Gul Gunaydin

Mental Representations of Attachment Figures Facilitate Recovery Following Upsetting Autobiographical Memory Recall

A growing literature shows that even the symbolic presence of an attachment figure facilitates the regulation of negative affect triggered by external stressors. Yet, in daily life, pernicious stressors are often internally generated--recalling an upsetting experience reliably increases negative affect, rumination, and susceptibility to physical and psychological health problems. The present research provides the first systematic examination of whether activating the mental representation of an attachment figure enhances the regulation of affect triggered by thinking about upsetting memories. Using 2 different techniques for priming attachment figure representations and 2 types of negative affect measures (explicit and implicit), activating the mental representation of an attachment figure (vs. an acquaintance or stranger) after recalling an upsetting memory enhanced recovery--eliminating the negative effects of the memory recall (Studies 1-3). In contrast, activating the mental representation of an attachment figure before recalling an upsetting memory had no such effect (Studies 1 and 2). Furthermore, activating the mental representation of an attachment figure after thinking about upsetting memories reduced negative thinking in a stream of consciousness task, and the magnitude of the attachment-induced affective recovery effects as assessed with explicit affect measures predicted mental and physical health in daily life (Study 3). Finally, a meta-analysis of the 3 studies (Study 4) showed that the regulatory benefits conferred by the mental representation of an attachment figure were weaker for individuals high on attachment avoidance. The implications of these findings for attachment, emotion regulation, and mental and physical health are discussed.

Does Partner Responsiveness Predict Hedonic and Eudaimonic Well-being? A 10-Year Longitudinal Study

Motivated by attachment theory and recent conceptualizations of perceived partner responsiveness as a core feature of close relationships, the present study examined change in hedonic and eudaimonic well-being over a decade in a sample of more than 2,000 married adults across the United States. Longitudinal analyses revealed that perceived partner responsiveness- the extent to which individuals believe that their partner cares for, appreciates, and understands them-predicted increases in eudaimonic well-being a decade later. These results remained after controlling for initial hedonic and eudaimonic well-being, age, gender, extraversion, neuroticism, and perceived responsiveness of family and friends. Affective reactivity, measured via an 8-day diary protocol in a subset of the sample, partially mediated this longitudinal association. After controlling for covariates, perceived partner responsiveness did not prospectively predict hedonic well-being. These findings are the first to document the long-term benefits of perceived partner responsiveness on eudaimonic well-being.

Impressions Based on a Portrait Predict, 1-Month Later, Impressions Following a Live Interaction

When it comes to person perception, does one “judge a book by its cover?” Perceivers made judgments of liking, and of personality, based on a photograph of an unknown other, and at least 1 month later, made judgments following a face-to-face interaction with the same person. Photograph-based liking judgments predicted interaction-based liking judgments, and, to a lesser extent, photograph-based personality judgments predicted interaction-based personality judgments (except for extraversion). Consistency in liking judgments (1) partly reflected behavioral confirmation (i.e., perceivers with favorable photograph-based judgments behaved more warmly toward the target during the live interaction, which elicited greater target warmth); (2) explained, at least in part, consistency in personality judgments (reflecting a halo effect); and (3) remained robust even after controlling for perceiver effects, target effects, and perceived attractiveness. These findings support the view that even after having “read a book,” one still, to some extent, judges it by its “cover.”

Trait Reappraisal Predicts Affective Reactivity to Daily Positive and Negative Events.

Past research on emotion regulation has provided evidence that cognitive reappraisal predicts reactivity to affective stimuli and challenge tests in laboratory settings. However, little is known about how trait reappraisal might contribute to affective reactivity to everyday positive and negative events. Using a large, life-span sample of adults (N = 1755), the present study addressed this important gap in the literature. Respondents completed a measure of trait reappraisal and reported on their daily experiences of positive and negative events and positive and negative affect for eight consecutive days. Results showed that trait reappraisal predicted lower increases in negative affect in response to daily negative events and lower increases in positive affect in response to daily positive events. These findings advance our understanding of the role of reappraisal in emotion regulation by showing how individual differences in the use of this strategy relate to emotional reactions to both positive and negative events outside the laboratory.

Reverse correlating love: highly passionate women idealize their partner's facial appearance.

A defining feature of passionate love is idealization—evaluating romantic partners in an overly favorable light. Although passionate love can be expected to color how favorably individuals represent their partner in their mind, little is known about how passionate love is linked with visual representations of the partner. Using reverse correlation techniques for the first time to study partner representations, the present study investigated whether women who are passionately in love represent their partner’s facial appearance more favorably than individuals who are less passionately in love. In a within-participants design, heterosexual women completed two forced-choice classification tasks, one for their romantic partner and one for a male acquaintance, and a measure of passionate love. In each classification task, participants saw two faces superimposed with noise and selected the face that most resembled their partner (or an acquaintance). Classification images for each of high passion and low passion groups were calculated by averaging across noise patterns selected as resembling the partner or the acquaintance and superimposing the averaged noise on an average male face. A separate group of women evaluated the classification images on attractiveness, trustworthiness, and competence. Results showed that women who feel high (vs. low) passionate love toward their partner tend to represent his face as more attractive and trustworthy, even when controlling for familiarity effects using the acquaintance representation. Using an innovative method to study partner representations, these findings extend our understanding of cognitive processes in romantic relationships.

Patterns of perceived partner responsiveness and well-being in Japan and the United States.

Quality of marital relationships is consistently linked to personal well-being. However, almost all of the studies linking marital processes to well-being have been conducted in Western (particularly North American) countries. Growing evidence shows that perceived partner responsiveness is a central relationship process predicting well-being in Western contexts but little is known about whether this association generalizes to other countries. The present work investigated whether the predictive role of perceived partner responsiveness in well-being differs across the United States and Japan—2 contexts with contrasting views on how the self is conceptualized in relation to the social group. A large life span sample of married or long-term cohabiting adults (n = 3,079, age range = 33–83 in the United States and n = 861, age range = 30–79 in Japan) completed measures of perceived partner responsiveness, hedonic and eudaimonic well-being, and demographic (age, gender, education) and personality (extraversion and neuroticism) covariates known to predict well-being. Perceived partner responsiveness positively predicted hedonic and eudaimonic well-being both in the U.S. and in Japan. However, perceived partner responsiveness more strongly predicted both types of well-being in the United States as compared with Japan. The difference in slopes across the 2 countries was greater for eudaimonic as compared with hedonic well-being. The interaction between perceived partner responsiveness and country held even after controlling for demographic factors and personality traits. By showing that the role of perceived partner responsiveness in well-being may be influenced by cultural context, our findings contribute to achieving a more nuanced picture of the role of relationships in personal well-being.

I Have, Therefore I Love: Status Quo Preference in Mate Choice:

Decades of research indicate that individuals adhere to existing states (“status quo bias”) and value them more (“endowment effect”). The present work is the first to investigate status quo preference within the context of trade-offs in mate choice. Across seven studies (total N = 1,567), participants indicated whether they would prefer remaining with a current partner possessing a particular set of traits (e.g., high trustworthiness, low attractiveness) or switching to an alternative partner possessing opposite traits. Preference for a given trait was highest when the individual representing the status quo (one’s romantic partner or an interaction partner) possessed that trait. Concerns about hurting the partner, ambiguity avoidance, and biased construal of the partner and the alternative predicted status quo preference and disapproval of the current partner by network members eliminated this effect. These findings indicate that when it comes to matters of the heart, we tend to love what we currently have.

From an Unknown Other to an Attachment Figure: How Do Mental Representations Change as Attachments Form?

Mental representations are the building blocks that guide affect, thought, and behaviors within adult attachment relationships. To date, research has focused on how individual differences in mental representations meaningfully relate to a person’s chronic attachment style and the attachment dynamics of a specific relationship, as well as their effects on perception, behavior, physiology, well-being, and other consequential outcomes. In the present chapter, we address a fundamentally different question: How do mental representations change as two individuals develop an attachment bond in adulthood? We propose a social cognitive framework for understanding how mental representations of others and self change over time as a function of various relationship turning points and lead to the formation of a full-fledged attachment bond. We propose that the positive psychological and physical outcomes, as well as the emotion regulatory effects, observed in pair bonds occur as a result of the two people forming over time a linked or “coupled” cognitive system. This “coupled” or “interlocked” system reflects enduring changes at the level of mental representations in the minds of both individuals, including elaboration and increased chronic accessibility of the partner mental representation, increased interconnectedness between self and partner representation, and automaticity of behavioral scripts. We review literature from diverse fields, including social and cognitive psychology and neuroscience, and integrate it within this social cognitive approach. We end by identifying questions and avenues for future research.

Persistence: what does research on self-regulation and delay of gratification have to say?

Despite the simplicity of Kurzban et al.s framework, we argue that important information is lost in their simplification. We discuss research on delay of gratification and self-regulation that identifies key situational and psychological factors affecting how people represent rewards and costs. These factors affect the expected utilities of behavioral options and thus dramatically influence whether individuals persist on a difficult task.

Responsiveness as a Key Predictor of Happiness: Mechanisms and Unanswered Questions

The importance of close relationships for happiness has long been recognized. This long-held interest has produced an increase in relevant empirical work investigating the links between relationships and personal well-being in the last three decades. Recent attempts at integrating this vast body of literature suggest that responsiveness—i.e., the belief that close relationship partners understand, validate, and care for us—is a core process linking close relationships to health and happiness. In the present chapter, we review the links between responsiveness and happiness, with an emphasis on studies of marital and long-term romantic relationships. The available evidence indicates that partner responsiveness improves happiness in both negative contexts (by preserving happiness in the face of stress and adversity) and positive contexts (by augmenting and prolonging happiness induced by pleasant events and supporting the pursuit of personally meaningful goals and self-actualization). We believe that future work should build on this literature by investigating intergenerational effects of partner responsiveness on offspring happiness, comparing the roles of different social network members in happiness, examining how cultural grounding of relationships modulate the responsiveness-happiness link, and identifying the different components of responsiveness critical for happiness across cultures and developmental stages.