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Romantic relationships vary in quality, and the purpose of the present investigation was to examine a wide scope of linguistic variables as possible markers of this variability. Ninety-six undergraduate students within committed romantic relationships were asked to write freely about their partnership, following which they reported on relationship qualities such as trust, love, and satisfaction. In addition, 87 partners reported on their perceptions of relationship closeness, and 88 participants completed at least 8 days of a daily diary protocol. The occurrence of positive emotion words predicted relationship satisfaction, and the use of first-person plural words predicted partner perceptions of closeness. Beyond such findings, relationship quality varied positively with linguistic certainty, inclusiveness, and expressiveness. Conversely, several findings point to linguistic variables, such as anxiety, that suggest inhibitory processes within the relationship. Altogether, the research extends our knowledge concerning the linguistic factors that differentiate high-quality relationships from less functional ones.

Taking care of one's health can require trading current feelings for longer-term considerations of health and well-being. The present research (total N = 366) sought to assess ego operations of this type in terms of the extent to which the self would be capable of responding to health-challenging situations in ways deemed to be effective. Ego effective individuals engaged in a greater frequency of health-protective behaviors as well as a lesser frequency of risky behaviors, both with respect to a peer protocol (Study 1) and a daily life protocol (Study 2). Findings are informative concerning multiple self-regulation perspectives on health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Succeeding within the friendship domain is likely to require skills related to both agency and communion. Based on such thinking, this study assessed variations in friendship competence (FC) using a recently developed test that conceptualizes FC in ability‐based terms. In addition, extensive information was obtained from participants (n = 188), their best friends (n = 161), and peers (n = 453) who were knowledgeable concerning the best friend relationship. Participants obtaining higher (relative to lower) FC scores responded to simulated challenges in ways implicating greater attention to both helpfulness and practicality and they reported higher levels of intimacy in their best friend relationships. Although friendship competence was less successful in predicting best friend outcomes, peers of participants with higher FC levels viewed their targets as more socially skilled in both agentic and communal terms. The results, in total, provide critical knowledge concerning competent friendship functioning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: An advantage of the trait approach to health is that it implicates common elements to multiple different health behaviors. An advantage of the social-cognitive approach, in contrast, is that it models the situational factors that are likely to elicit particular behavioral reactions. The present research sought to combine the advantages of these two approaches.Method: A situational judgment method was developed to quantify general variations in health competence (HC) in terms of more specific responses to simulated health-challenging events.Results: After developing the method, Study 1 showed that individual differences in HC were systematically related to approach-related coping tendencies and behaviors known to be health promoting. Study 2 then showed that variations in HC predicted both health behaviors and quality of life among older individuals.Conclusions: The results highlight a new form of HC that is not dependent on self-reports of ability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Individual differences in social relationship competence (SRC) should have significant implications for social relationship success and well-being. Ability-based measures of SRC are scarce, though, particularly in social-personality psychology, and these considerations led to the present research. In specific terms, a situation judgment method was used to create and examine the correlates of a scenario-based assessment of SRC termed the Social Relationship Competence-Ability Measure (SRC-AM). Four studies (total N = 994) were conducted. Study 1 used item-total correlations and factor analyses to select scenarios from a larger pool. Studies 2 and 3 then showed that the SRC-AM predicted outcomes consistent with social relationship success (Study 2) as well as psychological well-being (Study 3). Study 4, finally, linked SRC levels to peer ratings of social competence and popularity. The research highlights a class of social inferences and abilities that possess novel implications for social relationship success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How people interpret and respond to simulated interpersonal events may provide insight into their values, beliefs, and personality. In pursuit of this possibility, a three-study program of research (total N = 576) applied a situational judgment method to the domain of friendship behavior. Specifically, consensus scoring techniques were used to scale the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of different ways of responding to vignettes involving protagonists and their friends. These norms were then used to score a dimension of friendship competence that was defined in terms of endorsing ways of responding (to friendship scenarios) that tend to be effective. Study 1 established the reliability of the relevant individual differences, Study 2 showed that they were related to both agreeableness and extraversion, and Study 3 showed that they predicted friendship quality as well as prosocial and antisocial behavior. The research provides novel insights into key personality processes that underlie social behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metaphors frequently link negative affect with darkness and associations of this type have been established in several experimental paradigms. Given the ubiquity and strength of these associations, people who prefer dark to light may be more prone to negative emotional experiences and symptoms. A five study investigation (total N = 605) couches these ideas in a new theoretical framework and then examines them. Across studies, 1 in 4 people preferred the perceptual concept of dark over the perceptual concept of light. These dark-preferring people scored higher in neuroticism (Studies 1 and 2) and experienced greater depressive feelings in daily life (Study 3). Moreover, dark preferences shared a robust relationship with depressive symptoms (Study 4) as well as generalised anxiety symptoms (Study 5). The results provide novel insights into negative affectivity and extend conceptual metaphor theory in a way that is capable of making individual difference predictions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ideological liberals may focus on mental operations to a greater extent than bodily operations, whereas this pattern may be reversed among conservatives. Although there are suggestive sources of evidence, prior research has not directly examined relations between political ideology and this mind–body distinction. The present investigation did so by content-coding texts using the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count program and its cognitive and bodily process categories. Three studies involving posts to political news websites (Study 1), presidential State of the Union addresses (Study 2), and writing samples by laypersons (Study 3) converged on the hypothesis that texts produced by those with liberal ideologies would score positively in mind–body terms (reflecting a greater relative mental focus), whereas texts produced by those with conservative ideologies would score negatively in mind–body terms (reflecting a greater bodily focus), a novel linguistic signature of political ideology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Socioemotional skills, such as the ability to recognize, understand, and regulate the emotions of self and others, are associated with both physical and emotional health. The present study tested the effectiveness of a recently validated online training program for increasing these emotional skills in adults. In this study, 448 participants (323 female) were randomly assigned to complete this training program or a placebo control program. Among those who completed the training program or placebo ( N = 326), the training program led to improved scores post-training on measures of interoceptive and emotional awareness, mindfulness, emotion recognition, and emotion regulation strategies (e.g., reduced emotion suppression and greater impulse control) relative to placebo. In a smaller group of participants who also completed a 6-month follow-up visit ( N = 94), sustained improvements were observed on several measures in those who completed the training program, while the placebo group instead showed decreased performance. This suggested a potentially protective effect against emotional challenges associated with the COVID-19 pandemic occurring during this time. These results suggest that this online training program shows promise in improving emotional skills relevant to adaptive social and emotional functioning, and that it might be useful as an intervention within at-risk populations and those with emotional disorders associated with reduced application of these skills. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).