"Mostly White, heterosexual couples": Examining demographic diversity and reporting practices in relationship science research samples.

Social and personality psychologists aim to "understand individuals in their social contexts for the benefit of all people" (Society for Personality and Social Psychology, n.d.). Though this mission is admirable, value statements do little, on their own, to create an inclusive, high-quality science that benefits humanity broadly. In this research, we evaluate relationship science, a major subfield of social-personality psychology, illustrating both the unique diversity-relevant challenges faced by particular subfields and the barriers to inclusive and diverse research that are shared across research areas. Specifically, we examine the sample diversity and reporting practices of 1,762 studies published in eight mainstream psychology and relationships journals at two time points-(a) 1996-2000 and (b) 2016-2020-and center our analysis around five focal sample characteristics: gender, sexual orientation, regional context, socioeconomic status (SES), and race. We find that reporting practices and representation have not improved for some core demographic characteristics (e.g., socioeconomic status) and that even in domains for which reporting practices have improved (e.g., sexual orientation), reporting remains limited. Further, we find that reporting practices in relationship science frequently center Whiteness (e.g., "participants were mostly White"), obscure or overlook potential sexual orientation diversity (e.g., implying that individuals in man-woman dyads are "heterosexual"), and treat the United States as the contextual default (e.g., participants came from a "large Southeastern university"). In light of these findings, we offer recommendations that we hope will cultivate a more representative and inclusive discipline. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Connect or protect? Social class and self-protection in romantic relationships.

Lower SES (socioeconomic status) couples tend to face particular challenges in their relationships. Relative to higher SES couples, they are less likely to marry and more likely to divorce-but they do not value their romantic relationships any less. Drawing on risk regulation theory and theories of social class as culture, we suggest that lower SES individuals adapt to their more chronically precarious environments by prioritizing self-protection more than higher SES individuals do, but that the need to self-protect may undermine relationship satisfaction. We investigate these ideas across 3 studies, using cross-sectional, longitudinal, and daily-diary methods. Lower SES individuals were more self-protective, both in their thoughts about their relationship (Studies 2-3), and in the judgments they made about their partner's commitment level over 2 years (Study 1) and 2 weeks (Study 3). Self-protection, in turn, was associated with lower relationship satisfaction (Studies 2-3). However, lower SES individuals were only self-protective when feeling vulnerable in their relationships (Study 3). Taken together, these studies identify psychological mechanisms to explain why the structural challenges that lower SES individuals experience can make it more difficult to achieve satisfying relationships. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Who are "We"? Couple Identity Clarity and Romantic Relationship Commitment.

This research introduces the construct of couple identity clarity-the extent to which an individual, as one of two partners in a romantic relationship, believes that the two of them know who they are as a couple. Cross-sectional (Studies 1-2), experimental (Study 3), and longitudinal (Study 4) studies supported the hypothesis that couple identity clarity is associated with higher commitment. Moreover, higher couple identity clarity, although related to actual agreement between partners on their identity as a couple, predicted commitment above and beyond agreement (Study 2)-as well as predicted reduced likelihood of relationship dissolution over a 9-month period (Study 4). Exploratory analyses revealed that successful conflict resolution may enhance couple identity clarity, in turn predicting commitment (Study 4). These studies highlight the importance of people's understanding of who they are as a couple and how this understanding shapes relationship persistence.

You Can't See the Real Me: Attachment Avoidance, Self-Verification, and Self-Concept Clarity.

Attachment shapes people's experiences in their close relationships and their self-views. Although attachment avoidance and anxiety both undermine relationships, past research has primarily emphasized detrimental effects of anxiety on the self-concept. However, as partners can help people maintain stable self-views, avoidant individuals' negative views of others might place them at risk for self-concept confusion. We hypothesized that avoidance would predict lower self-concept clarity and that less self-verification from partners would mediate this association. Attachment avoidance was associated with lower self-concept clarity (Studies 1-5), an effect that was mediated by low self-verification (Studies 2-3). The association between avoidance and self-verification was mediated by less self-disclosure and less trust in partner feedback (Study 4). Longitudinally, avoidance predicted changes in self-verification, which in turn predicted changes in self-concept clarity (Study 5). Thus, avoidant individuals' reluctance to trust or become too close to others may result in hidden costs to the self-concept.

"You've Changed": Low Self-Concept Clarity Predicts Lack of Support for Partner Change.

People often pursue self-change, and having a romantic partner who supports these changes increases relationship satisfaction. However, most existing research focuses only on the experience of the person who is changing. What predicts whether people support their partner's change? People with low self-concept clarity resist self-change, so we hypothesized that they would be unsupportive of their partner's changes. People with low self-concept clarity did not support their partner's change (Study 1a), because they thought they would have to change, too (Study 1b). Low self-concept clarity predicted failing to support a partner's change, but not vice versa (Studies 2 and 3), and only for larger changes (Study 3). Not supporting a partner's change predicted decreases in relationship quality for both members of the couple (Studies 2 and 3). This research underscores the role of partners in self-change, suggesting that failing to support a partner's change may stem from self-concept confusion.

The Importance of Relevant Emotional Arousal in the Efficacy of Pictorial Health Warnings for Cigarettes.

INTRODUCTION: Warning labels for cigarettes proposed by Food and Drug Administration (FDA) were rejected by the courts partly because they were thought to be emotionally evocative but have no educational value. To address this issue, we compared three types of smoking warnings: (1) FDA-proposed warnings with pictures illustrating the smoking hazards; (2) warnings with the same text information paired with equally aversive but smoking-irrelevant images; and (3) text-only warnings. METHODS: Smokers recruited through Amazon's Mechanical Turk were randomly assigned to one of the three conditions. They reported how many cigarettes they smoked per day (CPD) during the past week and then viewed eight different warnings. After viewing each warning, they rated its believability and perceived ability to motivate quitting. One week later, 62.3% of participants again reported CPD during the past week, rated how the warnings they viewed the week before changed their feeling about smoking, rated their intention to quit in the next 30 days, and recalled as much as they could about each of the warnings they viewed. RESULTS: Compared to the irrelevant image and text-only warnings, FDA warnings were seen as more believable and able to motivate quitting and at the follow-up, produced lower CPD, worse feeling about smoking, and more memory for warning information, controlling for age and baseline CPD. CONCLUSIONS: Emotionally evocative warning images are not effective in communicating the risks of smoking, unless they pertain to smoking-related hazards. In future versions of warning labels, pictorial contents should be pretested for the ability to enhance the health-hazard message. IMPLICATIONS: Our study shows that contrary to court opinions, FDA-proposed pictorial warnings for cigarettes are more effective in communicating smoking-related hazards than warnings that merely contain emotionally aversive but smoking-irrelevant images. The suggestion that FDA's proposed warnings employed emotionally arousing pictures with no information value was not supported. Pictures that illustrate the risk carry information that enhances the persuasiveness of the warning. The congruence between pictures and text should be a criterion for selecting warning images in the future.

Graphic Warning Labels Elicit Affective and Thoughtful Responses from Smokers: Results of a Randomized Clinical Trial.

OBJECTIVE: Observational research suggests that placing graphic images on cigarette warning labels can reduce smoking rates, but field studies lack experimental control. Our primary objective was to determine the psychological processes set in motion by naturalistic exposure to graphic vs. text-only warnings in a randomized clinical trial involving exposure to modified cigarette packs over a 4-week period. Theories of graphic-warning impact were tested by examining affect toward smoking, credibility of warning information, risk perceptions, quit intentions, warning label memory, and smoking risk knowledge. METHODS: Adults who smoked between 5 and 40 cigarettes daily (N = 293; mean age = 33.7), did not have a contra-indicated medical condition, and did not intend to quit were recruited from Philadelphia, PA and Columbus, OH. Smokers were randomly assigned to receive their own brand of cigarettes for four weeks in one of three warning conditions: text only, graphic images plus text, or graphic images with elaborated text. RESULTS: Data from 244 participants who completed the trial were analyzed in structural-equation models. The presence of graphic images (compared to text-only) caused more negative affect toward smoking, a process that indirectly influenced risk perceptions and quit intentions (e.g., image->negative affect->risk perception->quit intention). Negative affect from graphic images also enhanced warning credibility including through increased scrutiny of the warnings, a process that also indirectly affected risk perceptions and quit intentions (e.g., image->negative affect->risk scrutiny->warning credibility->risk perception->quit intention). Unexpectedly, elaborated text reduced warning credibility. Finally, graphic warnings increased warning-information recall and indirectly increased smoking-risk knowledge at the end of the trial and one month later. CONCLUSIONS: In the first naturalistic clinical trial conducted, graphic warning labels are more effective than text-only warnings in encouraging smokers to consider quitting and in educating them about smoking's risks. Negative affective reactions to smoking, thinking about risks, and perceptions of credibility are mediators of their impact. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Clinicaltrials.gov NCT01782053.

Can you tell that I'm in a relationship? Attachment and relationship visibility on Facebook.

People often attempt to shape others' perceptions of them, but the role of romantic relationships in this process is unknown. The present set of studies investigates relationship visibility, the centrality of relationships in the self-images that people convey to others. We propose that attachment underlies relationship visibility and test this hypothesis across three studies in the context of Facebook. Avoidant individuals showed low desire for relationship visibility, whereas anxious individuals reported high desired visibility (Studies 1 and 2); however, similar motives drove both groups' actual relationship visibility (Study 1). Moreover, both avoidant individuals and their partners were less likely to make their relationships visible (Studies 1 and 3). On a daily basis, when people felt more insecure about their partner's feelings, they tended to make their relationships visible (Study 3). These studies highlight the role of relationships in how people portray themselves to others.

Me After You: Partner Influence and Individual Effort Predict Rejection of Self-Aspects and Self-Concept Clarity After Relationship Dissolution.

Individuals in ongoing romantic relationships incorporate attributes from their partner into their own self-concepts. However, little research has investigated what happens to these attributes should the relationship end. Across three studies, the present research sought to examine factors that predicted whether individuals retain or reject attributes from their self-concept that they initially gained during a relationship. We predicted that individuals would be more likely to reject attributes from their self post-dissolution if their ex-partner was influential in them adding those attributes to the self in the first place. However, we expected this effect to be moderated such that individuals who exerted greater, versus lesser, effort in maintaining relevant attributes would retain them as part of the self, regardless of whether the attribute originated from the partner. In addition, in two of our three studies, we explored the roles of partner influence, effort, and attribute rejection on individuals' post-dissolution self-concept clarity.

Affective and cognitive mediators of the impact of cigarette warning labels.

INTRODUCTION: Research conducted by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to select graphic warning labels for cigarette packs has been challenged as inadequate for demonstrating effects on smokers' beliefs about smoking. The present study tested the prediction that warnings alter risk perceptions and thoughts of quitting indirectly through a cognitive pathway (warning believability) and an affective pathway (worry about health), both of which are important for encouraging smokers to consider quitting. METHODS: Using a national Internet panel, individuals who smoke were randomly assigned to view 1 of 3 types of warning labels: basic text only, graphic image with basic text, and graphic image with both basic and additional text elaborating on the reason for the health risk. Analyses were conducted to determine whether cognitive and affective reactions mediated effects on smoking-related outcomes. RESULTS: Images influenced perceived risk, immediate desire to smoke, and feelings toward quitting indirectly through affective reactions; elaborated text influenced these outcomes through cognitive believability, with little evidence of direct effects. Believability also enhanced positive feelings toward quitting among smokers who were less worried about health risks due to smoking. CONCLUSIONS: The findings indicate that (a) many effects of warnings on smokers' beliefs are mediated rather than direct, (b) both cognitive and affective responses are important mediators, and (c) elaborated text can help to increase effects of images through a cognitive pathway. Warning labels should be designed to maximize effects on these mediators in order to influence smoking outcomes.