Gary Beck

On-Again/Off-Again Dating Relationships: What Keeps Partners Coming Back?

ABSTRACT Building on research comparing on-again/off-again (on-off) relationships to other dating relationships, the current study focused on a unique feature of these relationships—renewals. A sample of 274 participants who had experienced an on-off relationship completed a survey about why they renewed their relationships, characteristics of their breakups and renewals, and what stressors and benefits they experienced. These characteristics were used to predict the occurrence of renewals, separately as well as in multivariate analyses. In addition to lingering feelings being a predominant reason for renewals, findings suggested uncertainty about what the preceding breakup indicated, not having dated others after breakups, and feeling the on-off nature improved the relationship were all related to an increased chance of renewals. Mutual initiations of breakups, as well as reporting uncertainty about the general nature of the relationship, were also related to a decreased chance of renewals.

Contamination and Camouflage in Euphemisms

Communicators may representationally displace an unpleasant topic by avoiding direct reference to it (e.g., she died) in favor of a euphemism (shes no longer with us). How does a euphemisms displacement capacity change over its career in the vernacular? Linguists have assumed that this capacity deteriorates as euphemisms become conventional and thus “contaminated” by their association with negative referents. In contrast, communicative pragmatics theory suggests that conventionality may confer camouflage-like properties to euphemisms, enabling addressees to process them in a mindless fashion. We report two studies investigating these divergent theoretical accounts. Study 1 explored the relationship between perceptions of euphemisms’ familiarity and politeness. Study 2 examined the attributional consequences of conventional and unconventional euphemistic encodings of an ostensibly taboo topic. Our results contradict the associative contamination hypothesis and comport with the camouflage hypothesis.

Positive Communication and Human Needs: A Review and Proposed Organizing Conceptual Framework

Drawing on research in positive psychology, this review examines emerging research on positive communication and proposes a new organizing conceptual framework using hierarchies of human needs. The conceptual framework draws on psychological and economic models of human needs to frame positive communication as message processes that facilitate human needs-satisfaction as contrasted to the dark side of communication as message processes that inhibit needs-satisfaction. The proposed conceptual framework expands the study of positive communication by calling attention to its vital role in assisting individuals, groups, and organizations to reach the heights of their potentialities. An agenda for future positive communication research is offered.

Memorable Messages as Sources of Hope

Based on hope theory, this study examined potential links between hope and memorable messages. Using qualitative methods, the authors coded the content and form of memorable messages in three domains: academics, relationships, and finances. Quantitative analysis then tested if the memorable message characteristics of positivity and efficacy were associated with dispositional and domain-specific hope. Consistent with predictions, participants with higher dispositional hope reported more positive and efficacious messages across message domains. Hierarchical regression analysis suggested that the agency, but not the pathways, dimension of dispositional hope predicted message positivity and efficacy. Regression results also indicated that participants with higher domain-specific pathways reported more efficacious memorable messages.

Surviving Involuntary Unemployment Together: The Role of Resilience-Promoting Communication in Familial and Committed Relationships

ABSTRACT Involuntary unemployment is an unfortunate circumstance not only for those without meaningful work, but also for families, family relationships, and committed long-term relationships. To explore the role that communication plays in helping family partners demonstrate resilience (i.e., competence and adaptation throughout the experience of a stressor), while dealing with involuntary unemployment, the current study surveyed a sample of 111 recently unemployed, relationally involved participants. The majority of these participants self-reported as married (40.6%) or indicated serious commitment (38.6%) with their relational partner. Communication strategies perceived as contributing to resilience with their partner were measured as Resilience-Promoting Communication (RPC). Bootstrapping mediation analysis determined that RPC dimensions emphasizing respect/harmony, partnership and tension release contributed to mediation of the relationship between feelings about job loss on relational satisfaction and commitment. In addition, respect/harmony moderated the relationship between both unemployment affect and commitment and satisfaction. Civility moderated the relationship between unemployment affect and satisfaction. Implications of these findings for theory and for families dealing with unemployment are discussed.