bims-chumac 2020-01-05 papers

Issue of 2020–01–05
five papers selected by
Jay Dixit, Storytelling.NYC

Arch Sex Behav. 2020 Jan 02.

Coparenting and Relationship Satisfaction in Mothers: The Moderating Role of Sociosexuality.

Diogo Lamela, Bárbara Figueiredo, Inês Jongenelen, Ana Morais, Jeffry A Simpson.

This study explored the moderating effect of sociosexual orientation on the association between coparenting alliance/coparenting conflict and relationship satisfaction in mothers in a romantic relationship. Sociosexuality is defined as a personality trait that reflects the individual difference in willingness to engage in uncommitted sexual relations. The study examined a community sample of 635 Portuguese mothers with a monogamous heterosexual relationship. Data on coparenting, relationship satisfaction, and sociosexual orientation were collected. The results revealed the moderating effect of sociosexuality on the significant associations between both coparenting alliance and coparenting conflict predicting relationship satisfaction. For the association between coparenting alliance and relationship satisfaction, mothers with a more restricted sociosexual orientation reported the highest levels of satisfaction when their coparenting alliance was high, but the lowest levels of satisfaction when coparenting alliance was low. For the association between coparenting conflict and relationship satisfaction, mothers with a more restricted sociosexual orientation reported the highest levels of satisfaction when their coparenting conflict was low, but the lowest levels when coparenting conflict was high. Together, the results suggest that especially for women with a more restricted sociosexual orientation, coparenting quality explains significant interindividual variability in relationship satisfaction.

Keywords: Coparenting; Intimacy; Mothers; Relationship satisfaction; Sociosexuality; Women

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-019-01548-2

Pers Soc Psychol Bull. 2020 Jan 02. 146167219893998

Communicating Commitment: A Relationship-Protection Account of Dyadic Displays on Social Media.

Kori L Krueger, Amanda L Forest.

People often make their romantic relationships visible to others through dyadic displays (DDs). Yet, their reasons for doing so are not well-understood. We proposed and tested a relationship-protection account of DD use, focusing on a social media environment. We predicted that relationship-protection motivation would predict DDs and that DDs would serve a relationship-protective function. In Study 1, a correlational study of romantically involved Facebook users, relationship-protection motivation positively predicted DD use on Facebook even when controlling for feelings of interconnectedness. Relationship-protection motivation also mediated effects of relationship satisfaction and commitment on DD use. In Study 2, participants perceived a target whose Facebook profile we experimentally manipulated to include DDs (vs. not) as more likely to be in a high-quality relationship and less receptive to romantic advances from others, with implications for participants' interest in affiliating with the target. Our findings support a relationship-protection account of DD use on social media.

Keywords: close relationships; commitment; dyadic displays; relationship maintenance; social media

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167219893998

Evol Psychol. 2019 Oct-Dec;17(4):17(4): 1474704919897601

Romantic Love and Attentional Biases Toward Attractive Alternatives and Rivals: Long-Term Relationship Maintenance Among Female Chinese College Students.

Yidan Ma, Weifeng Xue, Guang Zhao, Shen Tu, Yong Zheng.

Studies about heterosexual individuals' long-term relationship maintenance have indicated that committed individuals possess evolved psychological mechanisms that help protect their ongoing romantic relationships against threats from attractive others during early stage attentional processing when mating-related motivation is activated. In this study, two experiments tested the relationship maintenance mechanism among committed female college students in the Chinese cultural context under different love priming conditions. Committed Chinese women displayed inattention to attractive alternatives in positive love-scenario priming (Study 1: 114 female undergraduates, age range = 18-26 years), subliminal semantic love priming (Study 2: 110 female undergraduates, age range = 18-25 years), and baseline conditions (Studies 1 and 2). Those with high levels of chronic jealousy showed significantly increased attention to and difficulty disengaging attention from attractive rivals when subliminally primed with love. This provides further evidence, from an Eastern cultural context, for the existence of attentional biases toward attractive alternatives and rivals in early stage attentional processes for relationship maintenance. This research also illustrates the important role of romantic love in maintaining long-term romantic relationships.

Keywords: attentional bias; emotion; evolutionary psychology; motivation; relationship maintenance

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1474704919897601

Arch Sex Behav. 2020 Jan 02.

Pornography and Relationship Quality: Establishing the Dominant Pattern by Examining Pornography Use and 31 Measures of Relationship Quality in 30 National Surveys.

Samuel L Perry.

Numerous studies have examined the association between pornography use and various measures of relationship quality. Yet scholars have also pointed out the limitations of many such studies, including inconsistent findings for men and women, non-representative samples, and negatively biased measures that could result in misleading findings. The purpose of this study was to establish a dominant pattern in the association between pornography use and relationship quality in a way that mitigated these issues. Data were taken from 30 nationally representative surveys, which together included 31 measures of relationship quality: 1973-2018 General Social Surveys (1 repeated measure); 2006 Portraits of American Life Study (13 measures); 2012 New Family Structures Study (12 measures); and 2014 Relationships in America Survey (5 measures). This allowed for 57 independent tests examining the association between pornography use and relationship outcomes for married Americans and 29 independent tests for unmarried Americans. Along with bivariate associations, full regression models were estimated with sociodemographic controls and interaction terms for gender. For married and unmarried Americans alike, pornography use was either unassociated or negatively associated with nearly all relationship outcomes. Significant associations were mostly small in magnitude. Conversely, except for one unclear exception, pornography use was never positively associated with relationship quality. Associations were only occasionally moderated by gender, but in inconsistent directions. While this study makes no claims about causality, findings clearly affirmed that, in instances where viewing pornography is associated with relationship quality at all, it is nearly always a signal of poorer relationship quality, for men and women.

Keywords: General Social Survey; Marriage; New Family Structures Study; Pornography; Portraits of American Life Study; Relationship satisfaction; Relationships in America Survey; Romantic relationships

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-019-01616-7

Trends Cogn Sci. 2019 Dec 28. pii: S1364-6613(19)30283-9. [Epub ahead of print]

Ecological Sex Ratios and Human Mating.

Jon K Maner, Joshua M Ackerman.

The ratio of men to women in a given ecology can have profound influences on a range of interpersonal processes, from marriage and divorce rates to risk-taking and violent crime. Here, we organize such processes into two categories - intersexual choice and intrasexual competition - representing focal effects of imbalanced sex ratios.

Keywords: cognition; competition; evolution; psychology; relationships; sexuality

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2019.11.008