the links between depressive symptomology and anxiety on the fading of affect associated with positive and negative autobiographical memories. Participants (N = 296) recalled and rated positive and negative events in terms of how pleasant or unpleasant they were at the time they occurred and at the time of event recollection. Multilevel mediation analyses identified evidence that higher levels of depressive symptoms were directly associated with lower affect fade for both negative and positive memories. Tests of indirect effects indicated that depressive symptoms were indirectly related to lower affect fade for negative (but not positive) autobiographical memories via the heightened tendency to think about negative (but not positive) memories. Anxiety was unrelated to affect fade both directly and indirectly. These results suggest that people higher in depressive symptoms retain more negative affect due to an increased likelihood of thinking about negative autobiographical events.

Personal Ties and Prejudice: A Meta-Analysis of Romantic Attachment and Ambivalent Sexism.

We examine how relational needs underlie sexism by conducting a meta-analysis ( k = 22; N = 4,860) on the links between adults' romantic attachment and endorsement of ambivalent sexism. Results across two random-effects meta-analytic methods supported that men's and women's attachment anxiety predicted stronger endorsement of both benevolent sexism and hostile sexism. Simultaneously, men's attachment avoidance predicted lower endorsement of benevolent sexism, and for men in relationships (vs. single men), stronger endorsement of hostile sexism. Thus, the way that people fulfil their relational goals lead people to adopt particular attitudes about gender, supporting that relationships are one key source of people's adoption of sexism. These results bridge attachment theory and ambivalent sexism theory by illustrating how individual differences in the amplification or suppression of needs for relational security fuel adoption of beliefs that function to maintain gender inequality across the world.

Low Self-Esteem Predicts Indirect Support Seeking and Its Relationship Consequences in Intimate Relationships.

Indirect support seeking involves sulking, whining, and/or displaying sadness to elicit social support. Ironically, this strategy tends to backfire by prompting rejection from close others. The current research examines how low self-esteem contributes to the use and relational consequences of indirect support seeking during couples' interactions. Results across two dyadic, observational studies (Study 1 = 76 couples, Study 2 = 100 couples) demonstrated that support seekers with lower self-esteem engaged in greater indirect support seeking, and seekers' greater indirect support seeking was associated with greater negative support from partners. Furthermore, partners' negative support was associated with lower seeker perceptions of partner responsiveness, but only when support seekers were low in self-esteem. These results demonstrate how low self-esteem individuals' attempts to protect themselves from social rejection by utilizing indirect support seeking may ironically elicit negative partner support, and undermine the feelings of acceptance that low self-esteem individuals crave.

Who are the lonely? A typology of loneliness in New Zealand.

BACKGROUND: Loneliness has many negative physical and mental health ramifications and is most prevalent among vulnerable social groups. However, little is known about how loneliness is grouped within the population and the characteristics of those groups. METHODS: We conducted a Latent Profile Analysis on 18,264 participants from the fifth wave of the New Zealand Attitudes and Values Study to identify the number of distinct loneliness profiles in the population. Secondary analyses then determined the representation of various demographic and psychosocial characteristics of participants within each profile. RESULTS: Analyses identified four distinct loneliness profiles: 'high-loneliness' (5.7%), 'low-loneliness' (57.9%), 'appreciated outsiders' (29.1%; who received acceptance from others but felt like social outsiders) and 'superficially connected' (7.2%; who showed the opposite pattern). 'High-loneliness' were the most introverted, emotionally unstable and poorest in wellbeing. 'Appreciated outsiders' and 'superficially connected' had moderate wellbeing, but 'appreciated outsiders' were relatively higher in wellbeing despite greater introversion and neuroticism. CONCLUSION: This research provides a typology of loneliness in New Zealand and identifies groups more likely to experience loneliness. The 'appreciated outsiders' and 'superficially connected' profiles provide fresh insight into how loneliness may manifest and the relative influences of quality and quantity of social contacts on wellbeing.

Erythrocyte efferocytosis modulates macrophages towards recovery after intracerebral hemorrhage.

Macrophages are a source of both proinflammatory and restorative functions in damaged tissue through complex dynamic phenotypic changes. Here, we sought to determine whether monocyte-derived macrophages (MDMs) contribute to recovery after acute sterile brain injury. By profiling the transcriptional dynamics of MDMs in the murine brain after experimental intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), we found robust phenotypic changes in the infiltrating MDMs over time and demonstrated that MDMs are essential for optimal hematoma clearance and neurological recovery. Next, we identified the mechanism by which the engulfment of erythrocytes with exposed phosphatidylserine directly modulated the phenotype of both murine and human MDMs. In mice, loss of receptor tyrosine kinases AXL and MERTK reduced efferocytosis of eryptotic erythrocytes and hematoma clearance, worsened neurological recovery, exacerbated iron deposition, and decreased alternative activation of macrophages after ICH. Patients with higher circulating soluble AXL had poor 1-year outcomes after ICH onset, suggesting that therapeutically augmenting efferocytosis may improve functional outcomes by both reducing tissue injury and promoting the development of reparative macrophage responses. Thus, our results identify the efferocytosis of eryptotic erythrocytes through AXL/MERTK as a critical mechanism modulating macrophage phenotype and contributing to recovery from ICH.

Social Support in Intimate Relationships: The Role of Relationship Autonomy.

Prior research on effective support interactions in intimate relationships often focuses on support provision rather than how people seek support. The current study investigated how differences in relationship autonomy-authentic and self-determined relationship motivations-predicted the behavior and outcomes of couples ( N = 80) in support interactions. Results indicated that support seekers' motivation and behavior were the primary contributor to effective support interactions. Support seekers who were autonomously motivated tended to seek support in a more direct and positive manner, which in turn promoted greater levels of emotional, informational, and tangible support from their partners. The relationship autonomy of both the support provider and the support seeker also predicted better subjective experiences regardless of behavior, such as perceiving the interaction as more supportive. These results illustrate how relationship autonomy promotes well-being in relationships via support seeking behaviors, as well as positive interpretations and experiences of important relationship interactions.

Young Children's Self-Concepts Include Representations of Abstract Traits and the Global Self.

There is debate about the abstractness of young children's self-concepts-specifically, whether they include representations of (a) general traits and abilities and (b) the global self. Four studies (N = 176 children aged 4-7) suggested these representations are indeed part of early self-concepts. Studies 1 and 2 reexamined prior evidence that young children cannot represent traits and abilities. The results suggested that children's seemingly immature judgments in previous studies were due to peculiarities of the task context not the inadequacy of children's self-concepts. Similarly, Studies 3 and 4 revealed that, contrary to claims of immaturity in reasoning about the global self, young children update their global self-evaluations in flexible, context-sensitive ways. This evidence suggests continuity in the structure of self-concepts across childhood.

Investigating the cognitive structure of stereotypes: Generic beliefs about groups predict social judgments better than statistical beliefs.

Stereotypes are typically defined as beliefs about groups, but this definition is underspecified. Beliefs about groups can be generic or statistical. Generic beliefs attribute features to entire groups (e.g., men are strong), whereas statistical beliefs encode the perceived prevalence of features (e.g., how common it is for men to be strong). In the present research, we sought to determine which beliefs-generic or statistical-are more central to the cognitive structure of stereotypes. Specifically, we tested whether generic or statistical beliefs are more influential in people's social judgments, on the assumption that greater functional importance indicates greater centrality in stereotype structure. Relative to statistical beliefs, generic beliefs about social groups were significantly stronger predictors of expectations (Studies 1-3) and explanations (Study 4) for unfamiliar individuals' traits. In addition, consistent with prior evidence that generic beliefs are cognitively simpler than statistical beliefs, generic beliefs were particularly predictive of social judgments for participants with more intuitive (vs. analytic) cognitive styles and for participants higher (vs. lower) in authoritarianism, who tend to view outgroups in simplistic, all-or-none terms. The present studies suggest that generic beliefs about groups are more central than statistical beliefs to the cognitive structure of stereotypes. (PsycINFO Database Record