Kenneth D. Locke

The Attractive Female Body Weight and Female Body Dissatisfaction in 26 Countries Across 10 World Regions: Results of the International Body Project I

This study reports results from the first International Body Project (IBP-I), which surveyed 7,434 individuals in 10 major world regions about body weight ideals and body dissatisfaction. Participants completed the female Contour Drawing Figure Rating Scale (CDFRS) and self-reported their exposure to Western and local media. Results indicated there were significant cross-regional differences in the ideal female figure and body dissatisfaction, but effect sizes were small across high-socioeconomic-status (SES) sites. Within cultures, heavier bodies were preferred in low-SES sites compared to high-SES sites in Malaysia and South Africa (ds = 1.94-2.49) but not in Austria. Participant age, body mass index (BMI), and Western media exposure predicted body weight ideals. BMI and Western media exposure predicted body dissatisfaction among women. Our results show that body dissatisfaction and desire for thinness is commonplace in high-SES settings across world regions, highlighting the need for international attention to this problem.

Circumplex Scales of Interpersonal Values: Reliability, Validity, and Applicability to Interpersonal Problems and Personality Disorders

Three studies describe the development, psychometric properties, and potential utility of a new self-report measure, the Circumplex Scales of Interpersonal Values (CSIV). The CSIV was designed to complement other interpersonal circumplex measures that assess interpersonal behavior by efficiently assessing a comprehensive set of agentic and communal values. The eight 8-item scales of the CSIV were shown to have good internal consistency and test-retest reliability and a circumplex structure. The CSIV showed convergent and discriminant validity with measures of interpersonal traits (the Bem Sex Role Inventory; Bem, 1974), interpersonal problems (the Inventory of Interpersonal Problems-Circumplex; Horowitz, 2000), implicit interpersonal motives (the Thematic Apperception Test; see Atkinson, 1958), and interpersonal goals (the Interpersonal Goals Inventory; Dryer & Horowitz, 1997). Finally, the locations of the MCMI-III (Millon, 1994) personality disorder scales on the CSIV circumplex generally mirrored the locations of personality disorders on other interpersonal circumplex measures.

The Influence of Attributions on the Relevance of Negative Feelings to Personal Satisfaction

This investigation examined the influence of emotional attributions on the relevance of current feelings to judgments of personal satisfaction. In the first three studies, subjects were led to make different attributions for their naturally occurring feelings and then asked to judge their personal satisfaction. Satisfaction was higher after situational and specific attributions than after general and self-referential attributions, but only in domains that were unrelated to the causes to which subjects attributed their feelings. Study 4 tested whether affective states such as emotions with clearly defined causes are less relevant to judgments of life satisfaction than more diffuse states such as moods. Satisfaction was elevated after a laboratory mood induction only when subjects were led to focus on their moods in ways characteristic of emotional states (by articulating specific causes and labels for their feelings). These studies illuminate the role of emotional attribution in judgments of personal satisfaction.

Status and Solidarity in Social Comparison: Agentic and Communal Values and Vertical and Horizontal Directions

Social comparison involves positioning the self relative to others on a vertical or status dimension (ranging from upward to downward comparisons) and a horizontal or solidarity dimension (ranging from contrastive to connective comparisons). Across 3 studies in which 389 undergraduates recorded everyday social comparisons (n = 4,417), downward and connective comparisons were rated as more helpful and mood enhancing than upward and contrastive comparisons. The effects of horizontal comparisons were greater for people for whom solidarity was an important value; however, the effects of vertical comparisons were not greater for people who valued status. The roles of the comparison target, topic, and situation were also explored; for example, noticing undesirable features of the target enhanced status but undermined solidarity.

Satisfaction in Interpersonal Interactions as a Function of Similarity in Level of Dysphoria

This study compared dysphoric and nondysphoric male and female undergraduates as they conversed with dysphoric or nondysphoric undergraduates of the same sex. Subjects rated their satisfaction with the conversation after each turn. The results showed that people in homogeneous dyads (i.e., both partners were dysphoric or both partners were nondysphoric) were more satisfied with the interaction, and their satisfaction increased as the conversation proceeded. People in mixed dyads were less satisfied, perceived each other as colder, and spoke about increasingly negative topics. Thus, in accord with other research showing that similarity leads to liking, the crucial determinant of interactional satisfaction was neither the mood of the subject nor the mood of the partner, but their similarity in mood.

Self-Efficacy, Values, and Complementarity in Dyadic Interactions: Integrating Interpersonal and Social-Cognitive Theory

Dyadic interactions were analyzed using constructs from social-cognitive theory (self-efficacy and subjective values) and interpersonal theory (interpersonal circumplex [IPC] and complementarity). In Study 1, the authors developed a measure of efficacy for interpersonal actions associated with each IPC region—the Circumplex Scales of Interpersonal Efficacy (CSIE). In Study 2, the authors used the CSIE and the Circumplex Scales of Interpersonal Values (which assesses the subjective value of interpersonal events associated with each IPC region) to predict the dominance expressed and satisfaction experienced by members of 101 same-sex dyads trying to solve a murder mystery. Structural equation modeling analyses supported both social-cognitive and interpersonal theory. A social-cognitive person-variable (dominance efficacy) and an interpersonal dyadic-variable (reciprocity) together predicted dominant behaviors. Likewise, both a social-cognitive variable (friendliness values) and an interpersonal variable (correspondence of friendliness efficacy) predicted satisfaction. Finally, both shared performance outcomes and dynamic interpersonal processes predicted convergence of collective efficacy beliefs within dyads.

Need Satisfaction and Well-Being Testing Self-Determination Theory in Eight Cultures

According to Self-Determination Theory (SDT), satisfaction of needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness is a universal requirement for psychological well-being. We tested this hypothesis with college students in the United States, Australia, Mexico, Venezuela, the Philippines, Malaysia, China, and Japan. Participants rated the extent to which these needs, plus needs for self-actualization and pleasure-stimulation, were satisfied in various roles and reported their general hedonic (i.e., positive and negative affect) and eudaimonic (e.g., meaning in life, personal growth) well-being. Asian participants averaged lower than non-Asian participants in perceived satisfaction of autonomy, competence, and self-actualization needs and in most aspects of eudaimonic well-being, and these differences were partially accounted for by differences in dialecticism and independent self-construals. Nonetheless, perceived need satisfaction predicted overall well-being to a similar degree in all cultures and in most cultures provided incremental prediction beyond the Big Five traits. Perceived imbalance in the satisfaction of different needs also modestly predicted well-being, particularly negative affect. The study extended support for the universal importance of SDT need satisfaction to several new cultures.

Agency and Communion in Naturalistic Social Comparison

The authors suggest that social comparison research has neglected communal feelings and concerns because it typically asks participants to compare objective characteristics that invite evaluative rankings (e.g., test scores) with acquaintances or strangers without any interaction. The authors asked 138 undergraduates to record their spontaneous social comparisons for 1 week; they found that participants often compared subjective characteristics (e.g., feelings), with close others, and during interactions. Comparing subjective characteristics, with close others, or during interactions increased the likelihood of communal outcomes (e.g., feeling connected, focusing on similarities as opposed to differences). Communal traits also predicted feeling connected during comparisons; agentic traits predicted feeling confident and comparing downward. The authors conclude that the basic interpersonal axes—agency and communion— together shape social comparisons as they occur in daily life.

Self-derogations and the interpersonal theory.

The interpersonal theory of personality has been applied to explain depressed peoples dilemma: The depressed persons submissive behavior invites dominating reactions from other people, and those reactions sustain the depressed persons depression. Experiments 1 and 2 showed that self-derogations connote submissiveness but are generally judged to be neutral in affiliation. Experiment 3 tested implications for the behavior of dysphoric and nondysphoric Ss as they interacted with a self-derogating, other-derogating, or nonderogating confederate partner. Ss selected a topic from a list and talked about it for 1 min: the confederates script was fixed. The Ss judgments of the confederate, choice of topics, satisfaction with the interaction, and actual responses were analyzed. Self-derogators were judged to be submissive, elicited dominating reactions, and selected more topics with negative content.

Insecure attachment predicts ambivalent social threat and reward perceptions in romantic relationships

Although theoretical perspectives on adult attachment forward relational ambivalence as a defining characteristic of at least some forms of insecurity, work demonstrating an ambivalent structure to the relational attitudes of insecure individuals has been rare. The current research examines the similarity and intensity of perceptions of social threat (i.e., concerns over rejection) and social reward (i.e., opportunities for intimacy) in romantic relationships. Using a sample of 1004 participants, evidence for relational ambivalence was found for both anxious and avoidant attachment. Individuals high in anxious attachment reported relatively similar and intense threat and reward perceptions, whereas individuals high in avoidant attachment showed evidence of similar, but not intense, threat and reward perceptions. Thus, the weighing of prospects for rejection and intimacy in romantic relationships arguably leads to what researchers traditionally think of as ambivalence for those high in attachment anxiety, but something more akin to indifference for those high in attachment avoidance. More broadly, this work provides a set of tools and methods for carefully examining ambivalence in close relationships.