We propose a more parsimonious and, arguably, more plausible interpretation of the gender differences described by the authors. Specifically, the central issue may not lie in men's lower propensity to express their emotions, but rather in the generally lower quality of support that men tend to provide compared to women. This alternative interpretation calls for a different solution.

Past research, often using Cyberball-an online ball-tossing game with two or more preprogrammed players-showed that being socially excluded produces various negative emotions and lower need satisfaction. However, in everyday life, people may experience the threat of social exclusion more frequently than actual exclusion. Across two experiments (total N = 783), contrasting a newly developed threat of exclusion condition with the standard exclusion and standard inclusion condition using Cyberball, results showed that the threat of exclusion (relative to inclusion and exclusion) is characterized by elevated fear and hope, intermediate need satisfaction and specific ball toss behaviour promoting both inclusive (reciprocity) and exclusive bonds (bias), possibly to avoid that the threat of exclusion becomes a reality. These findings demonstrate that the threat of social exclusion is associated with a unique psychological and behavioural profile that may have evolved to cope with and ward off actual exclusion.

An important element of mindfulness-based interventions is daily at-home mindfulness practice. However, maintaining regular practice is a challenge for many participants. This study examined the influence of a dyadic support intervention—a “buddy intervention”—on adherence to mindfulness practice in terms of practice frequency and duration. In this quasi-experimental study, 40 participants (age M = 38.69, SD = 13.04) participating in an 8-week mindfulness-based intervention (MBI) program were assigned to an intervention or control condition. From Session 3, intervention participants were paired with a buddy to support each other’s practice throughout the course. Participants in the dyadic support condition maintained a stable frequency of practice sessions per week across the intervention period, while those in the control condition showed a significant decline. This was reflected in a significant interaction between condition (dyadic support vs control) and time. Feedback from 17 participants indicated that most experienced the intervention as positive, though some reported challenges like fading contact and difficulty with texting. Contact frequency ranged from less than once a week to daily, with emotional support being the most common strategy. This pilot study highlights the potential of a dyadic intervention to enhance adherence to mindfulness practice, offering a promising and easily implementable strategy for MBI program. Further larger-scale research using proper randomisation is needed to explore the mechanisms underlying these effects. The study was preregistered using AsPredicted ( https://aspredicted.org/52xt-4ywk.pdf ; Aspredicted #168189).

Previous research has revealed various negative outcomes when victims of intimate partner violence justify their partner's behavior, including reductions in self-worth and the persistence of violence. The current research tested the temporal dynamics of the justification of violence and its negative effect on the need for support and help-seeking behavior. Additionally, we explored whether victims' level of violence justification moderates the impact of frequency of violence on the perceived need for support. A longitudinal study was conducted among pre-screened participants who are currently victims of partner violence using self-report measures via online research platforms (T1 N = 335, T2 N = 286, T3 N = 261). The data were collected at three time points, each three weeks apart. The findings were mixed. Across the entire sample, we did not find that justification of violence was directly or indirectly associated with support need and help-seeking, either cross-sectionally or longitudinally, nor were changes in justification of violence associated with changes in support need. However, the results among men (but not women) showed a pattern consistent with our general prediction: male victims who justified violence to a greater extent were less likely to seek help. Moreover, exploratory analyses showed that victims' justification of violence dampened the association between frequency of violence and their perceived need for support. The current findings provide novel insights into the processes underlying support need and help seeking among victims of intimate partner violence.

Theoretical and empirical work suggests that mindfulness is beneficial for close relationships. However, the ways in which mindfulness shapes important relational processes are not well understood. The current study examines the role that trait mindfulness plays in shaping people’s perceptions of their romantic partner’s emotions. In two dyadic studies (Study 1 n = 121 couples; Study 2 n = 138 couples), heterosexual couples engaged in a conversation about a problem in their relationship. Prior to the conversation, participants completed measures of their relational (Study 1) or general trait (Study 2) mindfulness, and then rated their own and their partner’s (negative) emotions immediately following the conflict. Multilevel Truth and Bias models were used to assess accuracy and bias in perceptions. Results revealed that men low in mindfulness overestimated their partner’s negative emotions especially when their partners’ negative emotions were higher, whereas more mindful men did not overestimate their partners’ negative emotions and were less perceptually sensitive to their partner’s higher levels of negative emotions. This pattern of results was less consistent for women. Overall, this study advances understanding of how mindfulness may enhance relationships by suggesting that mindfulness reduces hypervigilance to and overestimation of partner’s negative emotions, particularly for men.

We systematically reviewed the empirical research on whether a romantic partner’s support buffers the positive association between attachment insecurity and negative emotions. PubMed, PsychInfo, and Web of Science were searched for English, peer-reviewed articles that were published from 1969 to September 2020; included empirical studies on healthy human adults (Mage >= 18) who were in a romantic relationship; and tested the interaction between actor adult attachment and partner support in predicting actor emotions. We used descriptive vote counting to synthesize and report the results of 27 included articles, including 31 studies (2689 couples and 191 individuals) and 151 analyses. Partner support buffered the effect of attachment insecurity on emotions in nine percent of all analyses. We discuss theoretical implications and directions for future research. Specifically, the current findings underscore the call for a more nuanced and differentiated view of partner support as a buffer against attachment insecurities.

Introduction:Research examining relationship quality among patients with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) largely focuses on the negative impact PTSD can have on patients' romantic relationships, with less attention devoted to factors that build resilience in these relationships. Methods:In a sample of patients undergoing treatment for PTSD (N = 89), including 49 Veterans, this study examined 1) two main effects of PTSD symptom severity and perceived partner responsiveness on relationship quality, 2) a moderating model of perceived partner responsiveness, buffering the relationship between posttraumatic stress symptoms and relationship satisfaction, and 3) a mediation model, whereby posttraumatic stress symptoms lead to less perceived partner responsiveness, which in turn leads to poorer relationship satisfaction. Results:A linear regression analysis revealed that posttraumatic stress symptoms were not linked to relationship satisfaction, whereas perceived partner responsiveness showed a positive association with relationship satisfaction. Veterans tended to have lower relationship satisfaction compared with non-Veterans. The moderation and mediation analyses did not show any significant direct or indirect effects. Discussion:Findings suggest that responsive couples can maintain a strong and supportive relationship regardless of PTSD status.

Emotional expressivity plays an essential role in the functioning and well-being of romantic relationships. In the current research, we examined the potential role of trait self-control in emotional expressivity, and predicted that trait self-control would be negatively associated with emotional expressivity. Four pre-registered studies tested this basic hypothesis using two perspectives: the partner's perspective (Study 1, N = 202; Study 2, N = 190), and the actor's perspective (Study 3, N = 177; Study 4, N = 60 couples). Across studies, regardless of perspective, the results generally showed that trait self-control was negatively associated with the experienced intensity of emotions (i.e., emotion strength), but not with the expression of positive emotions (i.e., positive expressivity). In three out of four studies, there was support for the negative association between trait self-control and the expression of negative emotions (i.e., negative expressivity). We discuss the implications of these findings for understanding the nature of the link between trait self-control and emotional expressivity, in romantic relationships and more broadly.

Satisfying romantic relationships offer numerous social and health benefits, making it critical to understand the trajectory of relationship satisfaction. In recent years, research has begun to examine the role of automatic processes in relationship contexts. In particular, a growing number of studies have incorporated indirect (implicit) measures developed by socio‐cognitive researchers to capture people's automatic partner attitudes—the spontaneous affective reactions toward their partner that people may at times be unable to access or unwilling to self‐report in more direct (explicit) measures like questionnaires. In this paper, we review work illustrating how automatic partner attitudes can help explain, predict, and promote both the functioning and the well‐being of romantic couples. That is, we integrate theoretical perspectives on interdependence, attachment, and attitudes to discuss empirical evidence relative to why automatic partner attitudes differ from self‐reported judgments of relationship satisfaction, how such attitudes form in the context of real‐world relationship experiences, and under which conditions they affect dyadic interactions in everyday life. Further, we identify important questions that remain unanswered and provide recommendations that may benefit future work on couples and beyond.

Background: Past research has primarily focused on negative associations between PTSD and relationships. Therefore, this investigation delves into the potential positive role of these relational aspects in aiding PTSD recovery during treatment.Objective: This study aimed to examine the impact of dyadic coping and perceived partner responsiveness on treatment trajectories of PTSD patients.Method: The study included 90 participants, who were requested to complete online questionnaires twice, with a six-month gap between the measures.Results: The results from linear regression analyses indicated that perceived partner responsiveness had a positive effect on PTSD recovery, whereas dyadic coping had the opposite effect: higher levels of dyadic coping were associated with an increase in posttraumatic stress symptoms over time. Additional examination of the subscales indicated that heightened communication between clients and partners regarding stress was related with increased posttraumatic stress symptoms.Conclusions: These findings underscore the importance and complexity of effective and supportive communication between patients with PTSD and their partners. While existing literature supports both perceived partner responsiveness and dyadic coping as beneficial, this study indicates that only perceived partner responsiveness positively impacted PTSD recovery.

BACKGROUNDAdults' views and behaviors toward children can vary from being supportive to shockingly abusive, and there are significant unanswered questions about the psychological factors underpinning this variability.OBJECTIVEThe present research examined the content of adults' attitudes toward children to address these questions.METHODTen studies (N = 4702) identified the factor structure of adults' descriptions of babies, toddlers, and school-age children and examined how the resulting factors related to a range of external variables.RESULTSTwo factors emerged-affection toward children and stress elicited by them-and this factor structure was invariant across the United Kingdom, the United States, and South Africa. Affection uniquely captures emotional approach tendencies, concern for others, and broad positivity in evaluations, experiences, motivations, and donation behavior. Stress relates to emotional instability, emotional avoidance, and concern about disruptions to a self-oriented, structured life. The factors also predict distinct experiences in a challenging situation-home-parenting during COVID-19 lockdown-with affection explaining greater enjoyment and stress explaining greater perceived difficulty. Affection further predicts mentally visualizing children as pleasant and confident, whereas stress predicts mentally visualizing children as less innocent.CONCLUSIONSThese findings offer fundamental new insights about social cognitive processes in adults that impact adult-child relationships and children's well-being.

Police employees have an essential role in sustaining safety and harmony within communities, and they need to stay well as individuals in order to achieve this. Yet, their stressful work environment does not always afford optimal interpersonal interactions. In collaboration with the Dutch police force, the present project explored the effects of a mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) training on the fostering of constructive interpersonal responses as well as individual well-being among employees of the Dutch police. In total, 133 police employees participated in a non-randomized waitlist controlled MBSR intervention. Participants filled out four online questionnaires spread evenly over a period of six months on constructive interpersonal responses and individual well-being. Linear mixed-effects analyses showed increases on various indicators of constructive interpersonal responding and individual well-being from pre-to post-training. These results were largely maintained at two-month follow-up. Interestingly, the positive effects of mindfulness intervention did not generalize across all measures of constructive interpersonal responding. Moreover, more frequent home practice predicted training benefits. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these findings.

Discrimination in the evaluation of others is a key cause of social inequality around the world. However, relatively little is known about psychological interventions that can be used to prevent biased evaluations. The limited evidence that exists on these strategies is spread across many methods and populations, making it difficult to generate reliable best practices that can be effective across contexts. In the present work, we held a research contest to solicit interventions with the goal of reducing discrimination based on physical attractiveness using a hypothetical admissions task. Thirty interventions were tested across four rounds of data collection (total N > 20,000). Using a signal detection theory approach to evaluate interventions, we identified two interventions that reduced discrimination by lessening both decision noise and decision bias, while two other interventions reduced overall discrimination by only lessening noise or bias. The most effective interventions largely provided concrete strategies that directed participants' attention toward decision-relevant criteria and away from socially biasing information, though the fact that very similar interventions produced differing effects on discrimination suggests certain key characteristics that are needed for manipulations to reliably impact judgment. The effects of these four interventions on decision bias, noise, or both also replicated in a different discrimination domain, political affiliation, and generalized to populations with self-reported hiring experience. Results of the contest for decreasing attractiveness-based favoritism suggest that identifying effective routes for changing discriminatory behavior is a challenge and that greater investment is needed to develop impactful, flexible, and scalable strategies for reducing discrimination. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

In 2019, mass immigration of Venezuelans to Colombia peaked, which for Colombian residents was accompanied by fear of potential conflicts and negative consequences. Given the lack of literature on the effectiveness of perspective taking in combatting discrimination in ongoing conflict situations, the present experiment (between-subjects design) investigated whether and how perspective taking affects Colombians’ (N = 254) levels of prejudice towards Venezuelan migrants. After manipulating perspective taking, the present research assessed participants’ levels of perspective taking, their empathy, trust, anxiety, and behavioral intentions towards as well as their evaluations of Venezuelans. The results showed that our manipulation was not effective in increasing perspective taking. However, in line with our preregistered hypotheses, self-reported levels of perspective taking were associated with more positive evaluations and behavioral intentions towards Venezuelan migrants. Furthermore, the findings provided some support for the role of empathy, trust, and anxiety as underlying mechanisms. Our study suggests that individual differences in perspective taking play a significant role in reducing prejudice towards out-group members, even in contexts of ongoing conflict. Yet, the current findings do raise doubt on the generalizability of previous experimental laboratory findings on perspective taking and prejudice. We discuss how knowledge on the mechanisms should help to improve perspective taking manipulations in future intergroup conflict intervention studies.

In the past decade, the concept of dyadic coping as a buffer against stress in romantic relationships has received much attention in Western countries, but it has rarely been studied in non-Western countries and among parents with school-aged children. The aim of the present study was to investigate the moderating effect of dyadic coping on the link between financial strain and marital satisfaction, as well as the mediating effect of marital satisfaction on the relationship between financial strain and quality of life. There were 751 heterosexual couples whose eldest child aged 7-12 years in West Java, Indonesia (mean age husband = 37.53 SD = 5.09; mean age wife = 34.42 SD = 4.85) fulfilled the paper and pencil questionnaires in the study. The moderated mediated model illustrated that (1) greater levels of dyadic coping weakened the negative association between financial strain and marital satisfaction for husbands and for wives (2) for both husbands and wives, there were no mediation effect (3) for both husbands and wives, financial strain was negatively associated with quality of life; and marital satisfaction was positively associated with quality of life. We discuss both the theoretical and practical implications of these findings.

Adults with attachment insecurity often struggle in romantic relationships due to difficulties in emotion regulation (ER). One potentially influential yet understudied factor is the inflexible over-reliance on either intrapersonal (self-directed, e.g., suppression) or interpersonal (involving others, e.g., sharing) ER. This study investigates the association between attachment insecurity and flexibility in using interpersonal versus intrapersonal ER in response to daily stressors in romantic relationships. We hypothesized that higher attachment avoidance and anxiety are associated with (H1) higher reliance on either intrapersonal or interpersonal ER over the other, respectively; (H2) less variable use of interpersonal compared to intrapersonal ER over time; and (H3) less flexible use of interpersonal compared to intrapersonal ER depending on the availability of a romantic partner. Study 1 (N = 174; 133 females, Mage = 23.79, SDage = 7.63) used an online cross-sectional survey to measure average inter/intrapersonal ER, addressing H1. Study 2 (N = 124; 104 females, Mage = 22.45, SDage = 6.39), combined a baseline survey with experience sampling (7 days, 8 notifications/day), addressing H1, H2, and H3. Results showed that higher attachment avoidance was associated with lower interpersonal compared to intrapersonal ER. Higher attachment anxiety was associated with less variable use of interpersonal compared to intrapersonal ER and less flexible use of interpersonal ER depending on partner availability. These findings suggest distinct associations between attachment orientations and ER flexibility, explaining ER difficulties in individuals with high attachment insecurity.

Previous research shows that victims of intimate partner violence (IPV) often justify violence, which can play a role in the persistence of violence. The present studies examined whether the victim’s justification of violence negatively affects third parties’ evaluative responses toward the victim (general evaluation of the victim, victim blaming, and evaluation of the victim’s response toward the violence) and negatively affects third parties’ willingness to support and take action. We also examined whether this would occur especially when the violence had happened frequently in the past. In two experimental studies (one in the Netherlands, Study 1, N = 220; one in Indonesia, Study 2, N = 231), participants watched a video depicting IPV. After watching the video, we manipulated the victim’s justification of violence (high vs. low justification of violence) as well as the frequency of violence experienced by the victim in the past (high vs. low past frequency). Consistent across the two studies, the results showed that when they justified violence (as compared to when they did not justify violence), victims were evaluated more negatively. There were no effects on victim blaming, willingness to support, and willingness to take action. We also found the effects of past frequency of violence on victim evaluation and willingness to take action. We discuss how the current findings extend previous research on the consequences of justification of violence as well as on third-party responses toward victims.

Converging evidence shows that mindfulness is associated with various indicators of interpersonal behavior and well-being. Although promising, the effects of mindfulness should ultimately be expressed during interpersonal interactions and observed by interaction partners. The current study assessed the associations between trait mindfulness, interpersonal stress, and interpersonal perceptions during stressful interpersonal tasks between strangers. Sixty-seven same sex stranger dyads (134 individuals; all females) participated in a laboratory study. Trait mindfulness was measured via an online questionnaire. In the lab, participants were asked to engage in two tasks with a stranger: (1) a stressful interaction task (they were asked to introduce themselves standing only 27 cm apart) and (2) a joint coordination task. Afterwards, both partners’ levels of interpersonal stress and interpersonal perceptions (i.e. liking of the interaction, perceived attentiveness, and perceived coping) were assessed. Results of Actor Partner Interdependence Models (APIM) showed a negative association between trait mindfulness and experienced interpersonal distress. Trait mindfulness was positively associated with liking of the interaction, perceived attentiveness and perceived coping. Actors’ trait mindfulness was positively associated with the partners’ liking of the interaction (marginally significant), but no other partner effects were found. There was no association between trait mindfulness and performance on the joint coordination task. The current findings underscore the importance of studying trait mindfulness dyadically. In actual interpersonal interactions, trait mindfulness positively affects interaction experiences of actors, but we found little support for a transfer to experiences of interaction partners. We discuss the implications of these findings in light of several theoretical models.