Pursuing Safety in Social Connection: A Flexibly Fluid Perspective on Risk Regulation in Relationships.

People are fundamentally motivated to be included in social connections that feel safe, connections where they are consistently cared for and protected, not hurt or exploited. Romantic relationships have long played a crucial role in satisfying this fundamental need. This article reconceptualizes the risk-regulation model to argue that people draw on experiences from inside and outside their romantic relationships to satisfy their fundamental need to feel safe depending on others. We first review the direct relational cues (i.e., a partner's affectionate touch, responsive versus unresponsive behavior, and relative power) and indirect cues (i.e., bodily sensations, collective value in the eyes of others, and living conditions) that signal the current safety of social connection and motivate people to connect to others or protect themselves against them. We then review how people's chronic capacity to trust in others controls their sensitivity and reactivity to the safety cues. The article concludes with future research directions.

Pursuing safety in social connection regulates the risk-regulation, social-safety, and behavioral-immune systems.

A new goal-systems model is proposed to help explain when individuals will protect themselves against the risks inherent to social connection. This model assumes that people satisfy the goal to feel included in safe social connections-connections where they are valued and protected rather than at risk of being harmed-by devaluing rejecting friends, trusting in expectancy-consistent relationships, and avoiding infectious strangers. In the hypothesized goal system, frustrating the fundamental goal to feel safe in social connection sensitizes regulatory systems that afford safety from the risk of being interpersonally rejected (i.e., the risk-regulation system), existentially uncertain (i.e., the social-safety system), or physically infected (i.e., the behavioral-immune system). Conversely, fulfilling the fundamental goal to feel safe in social connection desensitizes these self-protective systems. A 3-week experimental daily diary study (N = 555) tested the model hypotheses. We intervened to fulfill the goal to feel safe in social connection by repeatedly conditioning experimental participants to associate their romantic partners with highly positive, approachable words and images. We then tracked how vigilantly experimental versus control participants protected themselves when they encountered social rejection, unexpected behavior, or contagious illness in everyday life. Multilevel analyses revealed that the intervention lessoned self-protective defenses against each of these risks for participants who ordinarily felt most vulnerable to them. The findings provide the first evidence that the fundamental goal to feel safe in social connection can co-opt the risk-regulation, social-safety, and behavioral-immune systems as independent means for its pursuit. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Regulating relationship risk: Partner responsiveness as a safety signal.

People are fundamentally motivated to be included in safe relationships - relationships where they are consistently cared for and protected. Building on the risk-regulation model, this article describes five cues (i.e., affectionate touch, gratitude, acceptance, investments, power) that romantic partners can use to gauge their value to one another, and thus, how safe they are trusting one another to be responsive in specific situations. It also describes how feeling more versus less safe in response to these cues contingently motivates partners to increase connection versus protect themselves against being hurt. The article concludes by describing how people who are chronically less trusting misread these cues, a pessimistic bias that results in them protecting themselves against being hurt unnecessarily, compromising connection.

The social-safety system: Fortifying relationships in the face of the unforeseeable.

A model of the social-safety system is proposed to explain how people sustain a sense of safety in the relational world when they are not able to foresee the behavior of others. In this model, people can escape the acute anxiety posed by agents in their personal relational world behaving unexpectedly (e.g., spouse, child) by defensively imposing well-intentioned motivations on the agents controlling their sociopolitical relational world (e.g., President, Congress). Conversely, people can escape the acute anxiety posed by sociopolitical agents behaving unexpectedly by defensively imposing well-intentioned motivations on the agents controlling their personal relational world. Two daily diary studies, a longitudinal study of the 2018 midterm election, and a 3-year longitudinal study of newlyweds supported the hypotheses. On a daily basis, people who were less certain they could trust their romantic partner defended against acutely unforeseeable behavior in one relational world by affirming faith in the well-intentioned motivations of agents in the alternate world. Moreover, when people were more in the personal daily habit of finding safety in the alternate relational world in the face of the unexpected, those who were initially uncertain they could trust their romantic partner later evidenced greater comfort depending on their personal relationship partners. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Implicitly imprinting the past on the present: Automatic partner attitudes and the transition to parenthood.

A new model is proposed to explain how automatic partner attitudes affect how couples cope with major life transitions. The automatic partner attitudes in transition (APAT) model assumes that people simultaneously possess contextualized automatic attitudes toward their partner that can differ substantively in valence pre- and posttransition. It further assumes that evaluatively inconsistent pre- and posttransition automatic partner attitudes elicit heightened behavioral angst or uncertainty, self-protective behavior in response to risk, and relationship distress. A longitudinal study of the transition to first parenthood supported the model. People with evaluatively inconsistent automatic partner attitudes, whether more negative pretransition and positive posttransition, or more positive pretransition and negative posttransition, exhibited heightened evidence of cardiovascular threat discussing conflicts, increased self-protective behavior in response to parenting-related transgressions in daily interaction, and steeper declines in relationship well-being in the year following the transition to parenthood. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Romantic relationships as shared reality defense.

A model of meaning maintenance in relationships is proposed to explain how relationships function to regulate threats to shared systems of meaning posed by life's capricious and unexpected events. This model assumes that people flexibility compensate for unexpected events in the world by affirming the expected in their relationship and compensate for unexpected events in the relationship by affirming the expected in the world. Supportive evidence is reviewed that reveals how people in more or less satisfying relationships flexibly maintain a sense of life's meaning in the face of unexpected events.

In defense of commitment: The curative power of violated expectations.

A new model of commitment defense in romantic relationships is proposed. It assumes that relationships afford a central resource for affirming meaning and purpose in the world. Consequently, violating expectations about the world outside the relationship can precipitate commitment defense inside the relationship. A meta-analysis of 5 experiments, 2 follow-up correlational studies, and a longitudinal study of the transition to first parenthood supported the model. Experimentally violating conventional expectations about the world (e.g., "hard work pays off") motivated less satisfied people to defensively affirm their commitment. Similarly, when becoming a parent naturalistically violated culturally conditioned gendered expectations about the division of household labor, less satisfied new mothers and fathers defensively affirmed their commitment from pre-to-post baby. The findings suggest that violating expected associations in the world outside the relationship motivates vulnerable people to set relationship their relationship right, thereby affirming expected associations in the relationship in the face of an unexpected world. (PsycINFO Database Record

The equilibrium model of relationship maintenance.

A new equilibrium model of relationship maintenance is proposed. People can protect relationship bonds by practicing 3 threat-mitigation rules: Trying to accommodate when a partner is hurtful, ensuring mutual dependence, and resisting devaluing a partner who impedes one's personal goals. A longitudinal study of newlyweds revealed evidence for the equilibrium model, such that relationship well-being (as indexed by satisfaction and commitment) declining from its usual state predicted increased threat-mitigation; in turn, increasing threat mitigation from its usual state predicted increased relationship well-being. Longitudinal findings further revealed adaptive advantages to uncertain trust. First, the match between trust and partner-risk predicted the trajectory of threat mitigation over time. People who hesitated to trust a high-risk partner became more likely to mitigate threats over 3 years, but people who hesitated to trust a safe partner became less likely to mitigate threats. The match between threat mitigation and partner-risk also predicted when being less trusting eroded later relationship well-being. Namely, when women paired with high-risk partners became more likely to mitigate threats, being less trusting at marriage lost its capacity to erode later relationship well-being.

Shifting dependence: the influence of partner instrumentality and self-esteem on responses to interpersonal risk.

High and low self-esteem people typically have divergent responses to interpersonal risk. Highs draw closer to their partner, whereas lows self-protectively distance. However, these responses should be more likely when people are dependent on the rewards their partner offers. Two experiments tested the hypothesis that structural changes in the situation of interdependence lead high and low self-esteem people to reverse their typical responses to risk. When partners were instrumental to a current goal pursuit (and participants were more dependent on the rewards partners could offer), highs drew closer and lows distanced when risk was primed. However, when partners were not instrumental to an active goal (and participants were less dependent on the rewards partners could offer), these responses were reversed. Reducing one's dependence on a partner to attain one's personal goals appears to reduce highs' incentive to connect, whereas it appears to increase lows' incentive to connect.

The dynamics of relationship promotion: controlling the automatic inclination to trust.

A dynamic model of how trust regulates relationship promotion is proposed. The model assumes that trust has both impulsive (i.e., automatic attitude toward the partner) and reflective (i.e., beliefs about the partner's caring) forms. Because overriding evaluative impulses requires self-regulatory resources, the model further posits that self-regulatory capacity controls whether people strengthen relationship connections in the face of threats to reflective trust. Two experiments and 1 longitudinal daily diary study utilizing convergent manipulations and measures of self-regulatory capacity supported the model. Results revealed that acute uncertainty about a partner's caring increased relationship-promotive sentiment and behavior when (a) people lacked self-regulatory resources to question impulsively trusting sentiments and (b) when people had self-regulatory resources available to override impulsively distrusting sentiments. In contrast, acute uncertainty about a partner's caring decreased relationship-promotive sentiment and behavior when (a) people lacked the self-regulatory capacity to question impulsively distrusting sentiments and (b) when people had the self-regulatory capacity available to override impulsively trusting sentiments.

Cautious to a Fault: Self-Protection and the Trajectory of Marital Satisfaction.

A contextual model of self-protection is proposed to explain when adhering to cautious "if-then" rules in daily interaction erodes marital satisfaction. People can self-protect against partner non-responsiveness by distancing when a partner seems rejecting, promoting a partner's dependence when feeling unworthy, or by devaluing a partner in the face of costs. The model implies that being less trusting elicits self-protection, and that mismatches between self-protective practices and encountered risk accelerate declines in satisfaction. A longitudinal study of newlyweds revealed that the fit between self-protection practices and risk predicted declines in satisfaction over three years. When people self-protected more initially, satisfaction declined more in low-risk (i.e., low conflict, resilient partner) than high-risk relationships (i.e., high conflict, vulnerable partner). However, when people self-protected less initially, satisfaction declined more in high-risk than low-risk relationships. Process evidence was consistent with moderated mediation: In low-risk relationships only, being less trusting predicted higher levels of self-protective caution that forecast later declines in satisfaction.

Managing motivational conflict: how self-esteem and executive resources influence self-regulatory responses to risk.

This article explores how self-esteem and executive resources interact to determine responses to motivational conflict. One correlational and 3 experimental studies investigated the hypothesis that high and low self-esteem people undertake different self-regulatory strategies in "risky" situations that afford opportunity to pursue competing goals and that carrying out these strategies requires executive resources. When such resources are available, high self-esteem people respond to risk by prioritizing and pursuing approach goals, whereas low self-esteem people prioritize avoidance goals. However, self-esteem does not influence responses to risk when executive resources are impaired. In these studies, risk was operationalized by exposing participants to a relationship threat (Studies 1 and 2), by using participants' self-reported marital conflict (Study 3), and by threatening academic competence (Study 4). Executive resources were operationalized as cognitive load (Studies 1 and 2), working memory capacity (Study 3), and resource depletion (Study 4). When executive resources were ample, high self-esteem people responded to interpersonal risk by making more positive relationship evaluations (Studies 1, 2, and 3) and making more risky social comparisons following a personal failure (Study 4) than did low self-esteem people. Self-esteem did not predict participants' responses when executive resources were impaired or when risk was absent. The regulatory function of self-esteem may be more resource-dependent than has been previously theorized.

Reprogramming of carbon metabolism by the transcriptional activators AcuK and AcuM in Aspergillus nidulans.

The ability of fungi to use carbon sources metabolized via the TCA cycle requires gluconeogenesis. In Aspergillus nidulans the AcuK and AcuM transcription factors regulate the expression of the gluconeogenic genes acuF, encoding phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase, and acuG, encoding fructose-1,6-bisphosphatase. Expressed proteins containing the AcuK/AcuM N-terminal DNA-binding domains bind together in vitro to motifs containing repeats of CGG separated by seven bases (CCGN7CCG) and the functionality of these sequences was verified in vivo by acuF-lacZ reporter studies. Chromatin immunoprecipitation analysis showed inter-dependent DNA binding of the proteins to the promoters of gluconeogenic genes in vivo independent of the carbon source. Deletion of the mdhC gene encoding a cytoplasmic/peroxisomal malate dehydrogenase showed that this activity is not essential for gluconeogenesis and indicated that induction of AcuK/AcuM regulated genes might result from malate accumulation. Deletion of the gene for the alternative oxidase did not affect growth on gluconeogenic carbon sources; however, expression was absolutely dependent on AcuK and AcuM. Orthologues of AcuK and AcuM, are present in a wide range of fungal taxa and the CCGN7CCG motif is present in the 5' of many genes involved in gluconeogenesis indicating a fundamental role for these transcription factors in reprogramming fungal carbon metabolism.

Tempting fate or inviting happiness?: unrealistic idealization prevents the decline of marital satisfaction.

This article examines whether unrealistically viewing a romantic partner as resembling one's ideal partner accelerates or slows declines in marital satisfaction among newlyweds. A longitudinal study linked unrealistic idealization at the time of marriage to changes in satisfaction over the first 3 years of marriage. Overall, satisfaction declined markedly, a finding that is consistent with past research. However, seeing a less-than-ideal partner as a reflection of one's ideals predicted a certain level of protection against the corrosive effects of time: People who initially idealized their partner the most experienced no decline in satisfaction. The benefits of idealization remained in analyses that controlled separately for the positivity of partner perceptions and the possibility that better adjusted people might be in better relationships.

Signaling when (and when not) to be cautious and self-protective: impulsive and reflective trust in close relationships.

A dual process model is proposed to explain how automatic evaluative associations to the partner (i.e., impulsive trust) and deliberative expectations of partner caring (i.e., reflective trust) interact to govern self-protection in romantic relationships. Experimental and correlational studies of dating and marital relationships supported the model. Subliminally conditioning more positive evaluative associations to the partner increased confidence in the partner's caring, suggesting that trust has an impulsive basis. Being high on impulsive trust (i.e., more positive evaluative associations to the partner on the Implicit Association Test; Zayas & Shoda, 2005) also reduced the automatic inclination to distance in response to doubts about the partner's trustworthiness. It similarly reduced self-protective behavioral reactions to these reflective trust concerns. The studies further revealed that the effects of impulsive trust depend on working memory capacity: Being high on impulsive trust inoculated against reflective trust concerns for people low on working memory capacity.

Role of carnitine acetyltransferases in acetyl coenzyme A metabolism in Aspergillus nidulans.

The flow of carbon metabolites between cellular compartments is an essential feature of fungal metabolism. During growth on ethanol, acetate, or fatty acids, acetyl units must enter the mitochondrion for metabolism via the tricarboxylic acid cycle, and acetyl coenzyme A (acetyl-CoA) in the cytoplasm is essential for the biosynthetic reactions and for protein acetylation. Acetyl-CoA is produced in the cytoplasm by acetyl-CoA synthetase during growth on acetate and ethanol while ß-oxidation of fatty acids generates acetyl-CoA in peroxisomes. The acetyl-carnitine shuttle in which acetyl-CoA is reversibly converted to acetyl-carnitine by carnitine acetyltransferase (CAT) enzymes is important for intracellular transport of acetyl units. In the filamentous ascomycete Aspergillus nidulans, a cytoplasmic CAT, encoded by facC, is essential for growth on sources of cytoplasmic acetyl-CoA while a second CAT, encoded by the acuJ gene, is essential for growth on fatty acids as well as acetate. We have shown that AcuJ contains an N-terminal mitochondrial targeting sequence and a C-terminal peroxisomal targeting sequence (PTS) and is localized to both peroxisomes and mitochondria, independent of the carbon source. Mislocalization of AcuJ to the cytoplasm does not result in loss of growth on acetate but prevents growth on fatty acids. Therefore, while mitochondrial AcuJ is essential for the transfer of acetyl units to mitochondria, peroxisomal localization is required only for transfer from peroxisomes to mitochondria. Peroxisomal AcuJ was not required for the import of acetyl-CoA into peroxisomes for conversion to malate by malate synthase (MLS), and export of acetyl-CoA from peroxisomes to the cytoplasm was found to be independent of FacC when MLS was mislocalized to the cytoplasm.

A Smart Unconscious? Procedural Origins of Automatic Partner Attitudes in Marriage.

The paper examines potential origins of automatic (i.e., unconscious) attitudes toward one's marital partner. It tests the hypothesis that early experiences in conflict-of-interest situations predict one's later automatic inclination to approach (or avoid) the partner. A longitudinal study linked daily experiences in conflict-of-interest situations in the initial months of new marriages to automatic evaluations of the partner assessed four years later using the Implicit Associations Test. The results revealed that partners who were initially (1) treated less responsively and (2) evidenced more self-protective and less connectedness-promoting "if-then" contingencies in their thoughts and behavior later evidenced less positive automatic partner attitudes. However, these factors did not predict changes in love, satisfaction, or explicit beliefs about the partner. The findings hint at the existence of a "smart" relationship unconscious that captures behavioral realities conscious reflection can miss.

ATP-citrate lyase is required for production of cytosolic acetyl coenzyme A and development in Aspergillus nidulans.

Acetyl coenzyme A (CoA) is a central metabolite in carbon and energy metabolism and in the biosynthesis of cellular molecules. A source of cytoplasmic acetyl-CoA is essential for the production of fatty acids and sterols and for protein acetylation, including histone acetylation in the nucleus. In Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Candida albicans acetyl-CoA is produced from acetate by cytoplasmic acetyl-CoA synthetase, while in plants and animals acetyl-CoA is derived from citrate via ATP-citrate lyase. In the filamentous ascomycete Aspergillus nidulans, tandem divergently transcribed genes (aclA and aclB) encode the subunits of ATP-citrate lyase, and we have deleted these genes. Growth is greatly diminished on carbon sources that do not result in cytoplasmic acetyl-CoA, such as glucose and proline, while growth is not affected on carbon sources that result in the production of cytoplasmic acetyl-CoA, such as acetate and ethanol. Addition of acetate restores growth on glucose or proline, and this is dependent on facA, which encodes cytoplasmic acetyl-CoA synthetase, but not on the regulatory gene facB. Transcription of aclA and aclB is repressed by growth on acetate or ethanol. Loss of ATP-citrate lyase results in severe developmental effects, with the production of asexual spores (conidia) being greatly reduced and a complete absence of sexual development. This is in contrast to Sordaria macrospora, in which fruiting body formation is initiated but maturation is defective in an ATP-citrate lyase mutant. Addition of acetate does not repair these defects, indicating a specific requirement for high levels of cytoplasmic acetyl-CoA during differentiation. Complementation in heterokaryons between aclA and aclB deletions for all phenotypes indicates that the tandem gene arrangement is not essential.

Deletion of the RING-finger peroxin 2 gene in Aspergillus nidulans does not affect meiotic development.

Peroxins are required for protein import into peroxisomes as well as for peroxisome biogenesis and proliferation. Loss-of-function mutations in genes for the RING-finger peroxins Pex2, Pex10 and Pex12 lead to a specific block in meiosis in the ascomycete Podospora anserina. However, loss of protein import into peroxisomes does not result in this meiotic defect. Therefore, it has been suggested that these peroxins have a specific function required for meiosis. To determine whether this role is conserved in other filamentous fungi, we have deleted the gene encoding Pex2 in Aspergillus nidulans. The phenotypes resulting from this deletion are no different from those of previously isolated pex mutants affected in peroxisomal protein import, and viable ascospores are produced in selfed crosses. Therefore, the role of the RING-finger peroxins in meiosis is not conserved in filamentous ascomycetes.

Metabolic and developmental effects resulting from deletion of the citA gene encoding citrate synthase in Aspergillus nidulans.

Citrate synthase is a central activity in carbon metabolism. It is required for the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle, respiration, and the glyoxylate cycle. In Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Arabidopsis thaliana, there are mitochondrial and peroxisomal isoforms encoded by separate genes, while in Aspergillus nidulans, a single gene, citA, encodes a protein with predicted mitochondrial and peroxisomal targeting sequences (PTS). Deletion of citA results in poor growth on glucose but not on derepressing carbon sources, including those requiring the glyoxylate cycle. Growth on glucose is restored by a mutation in the creA carbon catabolite repressor gene. Methylcitrate synthase, required for propionyl-coenzyme A (CoA) metabolism, has previously been shown to have citrate synthase activity. We have been unable to construct the mcsADelta citADelta double mutant, and the expression of mcsA is subject to CreA-mediated carbon repression. Therefore, McsA can substitute for the loss of CitA activity. Deletion of citA does not affect conidiation or sexual development but results in delayed conidial germination as well as a complete loss of ascospores in fruiting bodies, which can be attributed to loss of meiosis. These defects are suppressed by the creA204 mutation, indicating that McsA activity can substitute for the loss of CitA. A mutation of the putative PTS1-encoding sequence in citA had no effect on carbon source utilization or development but did result in slower colony extension arising from single conidia or ascospores. CitA-green fluorescent protein (GFP) studies showed mitochondrial localization in conidia, ascospores, and hyphae. Peroxisomal localization was not detected. However, a very low and variable detection of punctate GFP fluorescence was sometimes observed in conidia germinated for 5 h when the mitochondrial targeting sequence was deleted.