John E. Lydon

The Differential Effects of Intrinsic and Identified Motivation on Well-Being and Performance: Prospective, Experimental, and Implicit Approaches to Self-Determination Theory

Self-determination theory research has demonstrated that intrinsic and identified self-regulations are associated with successful adaptation. However, few distinctions are typically made between these regulations and their outcomes. In the present studies, the associations between intrinsic and identified motivations and outcomes of psychological well-being and academic performance are compared in educational settings. In Study 1, intrinsic self-regulation predicted psychological well-being, independent of academic performance. In contrast, identified regulation predicted academic performance. Additionally, the more that students demonstrated an identified academic regulation, the more that their psychological well-being was contingent on performance. In Study 2a, priming intrinsic self-regulation led to greater psychological well-being 10 days later. In Study 2b, an implicit measure of identified regulation predicted academic performance 6 weeks later. Results indicate the need to address important distinctions between intrinsic and identified regulations.

Stress Pathways to Spontaneous Preterm Birth: The Role of Stressors, Psychological Distress, and Stress Hormones

The authors investigated a large number of stressors and measures of psychological distress in a multicenter, prospective cohort study of spontaneous preterm birth among 5,337 Montreal (Canada)-area women who delivered from October 1999 to April 2004. In addition, a nested case-control analysis (207 cases, 444 controls) was used to explore potential biologic pathways by analyzing maternal plasma corticotrophin-releasing hormone (CRH), placental histopathology, and (in a subset) maternal hair cortisol. Among the large number of stress and distress measures studied, only pregnancy-related anxiety was consistently and independently associated with spontaneous preterm birth (for values above the median, adjusted odds ratio = 1.8 (95% confidence interval: 1.3, 2.4)), with a dose-response relation across quartiles. The maternal plasma CRH concentration was significantly higher in cases than in controls in crude analyses but not after adjustment (for concentrations above the median, adjusted odds ratio = 1.1 (95% confidence interval: 0.8, 1.6)). In the subgroup (n = 117) of participants with a sufficient maternal hair sample, hair cortisol was positively associated with gestational age. Neither maternal plasma CRH, hair cortisol, nor placental histopathologic features of infection/inflammation, infarction, or maternal vasculopathy were significantly associated with pregnancy-related anxiety or any other stress or distress measure. The biologic pathways underlying stress-induced preterm birth remain poorly understood.

Bias and Accuracy in Close Relationships: An Integrative Review

Intimates typically are positively biased in their relationship evaluations. Given this fact, how can intimates regulate their esteem needs about their relationships and still function effectively, without risking later regret and disappointment? We address this issue by first reviewing work showing that because bias and accuracy are independent, they can co-exist. We next show how bias and accuracy are subject to different evaluative motives, relationship evaluations, and situations. It is argued that the pursuit of important goals is a time when people are motivated to feel good about their relationships. This is a time when relationship judgments are positively biased and relatively inaccurate. However, important choice points in the relationship are times when people are motivated to both accurately understand their relationships and to feel good about their relationships. These dual needs can be simultaneously met by becoming more accurate in epistemic-related relationship judgments while being more positively biased in esteem-related relationship judgments.

Effects of oxytocin on recollections of maternal care and closeness

Although the infant–caregiver attachment bond is critical to survival, little is known about the biological mechanisms supporting attachment representations in humans. Oxytocin plays a key role in attachment bond formation and maintenance in animals and thus could be expected to affect attachment representations in humans. To investigate this possibility, we administered 24 IU intranasal oxytocin to healthy male adults in a double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover designed study and then assessed memories of childhood maternal care and closeness—two features of the attachment bond. We found that the effects of oxytocin were moderated by the attachment representations people possess, with less anxiously attached individuals remembering their mother as more caring and close after oxytocin (vs. placebo) but more anxiously attached individuals remembering their mother as less caring and close after oxytocin (vs. placebo). These data contrast with the popular notion that oxytocin has broad positive effects on social perception and are more consistent with the animal literature, which emphasizes oxytocins role in encoding social memories and linking those memories to the reward value of the social stimulus.

Global and specific relational models in the experience of social interactions.

Two studies demonstrated that global and relationship-specific models of self and other are correlated but not redundant constructs. Relationship-specific models were operationalized in terms of significant role relationships (Study 1) and salient relationships (i.e., frequent interactions; Study 2). Longitudinal analyses (Study 1) suggested that specific models generalized to global ones over time and that global models had a small but significant effect in shaping specific models over time. Through an event-sampling method, Study 2 assessed the quality and intimacy of daily interactions over a 7-day period. In hierarchical linear modeling analyses, both global and specific relational models explained the experience of daily interactions within relationships. This research highlighted that relational or attachment models can be considered global and specific representational structures, reflecting relational and individual differences.

Relational sexual scripts and women's condom use: The importance of internalized norms

Three studies were conducted to explore the impact of scripted sociosexual norms on womens contraceptive behavior. In Study 1, scripts of an initial sexual encounter written by 36 female and 30 male undergraduates were analyzed for relational orientation. Women portrayed the female character as more relational than the male character. Scripts including condom use were less relational than those without condom use. In Study 2, a Relational Ideal factor from an Ideal Sexual Self Scale was obtained from the responses of 272 female participants. The Relational Ideal was used in Study 3 to predict contraceptive attitudes and behavior in 62 undergraduate women. Endorsement of the Relational Ideal, controlling for sexual attitudes, was associated with less positive attitudes towards condoms, lesser likelihood of condom use during last intercourse, and greater latency to obtaining contraceptives in relationships. These results are discussed with respect to the incorporation of condoms into relational scripts, an...

The Commitment Calibration Hypothesis: When Do People Devalue Attractive Alternatives?

The authors theorized that adversity elicits relationship maintenance responses when level of adversity is calibrated with level of commitment. To test this, the authors examined the commitment-devaluation effect: Those committed to a close relationship are thought to devalue attractive alternatives. Two levels of adversity were operationalized. Participants evaluated an attractive alternative (moderate threat), or participants evaluated the same target after learning that the target was attracted to them (high threat). Unmarried and low on a relationship commitment scale was considered low commitment; unmarried but high or married but low on the scale were considered moderately committed. Finally married and high on the scale was considered high commitment. Under moderate threat, moderately committed rated the alternative as less attractive than those low and high in commitment. Under high threat, those high in commitment rated the alternative as less attractive than those low and moderately committed. Gender differences and comparisons with single people were examined.

Close Relationships and the Working Self-Concept: Implicit and Explicit Effects of Priming Attachment on Agency and Communion

Two studies investigated how contextually activating attachment relationships influences the working self-concept in terms of agency and communion. In Study 1, 245 participants were primed with a secure, avoidant, or anxious-ambivalent relationship and the implicit accessibility of agency and communion was assessed using word fragments. Activating a secure relationship increased the accessibility of communion, whereas activating an anxious-ambivalent relationship increased the accessibility of agency. In Study 2, 123 participants were primed with a secure, preoccupied, avoidant-dismissive, or avoidant-fearful relationship and explicit self-perceptions of agency and communion traits were assessed using the Extended Personality Attributes Questionnaire (EPAQ). Gender interacted with the attachment prime, such that men primed with a secure relationship reported higher communion than did men primed with an avoidant (dis-missive or fearful) relationship, whereas women primed with an anxious (preoccupied or fearful) relationship reported higher agency than did women primed with a secure relationship.

Devaluation Versus Enhancement of Attractive Alternatives: A Critical Test Using the Calibration Paradigm

The calibration paradigm was used to test the competing hypotheses that (a) commitment motivates unduly negative evaluations of attractive alternatives (devaluation) versus (b) low commitment motivates exaggerated positive evaluations of attractive alternatives (enhancement). Single participants and dating participants low and high in relationship commitment were presented with an attractive, available person of the opposite sex and asked to judge the person’s romantic appeal from their own perspective or from the perspective of their friends. Contrary to predictions based on the enhancement hypothesis, single and low-commitment participants did not provide higher ratings from their own perspective. In support of devaluation and calibration hypotheses, committed participants did provide lower ratings from their own perspective. Singles did not rate the target less attractive in a third condition in which the target was unavailable. However, dating participants, regardless of commitment level, rated the unavailable alternative negatively, consistent with social comparison processes and interdependence theory.

Coping with moral commitment to long-distance dating relationships

The uncertainty of relationship transitions should elicit more elaborate cognitive processing about ones relationship. As a result, reports of a type of relationship commitment distinctive from satisfaction-moral commitment-might be obtained from those about to begin long distance relationships. Students assessed prior to the academic year reported 2 types of commitment: moral and enthusiastic. Moral commitment was highly correlated with the meaning of the relationship and investment in the relationship, whereas enthusiastic commitment was highly correlated with satisfaction. Moral (but not enthusiastic) commitment predicted the subsequent survival of the relationship. Moral commitment also predicted appraisals of increased investment in and meaning of the relationship by the end of the term. Finally, moral commitment predicted negative affect and illness symptoms for those whose relationships ended. For people remaining in relationships, a new construct of moral burden emerged at Time 2. Burden was related to relationship dissatisfaction and stress and predicted the initiation of a subsequent breakup.