Relationship status and gender-related differences in response to infidelity.

Introduction: The sexual imagination hypothesis suggests that responses to a partner's infidelity emerge from the sociocultural factors that affect individuals' imagining of that occurrence irrespective of biological sex, including relationship status (i.e., the experience of a serious, committed relationship). Nevertheless, evolutionary psychological perspectives predict that responses to a partner's infidelity emerge from a sex-specific evolved innate mechanism. Methods: A lower 2D:4D digit ratio is associated with more robust responses to a partner's sexual infidelity. In this study, participants (660 males and 912 females) were requested to measure finger lengths, reactions to their partners' sexual and emotional infidelity, and relationship status. Results: A logistic regression and multiple regression analyses revealed that relationship status was uniquely associated with responses to a partner's sexual and emotional infidelity beyond the effects of sex and 2D:4D. Those in committed relationships were more upset or distressed over their partners' infidelity, particularly over sexual infidelity, than those not in committed relationships. Discussion: The results supported the sexual imagination hypothesis indirectly, while evolutionary psychological perspectives were met with skepticism. Our findings implied that sex differences in jealousy result from relationship status, and that responses to partners' infidelity are more alike than different.

[An attempt to construct a Japanese version of the Implicit Positive and Negative Affect Test (IPANAT)].

The Implicit Positive and Negative Affect Test (IPANAT) is an instrument for the indirect assessment of positive and negative affect. A Japanese version of the IPANAT was developed and its reliability and validity were examined. In Study 1, factor analysis identified two independent factors that could be interpreted as implicit positive and negative affect, which corresponded to the original version. The Japanese IPANAT also had sufficient internal consistency and acceptable test-retest reliability. In Study 2, we demonstrated that the Japanese IPANAT was associated with explicit state affect (e.g., PANAS), extraversion, and neuroticism, which indicated its adequate construct validity. In Study 3, we examined the extent to which the Japanese IPANAT was sensitive to changes in affect by assessing a set of IPANAT items after the presentation of positive, negative, or neutral photographs. The results indicated that the Japanese IPANAT was sufficiently sensitive to changes in affect resulting from affective stimuli. Taken together, these studies suggest that the Japanese version of the IPANAT is a useful instrument for the indirect assessment of positive and negative affect.

[Evaluation of "Japanese Journal of Psychology" using citation analysis].

This study investigated the professional impact of "Japanese Journal of Psychology." Thirty four psychological journals written in Japanese were selected to register articles in a new database. This database included approximately 23,900 articles published through 2010. Using citations extracted from the references and footnotes in these scholarly journals, the Psychology Citation Index for Japanese Papers was created. The citation impact factors in Japanese psychology was determined on the basis of the number of times a journal was cited, cumulative impact factors, and the cited half-life of the journal; five years was a valid period for impact factor of psychological journals in Japan. The changes in the 5-year impact factors of "Japanese Journal of Psychology" were reviewed by comparing it with other journals.

[Effects of third-party perspective taking on social comparison processes].

This study examined the effects of attention by a third party to a comparison target on self-evaluation in social comparison. University students (N=114; 42 males and 72 females) were randomly assigned to comparison-target (superior, inferior) and perspective-taking (perspective taking of a third party, nonperspective taking) conditions. First, participants completed a linguistic performance test and were given feedback on their results. Next, participants were asked to look at another's score (either high or low) from the viewpoint of a friend, or from their own viewpoint. Finally, participants rated their own test performance. In social comparison research, a contrast effect is said to occur when self-evaluation is displaced away from the evaluation of the comparison target. The results indicated that undergraduate females who saw the other's score from the viewpoint of a friend had a contrast effect in their self-ratings. Conversely, undergraduate males who saw the other's score from their own viewpoint showed a contrast effect in their self-ratings. The results suggest that social comparison depends on the attention of a third party and that there are gender differences in the direction of this influence.