Lover and learner: Exploring relational schema change following relationship dissolution.

Romantic relationships are known to be very influential, but less is known about how these relationships, and particularly the breakup of these relationships, may affect individuals' relational schemas, or their expectations for relationships. Undergraduate students reported on how their views of themselves, romantic partners, and relationships changed after breaking up with a past partner. Results suggest that relational schemas change following relationship dissolution and that there are both positive and negative aspects to this change. There was also some evidence that aspects of the past relationship predicted change and the valence of change, and that change and the valence of change were related to aspects of current relationship quality. These results are an important first step in understanding how past romantic relationships influence people's expectations about relationships and, by extension, their health and wellbeing.

Presenting Different Selves to Different People: Self-Presentation as a Function of Relationship Type and Contingent Self-Esteem.

Past work has established a connection between self-esteem and self-presentation; however, research has not explored how self-esteem that is contingent on one's relationship may influence self-presentational tactics in that relationship. Across two studies, undergraduate students reported on the extent to which their self-esteem depended on their friendship and romantic relationship, as well as the extent to which they engaged in self-presentation behaviors in those relationships. The results suggest that relationship-specific contingent self-esteem predicts relationship-specific self-presentation; however, friendship-contingent self-esteem predicted self-presentation in both friendships and romantic relationships. These results suggest that individuals are keenly and differentially attuned to qualitatively different relationships, and when perceiving potential problems, they attempt to remedy those through their self-presentations. Furthermore, results indicate the possibility that self-esteem tied to a particular relationship may not be as important as self-esteem based more generally on one's relationships.

Exploring the dynamic nature of "us": An integrative approach to relationship cognition.

Most psychiatric disorders are associated with problems in interpersonal relationships. This is not surprising because people's relationships with others are an influential and integral component of their lives. The cognitive representations of these relationships can be important in understanding these relationships, and both the attachment and relational schema approaches have helped to better understand the nature of these cognitions. The attachment approach is widely researched and established, but it struggles to fully assess the content of relationship knowledge. The relational schema approach provides a strong framework for assessing the content of relationship knowledge, but it does not currently have established measures for this content. In this article, the authors suggest that these two approaches may be particularly suited for integration, and they propose a comprehensive model of relationship cognition. Issues involving the measurement of relational knowledge and future research directions are discussed. Finally, the clinical utility of the proposed model is discussed.

Drowning the pain: intimate partner violence and drinking to cope prospectively predict problem drinking.

INTRODUCTION: The present study examined the longitudinal association among drinking problems, drinking to cope, and degree of intimate partner violence (IPV). Two competing models were tested; the first model posited that drinking to cope leads to greater drinking problems and this subsequently leads to more violence in the relationship (an intoxication-violence model). The second model speculated that violence in the relationship leads to drinking to cope, which in turn leads to greater drinking problems (a self-medication model). METHODS: Eight hundred and eighteen undergraduate students at a large north-western university participated in the study over a two year period, completing assessments of IPV, alcohol related problems and drinking to cope at five time points over a two year period as part of a larger social norms intervention study. RESULTS: Analyses examined two competing models; analyses indicated that there was support for the self-mediation model, whereby people who have experienced violence have more drinking problems later, and this association is temporally mediated by drinking to cope. DISCUSSION: The current results are discussed in light of past research on the self-medication model.

Good intentions gone awry? Effects of weight-related social control on health and well-being.

A negative body image has been associated with a variety of negative health and well-being outcomes. Social pressures from others, in the form of weight-related social control, may serve to exacerbate this effect, especially for college-aged women. Undergraduate students (N=399) completed a variety of questionnaires assessing weight-related social control, well-being, and diet and exercise behaviors. The results suggest that weight is associated with a variety of negative health and well-being outcomes and particularly for women, weight-related social control is also associated with these negative effects. In addition, men of higher body mass indexes (BMIs) or higher self-perceived weight did not experience negative health and well-being outcomes to the same degree that overweight women did. Parents in particular seem to instigate weight-related social control to change students' diet and exercise behaviors. These results help clarify the effects of weight-related social control in a college population, where weight may be especially important.