On Creating Deeper Relationship Bonds: Felt Understanding Enhances Relationship Identification.

Relational experiences play a critical role in shaping how individuals see themselves. In four studies (N=945) using person-perception, longitudinal, and experimental designs, we demonstrate that feeling understood changes individuals' self-concept by increasing the centrality of a specific relationship (relationship identification). Study 1 showed that participants perceived an individual to be more identified with their relationship when their partner was high (vs. low) in understanding. Study 2 extended these results by examining individuals in romantic relationships longitudinally. The results of Studies 1 and 2 were distinct for understanding compared to acceptance and caring. Studies 3 and 4 manipulated felt understanding. Recalling many versus few understanding instances (Study 3) and imagining a close other being low versus high in understanding (Study 4) led individuals to feel less understood, which reduced identification in their friendships and romantic relationships. Furthermore, Study 4 suggests that coherence may be one mechanism through which felt understanding increases relationship identification.

Happy prenatal relationships, healthy postpartum mothers: a prospective study of relationship satisfaction, postpartum stress, and health.

OBJECTIVE: Major life transitions, such as the arrival of a new baby, can be stressful, and therefore, costly to one's health. Being in a satisfying romantic relationship has been previously linked with better health, perhaps because it provides access to a bank of psychosocial resources. The objective of the present research was two-fold. First, we examined whether prenatal relationship satisfaction benefitted mothers' postpartum health. Second, we examined whether this association was mediated by reduced postpartum stress. Design: Pregnant women (N = 431) were drawn from a larger prospective pregnancy and birth cohort study. Main Outcome Measures: Participants reported on their relationship satisfaction, perceived stress, and perceived health at two time points: 24-26 weeks of gestation and 6 months postpartum. Results: Greater prenatal romantic satisfaction predicted enhanced perceived postpartum health, and reduced perceived postpartum stress appeared to mediate this link. Conclusion: This research demonstrates that greater prenatal relationship satisfaction is associated with better postpartum health and provides evidence for one potential mechanism for this link: the reduction of perceived postpartum stress. Thus, assessments of women's prenatal relationship satisfaction may help identify those who are at higher risk of experiencing poor postpartum health. Implications for interventions are discussed.

Risk and Resilience Factors During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Snapshot of the Experiences of Canadian Workers Early on in the Crisis.

Research highlights several risk and resilience factors at multiple ecological levels that influence individuals' mental health and wellbeing in their everyday lives and, more specifically, in disaster or outbreak situations. However, there is limited research on the role of these factors in the early days of the COVID-19 crisis. The present study examined if and how potential risk factors (i.e., reduction in income, job insecurity, feelings of vulnerability to contracting the virus, lack of confidence in avoiding COVID-19, compliance with preventative policies) and resilience factors (i.e., trait resilience, family functioning, social support, social participation, and trust in healthcare institutions) are associated with mental health and well-being outcomes, and whether these resilience factors buffer (i.e., moderate) the associations between risk factors and said outcomes. One to two weeks after the government recommended preventative measures, 1,122 Canadian workers completed an online questionnaire, including multiple wellbeing outcome scales in addition to measures of potential risk and resilience factors. Structural equation models were tested, highlighting that overall, the considered risk factors were associated with poorer wellbeing outcomes, except social distancing which was associated with lower levels of stress. Each of the potential resilience factors was found to have a main effect on one or more of the wellbeing outcomes. Moderation analysis indicated that in general these resilience factors did not, however, buffer the risk factors. The findings confirm that the COVID-19 crisis encompasses several stressors related to the virus as well as to its impact on one's social, occupational, and financial situation, which put people at risk for lower wellbeing as early as one to two weeks after the crisis began. While several resilience factors emerged as positively related to wellbeing, such factors may not be enough, or sufficiently activated at that time, to buffer the effects of the numerous life changes required by COVID-19. From an ecological perspective, while mental health professionals and public health decision-makers should offer/design services directly focused on mental health and wellbeing, it is important they go beyond celebrating individuals' inner potential for resilience, and also support individuals in activating their environmental resources during a pandemic.

Activation of the Behavioral Immune System: Putting the Brakes on Affiliation.

Evolutionary psychologists propose that humans evolved a first line of defense against pathogens: the behavioral immune system (BIS). The BIS is thought to be functionally flexible such that the likelihood and magnitude of BIS activation depends on the individual's perceived vulnerability to disease (PVD). Because conspecifics are sources of infection, the BIS has implications for affiliation. By priming and measuring chronic levels of PVD, we examined PVD's relation to affiliation in zero-acquaintance situations in the laboratory, online, and during speed-dating events. Elevated BIS activation was associated with decreased attraction and affiliative behavior in situations that varied in the trade-off between social reward and potential risk of infection. These results were not due to attachment style, personality traits, or disgust sensitivity. This suggests that in social interactions, approach motivation associated with the need to belong may be weighed against avoidance motivation associated with the need to protect the self from disease.

Daily Experiences and Relationship Well-Being: The Paradoxical Effects of Relationship Identification.

OBJECTIVE: Even couples in healthy romantic relationships experience conflict at times. We examine whether relationship identification (the extent to which the relationship is incorporated into the self) predicts immediate reactivity to partner transgressions and also promotes global resilience over time. METHOD: Sixty-three couples participated in a 2-week event-contingent diary study. RESULTS: On a daily basis, experiencing more partner transgressions than usual predicted decreases in relationship well-being and increases in negative affect. This within-person association was stronger for those high in relationship identification. However, after 2 weeks, changes in global relationship evaluations of low identifiers, but not of high identifiers, were contingent on the accumulation of partner transgressions and the degree of negative affect in response to these daily transgressions. CONCLUSIONS: This study suggests that internalizing a relationship into the self does not blind intimates to immediate negative events but rather provides a basis for their global relationship evaluations that is not contingent on recent events.

Social identity change in response to discrimination.

This study investigated the conditions under which discrimination can lead to social identity changes among members of a minority group. Both positive and negative relations between perceptions of discrimination and social identity have previously been reported. To explain the conflicting results and understand the complex reality of members of stigmatized groups, we argue that group-based emotions (e.g., group-based dissatisfaction) and ambiguity of discrimination cues (i.e., overt vs. ambiguous) need to be considered. We hypothesized that perceptions of discrimination would play a moderating role between group-based dissatisfaction and social identity change in a context of ambiguous, but not of overt, discrimination. The sample was comprised of 151 Arab Muslims living in the province of Quebec. Participants read fictitious newspaper articles portraying either overt (n = 76) or ambiguous (n = 75) discrimination towards in-group members. Results revealed that for participants in the overt discrimination condition, only group-based dissatisfaction was positively associated with social identity change. In contrast, for the participants in the ambiguous discrimination condition, those who perceived little discrimination and felt low group-based dissatisfaction reported a decrease in social identity. However, those who perceived low group discrimination and felt high group-based dissatisfaction reported a positive social identity change.

Social change in South Africa: a historical approach to relative deprivation.

Dramatic social change involves profound transformations that impact an entire group moving forward. Such is the reality for race relations in South Africa. Research has found that most people report a trajectory of group-based relative deprivation that appears to parallel actual historical events. However, a significant subset of respondents reported a trajectory in which the perceived status of their group remained stable despite dramatic social change. The first goal of our research was to assess whether both the historically 'assumed' and 'stable' group trajectories arise consistently among South Africans (N = 2,989). The second and more important goal was to identify the factors that might account for this dichotomy in perceived trajectory building on both traditional and recent advances in relative deprivation theory as well as on social identity theory. We hypothesized that higher levels of in-group identification would be associated with the historically assumed group trajectory. Results supported this hypothesis. The third goal was to link the different group trajectories with important psychological outcomes such as personal well-being, group self-esteem, and interracial attitudes.