Mark T. Morman

The measurement of affectionate communication

Affection is central to the communicative processes of personal relationships. While several empirical investigations have examined the communication of affection, there is little consistency from study to study in how affectionate communication is operationally defined, making it difficult to interpret the findings of such research and to compare findings across studies. The present paper reports the results of a multi‐phase scale development procedure and two supplemental studies, involving a total of 781 participants, utilizing and validating a new self‐report measure of affectionate communication. The resulting scale, the Affectionate Communication Index, is offered as a practical and psychometrically sound operational definition for the overt communication of affection in personal relationships.

The influence of fear appeals, message design, and masculinity on men's motivation to perform the testicular self‐exam

Abstract Despite the significant threat men face for contracting testicular cancer, most men remain completely unaware of this risk. Moreover, men are not regularly performing the testicular self‐exam (TSE) in order to detect this form of cancer in their bodies. The current study attempted to assess whether fear appeals targeted at men will motivate them to begin regular performance of the TSE. Additionally, the influence of message design and masculinity was also tested. Results indicate messages that follow the direction of Wittes (1992, 1994) Extended Parallel Process Model and promote both high threat and high efficacy are successful in increasing mens intentions to perform the TSE. Implications of these findings are discussed.

Affection received from fathers as a predictor of men's affection with their own sons: Tests of the modeling and compensation hypotheses

The present study takes a developmental approach to predicting the amount of affectionate communication fathers give their own sons by examining the amount of affection men received from their own fathers. Two developmental orientations are addressed: the modeling hypothesis, which predicts that positive behavior patterns exhibited by parents will be replicated in their childrens own parenting, and the compensation hypothesis, which predicts that negative parenting behaviors are compensated for in childrens parenting of their own children. We combined these approaches to advance a hybrid prediction that, when applied to affectionate communication, calls for a curvilinear relationship between the affection men received from their own fathers and the affection they give their own sons. Five hundred six men who were fathers of at least one son participated in the current study, and the results provided direct support for a combined modeling‐compensation hypothesis.

Affectionate communication in nonromantic relationships: Influences of communicator, relational, and contextual factors

Despite its importance for healthy relational development, the overt communication of affection is inherently risk‐laden and subject to normative expectancies for appropriateness. The present study examines a number of individual, relational, and contextual factors that individually and collectively influence the perceived appropriateness of communicating affection in nonromantic dyadic relationships. An experiment involving 386 subjects was conducted to assess the influence of biological sex, sex composition, relational type, and the privacy and emotional intensity of interactive contexts. Predictions regarding their influence were substantially supported.

Human affection exchange: II. Affectionate communication in father-son relationships

Abstract The father-son dyad might be the most socially significant male-male relationship in the life course, yet its negative qualities have been the sole focus in most research on the relationship. One communicative aspect that has received little scholarly attention is the expression of affection between fathers and sons, despite the strong correlation of affectionate communication with positive involvement, closeness, and relational satisfaction for fathers and sons. In 2 studies, the authors tested hypotheses about father-son affection that were derived from affection exchange theory (K. Floyd, in press). Results indicated that U.S. men are more affectionate with biological sons than with stepsons or adopted sons and that they are more affectionate with their biological sons than their biological sons are with them.

“I Love You, Man”: Overt Expressions of Affection in Male Male Interaction

Despite the importance of affectionatecommunication for relational development andmaintenance, individuals expressing affection incur anumber of risks, including possible misinterpretation ofthe expressions as sexual overtures. These risks appear to bemagnified in the male-male relationship, where overtexpressions of affection may be all but prohibited bynormative expectancies. The present study examines expectancies for appropriate male-maleaffection. Although empirical research supports the ideathat overt affection is considered less appropriate inmale-male relationships than in relationships with women, it also suggests that three variablesmay moderate this expectancy: relationship type,emotional intensity of the context, and privacy level ofthe context. An experimental procedure with 140 men (approximately 95% caucasian) confirmed themoderating effects of these variables.

Human affection exchange: III. discriminative parental solicitude in men's affectionate communication with their biological and nonbiological sons

Although several investigations have addressed the nature of communication in mens relationships with their sons, relatively few have focused on positive interaction patterns, such as the exchange of affection, even though affection is of considerable importance to relational maintenance and satisfaction. According to affection exchange theory, affection is such a valuable relational resource because of the contributions it makes to humans’ long‐term viability and reproductive success. As such a resource, it should, thus, be governed by adaptive motivations, among which is the motivation for parents to invest in their children in ways that maximize their long‐term evolutionary success. Using the theory of discriminative parental solicitude, we predicted differences in the amount of affection men communicate to their biological sons, adopted sons, and step‐sons. We tested our predictions in two studies involving a total of 384 males. We discuss implications of the results for explaining the superordinate evolutionary motivations governing affectionate communication.

Affectionate communication between fathers and young adult sons: Individual- and relational-level correlates

Mens relationships with their fathers may be among the most important and influential same‐sex relationships they form in the life course. Although several studies have examined issues such as aggressiveness, conflict, and dysfunction between fathers and adult sons, far less attention has been paid to more positive communication behaviors in such relationships. The present study examines the individual‐ and relational‐level correlates of affectionate behavior in adult paternal relationships, using data from 55 pairs of fathers and their young adult biological sons. As predicted by the gendered closeness perspective, results indicated that fathers and sons communicate affection more through the provision of social support than through direct verbal or nonverbal expressions. Furthermore, results found that fathers are more affectionate toward young adult sons than sons are toward fathers. Affection was largely associated with psychological femininity and the endorsement of father‐son affection as an approp...

Fathers’ and sons’ reports of fathers’ affectionate communication: Implications of a naïve theory of affection

According to Robey, Cohen, and Epstein (1988), children may hold a naïve theory of affection, whereby they believe that their parents’ affection for them is a finite resource for which they must compete against their siblings. Parents, conversely, are unlikely to view their own affection in the same way. Although research on naïve theories is often conducted with youngsters, we speculated that even adult children may perceive that they compete with their siblings for their parents’ affection, and we tested the naïve theory of affection in a study of 115 dyads of adult men and their adult sons. As hypothesized, the sons’ numbers of brothers and sisters were associated inversely with sons’ reports of how much affection they received from their fathers but were unrelated to fathers’ reports. Fathers’ and sons’ reports of fathers’ affection were also linearly related to each other, but fathers reported being more affectionate with their sons than their sons reported them being. Results suggest that naïve theorizing about parental affection is not limited to young children but continues to affect familial experience in adulthood.

Reacting to the verbal expression of affection in same-sex interaction

In an attempt to account for the common finding that men engage in less same‐sex touch than women do, Derlega, Lewis, Harrison, Winstead, and Costanza (1989) proposed that because touch can be interpreted as sexual, same‐sex touch is curtailed as a function of ones level of homophobia. Floyd (in press) extended this argument into a model that predicts not only individuals’ own behavior, but also their reactions to behaviors they observe. The present experiment was designed to test this model within the realm of verbal expressions of affection. Two hundred twenty‐one adults read a transcript of a conversation between two men or two women in which one communicator said “I love you” to the other. Participants made evaluative judgments of the conversational behavior and provided attributions about the type of relationship the communicators have. Results indicate that homophobia negatively predicts evaluative assessments of the behavior and makes salient a romantic attribution for the communicators’ relationship, while making a platonic attribution less salient. Implications of the study for further research on the effects of homophobia on behavior are discussed.