Thank You for Changing: Gratitude Promotes Autonomous Motivation and Successful Partner Regulation.

Romantic partners often attempt to improve their relationship by changing each other's traits and behaviors, but such partner regulation is often unsuccessful. We examined whether gratitude expressed by agents (i.e., partners requesting change) facilitates greater regulation success from targets (i.e., partners making change) by encouraging targets' autonomous motivation. Across studies, including observational (Study 1, N = 111 couples), preregistered longitudinal (Study 2, N = 150 couples), and experimental (Study 3a, N = 431; Study 3b, N = 725) designs, agents' gratitude for targets' efforts was linked to greater targets'-and less consistently agents'-reported regulation success. These effects were consistently mediated by greater target autonomous motivation, and generally persisted when accounting for how agents communicated their change request and other positive responses to targets' efforts (e.g., positivity and support). Gratitude for targets' efforts appears to be an important tool for promoting change success.

Shared Hearts and Minds: Physiological Synchrony During Empathy.

Empathy is a multidimensional construct that includes changes in cognitive, affective, and physiological processes. However, the physiological processes that contribute to empathic responding have received far less empirical attention. Here, we investigated whether physiological synchrony emerged during an empathy-inducing activity in which individuals disclosed a time of suffering while their romantic partner listened and responded (N = 111 couples). Further, we examined the extent to which trait and state measures of cognitive and affective empathy were associated with each other and with physiological synchrony during this activity. We found evidence for physiological synchrony in skin conductance reactivity and also in interbeat interval reactivity, though only when disclosers were women, but not for respiratory sinus arrhythmia reactivity. Physiological synchrony was not consistently associated with other well-established trait and state measures of empathy. These findings identify the nuanced role of physiological synchrony in empathic responding to others' suffering. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s42761-023-00210-4.

Listening and the pursuit of communal relationships.

Two motivations linked to developing and maintaining communal relationships include caring for others' welfare and striving to be viewed as a desirable communal relationship partner. We review evidence suggesting that both motivations promote high-quality listening. Furthermore, high-quality listening signals listeners' prosocial motivation and enhances the perceived relational value of both listeners and speakers. Thus, high-quality listening likely functions as an effective strategy in the formation and maintenance of communal relationships. This review suggests several directions for future research, including longitudinal research on the role of listening in relationship development, accuracy and bias in detecting and interpreting listening, the influence of conversation topic on listening, the role of people's beliefs about the usefulness of listening, and individual and relationship factors that determine people's motivations for listening.

The Benefits of Living With Close Others: A Longitudinal Examination of Mental Health Before and During a Global Stressor.

For better or worse, the people one lives with may exert a powerful influence on one's mental health, perhaps especially during times of stress. The COVID-19 pandemic-a large-scale stressor that prompted health recommendations to stay home to reduce disease spread-provided a unique context for examining how the people who share one's home may shape one's mental health. A seven-wave longitudinal study assessed mental health month to month before and during the pandemic (February through September 2020) in two diverse samples of U.S. adults (N = 656; N = 544). Preregistered analyses demonstrated that people living with close others (children and/or romantic partners) experienced better well-being before and during the pandemic's first 6 months. These groups also experienced unique increases in ill-being during the pandemic's onset, but parents' ill-being also recovered more quickly. These findings highlight the crucial protective function of close relationships for mental health both generally and amid a pandemic.

Does Religious Priming Induce Greater Prejudice? A Meta-Analytic Review.

The current meta-analysis addressed whether theistic religious beliefs are causally related to greater prejudice by analyzing 44 studies (Ntotal = 11,330) that used experimental designs-priming religion and then measuring negativity toward outgroups (e.g., LGBT and Muslim). The overall priming effect was significant but small (r = .06), indicating that priming religion increases prejudice. The implications of these results for the relation between religion and prejudice and for future work on religious priming are discussed.

When We're Asked to Change: The Role of Suppression and Reappraisal in Partner Change Outcomes.

Receiving a request to change from a romantic partner can evoke intense emotional responses that hinder change progress and conflict resolution. As such, investigating how those being asked to change (i.e., change targets) regulate their emotions through key intrapersonal strategies (i.e., suppression and reappraisal) will lend crucial insight into promoting change success. Utilizing laboratory-interaction (Study 1; N = 111 couples) and experience-sampling methods (Study 2; N = 2178 weekly reports from an 8-week diary), we assessed targets' regulation strategies, change progress, and the extent to which they met their partner's ideals. Preregistered analyses demonstrated that targets' use of suppression was not linked to better or worse change outcomes. However, targets' use of reappraisal was linked to better change outcomes as rated by both partners. Additional analyses revealed that targets' suppression was linked to targets meeting their partner's ideals more in the short term but less over time, whereas targets' reappraisal was linked to targets meeting their partner's ideals more in both the short term and over time. These findings highlight reappraisal as a key strategy for promoting successful partner change.

When the truth helps and when it hurts: How honesty shapes well-being.

Despite honesty being valued in many settings, there is some ambiguity regarding the conditions under which it is beneficial or harmful for individual and relational well-being. We review and evaluate current work linking honesty to well-being. Specifically, we highlight and distinguish associations between honesty and different types of well-being within people, between people, and among broader groups, organizations, and societies. Importantly, we provide additional context that explains why honesty is not universally associated with greater well-being-and how it may even incur costs for individuals. We provide suggestions for future directions for moving toward a more holistic understanding of honesty and the ways in which honesty can be used to understand individual and relational functioning.

Lightening the load: Perceived partner responsiveness fosters more positive appraisals of relational sacrifices.

Romantic partners regularly sacrifice their own self-interest when partners' needs and preferences diverge. The present work examines the role of perceived partner responsiveness (PPR)-impressions that one's partner is understanding, caring, and validating-in positively shaping people's appraisals of their relational sacrifices. In Study 1, a preregistered experiment of romantically involved individuals (N = 548), we manipulated PPR (high, low, or control) in a hypothetical sacrifice scenario. In Study 2, we tracked romantic couples' (N = 126) in-lab conversations about a sacrifice (Study 2a), and their sacrifices in daily life (Study 2b). In Study 3, romantic couples (N = 111) engaged in lab conversations about a sacrifice that entailed making a change that one partner desired from the other, and reported on their progress 2 weeks later. In Study 4, we surveyed romantically involved individuals (N = 230) who recently made a life-changing sacrifice by relocating to a new city or country to support their partner's career. Across studies, results showed that higher PPR fostered more positive sacrifice appraisals (i.e., lower costs and viewing the act as less of a sacrifice, greater satisfaction, greater personal and relational benefits, lower regret) and greater sacrifice behavior (Study 3)-in part due to greater closeness with and lower negative affect toward the partner. Additionally, Study 4 suggested that PPR partly originated from the partner's efforts to fulfill fundamental psychological needs (i.e., autonomy, competence, relatedness). Thus, PPR can play a critical role in lightening the load of daily and even life-changing sacrifices. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

The Distinct Effects of Empathic Accuracy for a Romantic Partner's Appeasement and Dominance Emotions.

When is accurately reading other people's emotions costly and when is it beneficial? We aimed to identify whether the association between empathic accuracy and both relationship quality and motivation to change varies depending on the type of emotion being detected: appeasement (e.g., embarrassment) or dominance (e.g., anger). Romantic partners (couples: N = 111; individuals: N = 222) discussed a characteristic they wanted their partner to change and rated their own emotions and perceptions of their partner's emotions. Relationship quality was self-reported and objectively coded. Using multilevel response-surface analysis, we tested preregistered hypotheses about whether empathic accuracy for appeasement and dominance emotions was differentially associated with relationship quality and motivation to change. For appeasement emotions, empathic accuracy predicted higher relationship quality. For dominance emotions, higher intensity of felt emotions-not empathic accuracy-predicted lower relationship quality. Empathic accuracy did not predict the motivation to change. These results suggest that the benefits of empathic accuracy can depend on the emotion type.

Rosmarinic Acid/ Blue Light Combination Treatment Inhibits Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma In Vitro.

BACKGROUND/AIM: This study investigated a novel combined therapy of rosmarinic acid (RA)/blue light on head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) cell proliferation in vitro. MATERIALS AND METHODS: HNSCC cells were exposed to BL (500 mW/cm2) for 90 s, and incubated with 80 µg/ml RA for 1 hour. Cell viability was determined after 24 h using WST-1 assay. Western blot was used to detect treatment-induced changes in epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) activation. Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and nitric oxide levels were quantified using CM-H2DCFH-DA assays. Apoptosis was assessed using Annexin V/PI staining and flow cytometry. RESULTS: RA/blue light treatment resulted in a significant reduction in cell viability, EGFR activation and H2O2 levels in all HNSCC cell lines. However, no significant changes in NO production or apoptosis induction were found. CONCLUSION: RA/blue light effectively decreased HNSCC cell proliferation through reduction in EGFR activation and H2O2 production, and not via induction of apoptosis.

Synthetic TRuC receptors engaging the complete T cell receptor for potent anti-tumor response.

T cells expressing CD19-targeting chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) reveal high efficacy in the treatment of B cell malignancies. Here, we report that T cell receptor fusion constructs (TRuCs) comprising an antibody-based binding domain fused to T cell receptor (TCR) subunits can effectively reprogram an intact TCR complex to recognize tumor surface antigens. Unlike CARs, TRuCs become a functional component of the TCR complex. TRuC-T cells kill tumor cells as potently as second-generation CAR-T cells, but at significant lower cytokine release and despite the absence of an extra co-stimulatory domain. TRuC-T cells demonstrate potent anti-tumor activity in both liquid and solid tumor xenograft models. In several models, TRuC-T cells are more efficacious than respective CAR-T cells. TRuC-T cells are shown to engage the signaling capacity of the entire TCR complex in an HLA-independent manner.

Communal motivation and well-being in interpersonal relationships: An integrative review and meta-analysis.

The motivation to care for the welfare of others, or communal motivation, is a crucial component of satisfying interpersonal relationships and personal well-being. The current meta-analysis synthesized 100 studies (Ntotal = 26,645) on communal motivation to establish its associations with subjective personal well-being (e.g., life satisfaction, positive affect, and negative affect) and relationship well-being (e.g., relationship satisfaction, partner-oriented positive affect, and partner-oriented negative affect) for both the person providing communal care and their partner. Three types of communal motivation were examined, including general, partner-specific (for children, parents, romantic partners, and friends), and unmitigated (i.e., devoid of agency and self-oriented concern). Results revealed positive associations between all three forms of communal motivation and relationship well-being for the self (.11 ≤ rs ≤ .44) and relationship partners (.11 ≤ rs ≤ .15). However, only general and partner-specific communal motivation, and not unmitigated communal motivation, were linked with greater personal well-being for both the self (.12 ≤ rs ≤ .16) and relationship partners (.04 ≤ rs ≤ .09). These associations were generally consistent across gender, relationship length, publication status, and lab. Finally, relationship partners were similar in partner-specific (r = .26) and unmitigated (r = .15) communal motivation only. Findings from the current meta-analysis suggest that care for the welfare of others is linked to greater relationship well-being for both members of a relationship. However, communal care is only linked to personal well-being insofar as it is mitigated by a degree of self-oriented concern. We provide theoretical and power recommendations for future research. (PsycINFO Database Record

The Costs of Suppressing Negative Emotions and Amplifying Positive Emotions During Parental Caregiving.

How do parents feel when they regulate their emotional expressions in ways that are incongruent with their genuine feelings? In an experimental study, parents reported experiencing lower authenticity, emotional well-being, relationship quality, and responsiveness to their children's needs when they recalled caregiving experiences in which they suppressed negative emotions and amplified positive emotions, relative to a control condition. In a 10-day daily experience study, parents tended to use both regulation strategies simultaneously. In addition, assessing their unique effects indicated that positive emotion amplification, but not negative emotion suppression, had an indirect effect on parental outcomes via authenticity, with negative emotion suppression no longer being costly. This indirect effect was dampened when accounting for care difficulty. In both studies, effects were independent of a child's mood. The current results suggest that parents' attempts to suppress negative and amplify positive emotions during child care can detract from their well-being and high-quality parent-child bonds.

The Brief Aggression Questionnaire: Structure, Validity, Reliability, and Generalizability.

In contexts that increasingly demand brief self-report measures (e.g., experience sampling, longitudinal and field studies), researchers seek succinct surveys that maintain reliability and validity. One such measure is the 12-item Brief Aggression Questionnaire (BAQ; Webster et al., 2014), which uses 4 3-item subscales: Physical Aggression, Verbal Aggression, Anger, and Hostility. Although prior work suggests the BAQ's scores are reliable and valid, we addressed some lingering concerns. Across 3 studies (N = 1,279), we found that the BAQ had a 4-factor structure, possessed long-term test-retest reliability across 12 weeks, predicted differences in behavioral aggression over time in a laboratory experiment, generalized to a diverse nonstudent sample, and showed convergent validity with a displaced aggression measure. In addition, the BAQ's 3-item Anger subscale showed convergent validity with a trait anger measure. We discuss the BAQ's potential reliability, validity, limitations, and uses as an efficient measure of aggressive traits.

The brief aggression questionnaire: psychometric and behavioral evidence for an efficient measure of trait aggression.

A key problem facing aggression research is how to measure individual differences in aggression accurately and efficiently without sacrificing reliability or validity. Researchers are increasingly demanding brief measures of aggression for use in applied settings, field studies, pretest screening, longitudinal, and daily diary studies. The authors selected the three highest loading items from each of the Aggression Questionnaire's (Buss & Perry, 1992) four subscales--Physical Aggression, Verbal Aggression, anger, and hostility--and developed an efficient 12-item measure of aggression--the Brief Aggression Questionnaire (BAQ). Across five studies (N = 3,996), the BAQ showed theoretically consistent patterns of convergent and discriminant validity with other self-report measures, consistent four-factor structures using factor analyses, adequate recovery of information using item response theory methods, stable test-retest reliability, and convergent validity with behavioral measures of aggression. The authors discuss the reliability, validity, and efficiency of the BAQ, along with its many potential applications.

When holding back helps: suppressing negative emotions during sacrifice feels authentic and is beneficial for highly interdependent people.

Is the suppression of negative emotions ever associated with beneficial outcomes in relationships? The study reported here drew on research and theory on emotion regulation, self-construal, and sacrifice to test the hypothesis that individual differences in interdependent self-construal moderate the association between negative-emotion suppression and the personal and interpersonal outcomes of sacrifice. In a 14-day daily-experience study of people in romantic relationships, people with higher levels of interdependence experienced boosts in personal well-being and relationship quality if they suppressed their negative emotions during sacrifice, whereas those who construed the self in less interdependent terms experienced lower well-being and relationship quality if they suppressed their negative emotions during sacrifice. Feelings of authenticity for the sacrifice mediated these associations. These findings identify a critical condition under which the suppression of negative emotions may be personally and interpersonally beneficial.

KPT-330 inhibitor of CRM1 (XPO1)-mediated nuclear export has selective anti-leukaemic activity in preclinical models of T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia and acute myeloid leukaemia.

This study explored the anti-leukaemic efficacy of novel irreversible inhibitors of the major nuclear export receptor, chromosome region maintenance 1 (CRM1, also termed XPO1). We found that these novel CRM1 antagonists, termed SINE (Selective Inhibitors of Nuclear Export), induced rapid apoptosis at low nanomolar concentrations in a panel of 14 human T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (T-ALL) cell lines representing different molecular subtypes of the disease. To assess in vivo anti-leukaemia cell activity, we engrafted immunodeficient mice intravenously with the human T-ALL MOLT-4 cells, which harbour activating mutations of NOTCH1 and NRAS as well as loss of function of the CDKN2A, PTEN and TP53 tumour suppressors and express a high level of oncogenic transcription factor TAL1. Importantly, we examined the in vivo anti-leukaemic efficacy of the clinical SINE compound KPT-330 against T-ALL and acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) cells. These studies demonstrated striking in vivo activity of KPT-330 against T-ALL and AML cells, with little toxicity to normal murine haematopoietic cells. Taken together, our results show that SINE CRM1 antagonists represent promising 'first-in-class' drugs with a novel mechanism of action and wide therapeutic index, and imply that drugs of this class show promise for the targeted therapy of T-ALL and AML.