The story of 'us' is the story of 'me': A cross-sectional test of the influence of insecure attachment on narratives of romantic transgressions and high points.

Narratives play an important role in the development of the self-identity. Romantic relationships offer a powerful context in which to develop these narratives about the self through the good and the bad experiences people have with their partners. However, the stories we tell can also be colored by how we already see ourselves. In a secondary analysis, using a prospective longitudinal study of people in established romantic relationships (N = 402), we tested pre-registered hypotheses regarding how attachment anxiety and avoidance lead people to develop narratives about their relationship high-points and transgressions, and whether these narratives influence their relationship satisfaction over time. Relatively higher avoidance, but not anxiety, was related to narrative construction. Those relatively higher in avoidance made more negative event connections about themselves in their transgression narratives, and more positive event connections about themselves in their relationship high-point narratives. Narrative content, however, did not mediate the association between attachment anxiety and avoidance and relationship satisfaction. Despite the lack of support for some of our pre-registered hypotheses, these findings provide valuable insights into how insecure attachment influences the stories people tell about their relationships, and how they link these events back to the self.

People perceive parasocial relationships to be effective at fulfilling emotional needs.

People regularly form one-sided, "parasocial" relationships (PSRs) with targets incapable of returning the sentiment. Past work has shown that people engage with PSRs to support complex psychological needs (e.g., feeling less lonely after watching a favorite movie). However, we do not know how people rate these relationships relative to traditional two-sided relationships in terms of their effectiveness in supporting psychological needs. The current research (Ntotal = 3085) examined how PSRs help people fulfil emotion regulation needs. In Studies 1 and 2, participants felt that both their YouTube creator and non-YouTube creator PSRs were more effective at fulfilling their emotional needs than in-person acquaintances, albeit less effective than close others. In Study 3, people with high self-esteem thought PSRs would be responsive to their needs when their sociometer was activated, just as they do with two-sided relationships.

Just One Shot? The Contextual Effects of Matched and Unmatched Intoxication on Perceptions of Consent in Ambiguous Alcohol-fueled Sexual Encounters.

The current research examined how contextual factors-the quantity of alcohol consumed by each partner, and whether this quantity matched-influenced how alcohol-fueled sexual encounters were perceived with regard to consent, coercion, sexual assault, and perceived responsibility of the focal partner for the outcome of the encounter. Across four studies (Ntotal = 535), participants read vignettes in which one person described a sexual encounter they had following a night out drinking. These scenarios differed within studies as a function of quantified alcohol consumed (1 shot; 15 shots) and whether both people in the vignettes consumed the same amount of alcohol (matched; unmatched). They also differed between studies as a function of whether the couples described were mixed gender or same gender. Across all four studies, scenarios in which both people in the scenario consumed different quantities of alcohol (i.e., 15 vs. 1 shot) were seen as less consensual, more coercive, and more likely to be an assault compared to scenarios where consumption was matched, especially at lower levels of intoxication (i.e., 1 shot each vs. 15 shots each). However, focal partners were also seen as less responsible for the outcome of the interaction when levels of intoxication were unmatched compared to matched. This pattern replicated across scenarios depicting same-gender and mixed-gender couples. These findings suggest that people prioritize information regarding whether sexual partners are "matched" or "unmatched" in terms of their intoxication when evaluating whether ambiguous sexual encounters are consensual and perceived individual responsibility.

Pursuing safety in social connection regulates the risk-regulation, social-safety, and behavioral-immune systems.

A new goal-systems model is proposed to help explain when individuals will protect themselves against the risks inherent to social connection. This model assumes that people satisfy the goal to feel included in safe social connections-connections where they are valued and protected rather than at risk of being harmed-by devaluing rejecting friends, trusting in expectancy-consistent relationships, and avoiding infectious strangers. In the hypothesized goal system, frustrating the fundamental goal to feel safe in social connection sensitizes regulatory systems that afford safety from the risk of being interpersonally rejected (i.e., the risk-regulation system), existentially uncertain (i.e., the social-safety system), or physically infected (i.e., the behavioral-immune system). Conversely, fulfilling the fundamental goal to feel safe in social connection desensitizes these self-protective systems. A 3-week experimental daily diary study (N = 555) tested the model hypotheses. We intervened to fulfill the goal to feel safe in social connection by repeatedly conditioning experimental participants to associate their romantic partners with highly positive, approachable words and images. We then tracked how vigilantly experimental versus control participants protected themselves when they encountered social rejection, unexpected behavior, or contagious illness in everyday life. Multilevel analyses revealed that the intervention lessoned self-protective defenses against each of these risks for participants who ordinarily felt most vulnerable to them. The findings provide the first evidence that the fundamental goal to feel safe in social connection can co-opt the risk-regulation, social-safety, and behavioral-immune systems as independent means for its pursuit. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Home is Where the Heart is: Implications of Dyadic Acculturation for Migrant Couples' Personal and Relational Well-Being.

Acculturation-the process through which people adopt the sociocultural values of their heritage and settlement cultures-is a complex experience, particularly within family structures. Although the consequences of acculturation gaps between parents and children have been studied extensively, the consequences for migrant couples are often overlooked. We propose that acculturation gaps in migrant couples are likely detrimental for personal and relational well-being. To test this, a study of 118 migrant couples with the same heritage culture and now living in the United Kingdom was conducted. Acculturation gaps in our studies were conceptualized as both within person and within couple, and their impact on personal well-being and relationship quality was tested using Actor-Partner Interdependence Model (APIM). Results suggest that although within-couple acculturation gaps negatively impacted personal well-being, they were not necessarily harmful to relationship quality. Interestingly, within-person acculturation gaps had dyadic consequences, with one person specifically contributing to their partner's personal well-being.

Parasocial relationships on YouTube reduce prejudice towards mental health issues.

Intergroup contact has long been established as a way to reduce prejudice among society, but in-person interventions can be resource intensive and limited in reach. Parasocial relationships (PSRs) might navigate these problems by reaching large audiences with minimal resources and have been shown to help reduce prejudice in an extended version of contact theory. However, previous studies have shown inconsistent success. We assessed whether parasocial interventions reduce prejudice towards people with mental health issues by first creating a new PSR with a YouTube creator disclosing their experiences with borderline personality disorder. Our intervention successfully reduced explicit prejudice and intergroup anxiety. We corroborated these effects through causal analyses, where lower prejudice levels were mediated by the strength of parasocial bond. Preliminary findings suggest that this lower prejudice is sustained over time. Our results support the parasocial contact hypothesis and provide an organic method to passively reduce prejudice on a large scale.

How do face masks impact communication amongst deaf/HoH people?

Face coverings have been key in reducing the spread of COVID-19. At the same time, they have hindered interpersonal communication, particularly for those who rely on speechreading to aid communication. The available research indicated that deaf/hard of hearing (HoH) people experienced great difficulty communicating with people wearing masks and negative effects on wellbeing. Here we extended these findings by exploring which factors predict deaf/HoH people's communication difficulties, loss of information, and wellbeing. We also explored the factors predicting perceived usefulness of transparent face coverings and alternative ways of communicating. We report the findings from an accessible survey study, released in two written and three signed languages. Responses from 395 deaf/HoH UK and Spanish residents were collected online at a time when masks were mandatory. We investigated whether onset and level of deafness, knowledge of sign language, speechreading fluency, and country of residence predicted communication difficulties, wellbeing, and degree to which transparent face coverings were considered useful. Overall, deaf/HoH people and their relatives used masks most of the time despite greater communication difficulties. Late-onset deaf people were the group that experienced more difficulties in communication, and also reported lower wellbeing. However, both early- and late-onset deaf people reported missing more information and feeling more disconnected from society than HoH people. Finally, signers valued transparent face shields more positively than non-signers. The latter suggests that, while seeing the lips is positive to everyone, signers appreciate seeing the whole facial expression. Importantly, our data also revealed the importance of visual communication other than speechreading to facilitate face-to-face interactions.

It Happened to a Friend of Mine: The Influence of Perspective-taking on the Acknowledgment of Sexual Assault Following Ambiguous Sexual Encounters.

Failure to acknowledge that one has been the victim of sexual violence is an important, yet understudied, barrier that prevents women from seeking appropriate support following sexual violence. Drawing from a literature of demonstrating the benefits of self-distancing when evaluating emotionally charged personal information, the effects of self-distancing on acknowledgment of sexual assault were tested. Four experimental studies (Ntotal = 1,609) manipulated perspective-taking, either by asking women to imagine a series of hypothetical sexual encounters as experiences that happened to themselves or to their friends, or by asking women to describe a sexual experience from a first- or third-person perspective. Findings from the studies suggest that taking another person's perspective can help women to label ambiguous sexual experiences as more inappropriate and coercive. Notably, this did not seem to stem from women downplaying or dismissing experiences when they imagined themselves, as they reported anticipating more negative and less positive emotions in the scenarios where they imagined themselves compared to a friend. Nonetheless, in spite of the stronger anticipated negative emotional response when imagining themselves, women were less open to information about resources associated with sexual assault and support when they imagined themselves compared to a friend. This pattern of findings replicated for own, past sexual experiences but only to the extent that women spontaneously engaged in distanced perspective-taking themselves. This research suggests in addition to using contextual information to disambiguate and determine whether a sexual experience was inappropriate, taking a distanced perspective might provide a route through which women can come to terms with the experience and open up to the use of community-based services and sexual assault resources.

Hand-in-hand in the golden years: Cognitive interdependence, partner involvement in retirement planning, and the transition into retirement.

This research examined the influence of cognitive interdependence-a mental state reflecting a collective representation of the self-in-relationship-on the anticipation for and experiences with the transition into retirement. Among soon-to-be retirees (Study 1), greater cognitive interdependence was associated with seeing partners as more instrumental to one's goals both pre- and post-retirement, anticipating greater goal alignment post-retirement, and having directly involved partners in retirement planning to a greater extent than those relatively lower in cognitive interdependence. Among recent retirees (Study 2), retrospective cognitive interdependence was associated with post-retirement goal alignment and goal instrumentality, and the extent to which they believed they had directly involved their partners in retirement planning. However, it was post-retirement goal alignment that was associated with greater ease of retirement and subjective well-being. Finally, soon-to-be retirees relatively high in cognitive interdependence responded to concerns about their retirement (i.e., goal discordance and high retirement ambivalence) by wanting to involve their partners in their retirement plans to a greater extent (Study 3). These studies highlight the importance of romantic partners across the lifespan, and how partners might influence retirement planning, the transition to retirement, and well-being among recent retirees.

Facing the Facets: No Association Between Dispositional Mindfulness Facets and Positive Momentary Stress Responses During Active Stressors.

Mindfulness has been associated with enhanced coping with stress. However, it remains unclear how dispositional mindfulness impacts the nature and valence of experiences during active stressors. Across 1,001 total participants, we used cardiovascular responses from the biopsychosocial model of challenge/threat to assess the degree to which individuals cared about a stressor in the moment and had a positive versus negative psychological experience. Although we found a small association between mindfulness-particularly the acting with awareness facet-and responses consistent with caring more about the stressor (i.e., greater task engagement), we found no evidence that mindfulness was associated with exhibiting a more positive psychological response (i.e., greater challenge) during the stressor. Despite no differences in the valence of momentary experiences as a function of mindfulness, individuals higher in mindfulness self-reported more positive experiences afterward. These findings suggest that dispositional mindfulness may benefit responses to active stressors only after they have passed.

Is satisficing really satisfying? Satisficers exhibit greater threat than maximizers during choice overload.

When selecting from too many options (i.e., choice overload), maximizers (people who search exhaustively to make decisions that are optimal) report more negative post-decisional evaluations of their choices than do satisficers (people who search minimally to make decisions that are sufficient). Although ample evidence exists for differences in responses after-the-fact, little is known about possible divergences in maximizers' and satisficers' experiences during choice overload. Thus, using the biopsychosocial model of challenge/threat, we examined 128 participants' cardiovascular responses as they actively made a selection from many options. Specifically, we focused on cardiovascular responses assessing the degree to which individuals (a) viewed their decisions as valuable/important and (b) viewed themselves as capable (vs. incapable) of making a good choice. Although we found no differences in terms of the value individuals placed on their decisions (i.e., cardiovascular responses of task engagement), satisficers-compared to maximizers-exhibited cardiovascular responses consistent with feeling less capable of making their choice (i.e., greater relative threat). The current work provides a novel investigation of the nature of differences in maximizers'/satisficers' momentary choice overload experiences, suggesting insight into why they engage in such distinct search behaviors.

The social-safety system: Fortifying relationships in the face of the unforeseeable.

A model of the social-safety system is proposed to explain how people sustain a sense of safety in the relational world when they are not able to foresee the behavior of others. In this model, people can escape the acute anxiety posed by agents in their personal relational world behaving unexpectedly (e.g., spouse, child) by defensively imposing well-intentioned motivations on the agents controlling their sociopolitical relational world (e.g., President, Congress). Conversely, people can escape the acute anxiety posed by sociopolitical agents behaving unexpectedly by defensively imposing well-intentioned motivations on the agents controlling their personal relational world. Two daily diary studies, a longitudinal study of the 2018 midterm election, and a 3-year longitudinal study of newlyweds supported the hypotheses. On a daily basis, people who were less certain they could trust their romantic partner defended against acutely unforeseeable behavior in one relational world by affirming faith in the well-intentioned motivations of agents in the alternate world. Moreover, when people were more in the personal daily habit of finding safety in the alternate relational world in the face of the unexpected, those who were initially uncertain they could trust their romantic partner later evidenced greater comfort depending on their personal relationship partners. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Clever girl: Benevolent sexism and cardiovascular threat.

Benevolent sexism is a double-edged sword that uses praise to maintain gender inequality, which consequently makes women feel less efficacious, agentic and competent. This study investigated whether benevolently sexist feedback that was supportive could result in cardiovascular responses indicative of threat (lower cardiac output/higher total peripheral resistance). Women received either supportive non-sexist or supportive yet benevolent sexist feedback from a male evaluator following practice trials on a verbal reasoning test. As expected, women receiving benevolent sexist feedback exhibited cardiovascular threat during a subsequent test, relative to women receiving non-sexist feedback. There was no support for an alternative hypothesis that benevolent sexist feedback would lead to cardiovascular responses consistent with disengaging from the task altogether (i.e., lower heart rate and ventricular contractility). These findings illustrate that the consequences of benevolent sexism can occur spontaneously, while women are engaged with a task, and when the sexist feedback is intended as supportive.

Too many fish in the sea: A motivational examination of the choice overload experience.

Evidence supports that being overwhelmed by many choice options predicts negative consequences. However, there is uncertainty regarding the effects of choice overload on two key motivational dimensions: (1) the extent to which people view their decision as subjectively valuable (versus not), and (2) the extent to which people view themselves as capable (versus incapable) of reaching a good decision. While evaluating their options and while deciding, we assessed theory-based cardiovascular responses reflecting these dimensions. A meta-analysis across two experiments found that participants who made a final selection from many options-relative to those who chose from few or rated many-exhibited cardiovascular responses consistent with greater task engagement (i.e., perceiving greater subjective value), as well as greater threat (i.e., perceiving fewer resources to manage situational demands). The current work suggests a novel motivational account of choice overload, providing insight into the nature and timing of this experience as it occurs.

Implicitly imprinting the past on the present: Automatic partner attitudes and the transition to parenthood.

A new model is proposed to explain how automatic partner attitudes affect how couples cope with major life transitions. The automatic partner attitudes in transition (APAT) model assumes that people simultaneously possess contextualized automatic attitudes toward their partner that can differ substantively in valence pre- and posttransition. It further assumes that evaluatively inconsistent pre- and posttransition automatic partner attitudes elicit heightened behavioral angst or uncertainty, self-protective behavior in response to risk, and relationship distress. A longitudinal study of the transition to first parenthood supported the model. People with evaluatively inconsistent automatic partner attitudes, whether more negative pretransition and positive posttransition, or more positive pretransition and negative posttransition, exhibited heightened evidence of cardiovascular threat discussing conflicts, increased self-protective behavior in response to parenting-related transgressions in daily interaction, and steeper declines in relationship well-being in the year following the transition to parenthood. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Romantic relationships as shared reality defense.

A model of meaning maintenance in relationships is proposed to explain how relationships function to regulate threats to shared systems of meaning posed by life's capricious and unexpected events. This model assumes that people flexibility compensate for unexpected events in the world by affirming the expected in their relationship and compensate for unexpected events in the relationship by affirming the expected in the world. Supportive evidence is reviewed that reveals how people in more or less satisfying relationships flexibly maintain a sense of life's meaning in the face of unexpected events.

In defense of commitment: The curative power of violated expectations.

A new model of commitment defense in romantic relationships is proposed. It assumes that relationships afford a central resource for affirming meaning and purpose in the world. Consequently, violating expectations about the world outside the relationship can precipitate commitment defense inside the relationship. A meta-analysis of 5 experiments, 2 follow-up correlational studies, and a longitudinal study of the transition to first parenthood supported the model. Experimentally violating conventional expectations about the world (e.g., "hard work pays off") motivated less satisfied people to defensively affirm their commitment. Similarly, when becoming a parent naturalistically violated culturally conditioned gendered expectations about the division of household labor, less satisfied new mothers and fathers defensively affirmed their commitment from pre-to-post baby. The findings suggest that violating expected associations in the world outside the relationship motivates vulnerable people to set relationship their relationship right, thereby affirming expected associations in the relationship in the face of an unexpected world. (PsycINFO Database Record