In Journal Club, students and professors talk together about exciting new psychology research. By reading and discussing a short, current article, students learn necessary skills about understanding and interpreting psychological research.
Wednesday, February 1, 2023, 4:30-5:30pm, Centenary Square 210
Discussion led by Dr. Pete Zunick (PSY359 Personality)
The Longitudinal Effect of Narcissistic Admiration and Rivalry Traits on Relationship Satisfaction
By Elyakim Kislev
This research estimates how changes in admiration and rivalry narcissistic traits correlate with changes in relationship satisfaction over time. Longitudinal analyses based on data from the Panel Analysis of Intimate Relationships and Family Dynamics (pairfam) studies were used to investigate this question. Findings show associations between heightening rivalry narcissistic traits and decreased levels of relationship satisfaction among men and women, and between heightening admiration narcissistic traits and decreased levels of relationship satisfaction among men. When the two aspects were estimated together, accounting for collinearity, heightening admiration narcissistic traits were not associated with changes in relationship satisfaction among men, while, among women, they correlated with increased levels of relationship satisfaction. These findings advance previous propositions in recent literature and shed light on gender differences in this regard.
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Monday, February 27th, 2023, 4:30-5:30pm, Centenary Square 210
Discussion led by Dr. Amy Hammond (PSY396 Dating & Mating)
Recovering From Conflict in Romantic Relationships: A Developmental Perspective
By Jessica E. Salvatore, Sally I-Chun Kuo, Ryan D. Steele, Jeffry A. Simpson, and W. Andrew Collins
This study adopted a developmental perspective on recovery from conflict in romantic relationships. Participants were 73 young adults (target participants), studied since birth, and their romantic partners. A novel observational coding scheme was used to evaluate each participant’s degree of conflict recovery, operationalized as the extent to which the participant disengaged from conflict during a 4-min “cool-down” task immediately following a 10-min conflict discussion. Conflict recovery was systematically associated with developmental and dyadic processes. Targets who were rated as securely attached more times in infancy recovered from conflict better, as did their romantic partners. Concurrently, having a romantic partner who displayed better recovery predicted more positive relationship emotions and greater relationship satisfaction. Prospectively, target participants’ early attachment security and their partners’ degree of conflict recovery interacted to predict relationship stability 2 years later, such that having a partner who recovered from conflict better buffered targets with insecure histories.
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DATE CHANGE: Thursday, March 30th, 2023, 4:30-5:30pm, Centenary Square 210
Discussion led by Dr. Amy Hammond (PSY327 Psychology of Design)
Applying Restorative Environments in the Home Office while Sheltering-in-Place
By Curtis M. Craig, Brittany N. Neilson, George C. Altman, Alexandra T. Travis, and Joseph A. Vance
Objective: The objective of this review was to spotlight specific methods for people working from home to apply restorative environment research to improve productivity and mental health during shelter-in-place. Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has led to sheltering-in-place and telework. While necessary, these strategies may lead to negative consequences such as social isolation and worse performance. However, nature environments have been shown to have a variety of positive effects in several different settings, including improved attention, positive affect, and increased job satisfaction, and these may be translated to the home workspace setting. Method: This provides a narrative review of the environmental psychology literature, describing articles involving nature in a task performance or stress context and how it has been applied. It then moves on to discuss how these findings could possibly be applied in the context of workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Results: Although beneficial results are mixed, the review found a variety of relatively simple and cost-effective methods that could assist workers during the COVID-19 pandemic, including taking a break in nature and implementing nature in the workspace. Application: The application of restorative environment research could be an efficient way of mitigating the negative psychological effects due to at-home sheltering and telework in order to combat COVID-19.
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If you have questions, please contact Dr. Amy Hammond in the Psychology Department.