What's interpersonal in interpersonal perception? The role of target's attachment in the accuracy of perception

Love Lost in Translation: Avoidant Individuals Inaccurately Perceive Their Partners' Positive Emotions During Love Conversations

Empathic accuracy-the ability to decipher others' thoughts and feelings-promotes relationship satisfaction. Those high in attachment avoidance tend to be less empathically accurate; however, past research has been limited to relatively negative or neutral contexts. We extend work on attachment and empathic accuracy to the positive context of love. To do so, we combined data from three dyadic studies (N = 303 dyads) in which couple members shared a time of love and rated each other's positive emotions. Using the Truth and Bias Model of Judgment, we found that individuals higher (vs. lower) in attachment avoidance were less accurate in inferring their partners' positive emotions during the conversation, but did not systematically over- or under-perceive their partners' positive emotions. Our results suggest that avoidant individuals may be less sensitive to positive cues in their relationships, potentially reducing relational intimacy.

Interpersonal Perception of Time-Use Patterns in Romantic Relationships: Protocol for the IP-COUPLES Study

BACKGROUND

Perceptual congruence has been defined as the level of agreement between partners on various aspects of their shared lives, including perceived engagement in individual and jointly performed activities. While the level of adjustment made by partners to such activities is thought to contribute to a couple's sense of mutuality, perceptions of time use concerning activity engagement has yet to be considered. As such, this study will determine the level of perceptual congruence between partners with respect to perceived time use in their respective and shared activities.

OBJECTIVE

The primary objective of the IP-COUPLES study is to determine the similarities and differences between partners in terms of their perceptual congruence with respect to independent and jointly performed activities. This study will also examine the association between independent and joint activities in terms of perceptual congruence of time use and the strength of this association.

METHODS

This descriptive observational study includes 100 couples from Western Switzerland who are recruited using snowball sampling methods. The Life Balance Inventory (LBI), a self-report questionnaire that captures activity configuration congruence, will measure independent and joint perceptions of both time use allocated to daily activities and corresponding satisfaction. Due to COVID-19, the protocol can be administered virtually by the primary investigator. The mean scores of perceptual congruence variables will be used for analysis, namely perceived congruence of time use in terms of independent and jointly performed activities. For the first objective, an independent t test will be used for each variable to compare the mean score between activities on the LBI. For the second objective, the correlations between the mean scores for these activities will be calculated for each variable using the Pearson correlation.

RESULTS

The IP-COUPLES study protocol was developed in 2019 and 2020. Enrollment began in June 2020. Data collection will continue until October 2021 to account for time needed for recruitment due to the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. Analysis and presentation of results are expected in 2022.

CONCLUSIONS

This study is exploratory, as it is the first to our knowledge to investigate how perceived time-use patterns with respect to independent or jointly performed activities are similar or different among romantic couples. By investigating the interpersonal perception of time-use patterns among couples, the IP-COUPLES study is an important first step to understanding how romantic partners' daily activities are contributing to the level of satisfaction as a partner and as a couple and to the sense of mutuality between partners in a romantic relationship.

INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID)

DERR1-10.2196/21306.

Parent-adolescent congruence in phubbing and adolescents' depressive symptoms: A moderated polynomial regression with response surface analyses

BACKGROUND

With the widespread of smartphones, there is an increased interest in exploring the influences of phubbing in modern society. However, little research has examined the impact of parent phubbing (Pphubbing) or adolescent phubbing (Aphubbing) on adolescent development. This conceptual and empirical work aims to explore the unique and joint impacts of Pphubbing and Aphubbing on adolescents' depressive symptoms.

METHOD

Participants were 3322 students from 64 classes of a senior high school. The data were analyzed with polynomial regressions and response surface analyses.

RESULTS

The results showed that Pphubbing was positively related to Aphubbing. Pphubbing and Aphubbing were both positively associated with adolescents' depressive symptoms. In addition, when Pphubbing and Aphubbing were in congruence, adolescents' depressive symptoms would increase as the former two increased. Moreover, adolescents' depressive symptoms would decrease as the discrepancy between parent and adolescent increased. Meanwhile, attachment avoidance moderated the congruence and incongruence effects of parent-adolescent phubbing on adolescents' depressive symptoms.

LIMITATIONS

This study used cross-sectional data, which cannot infer causality.

CONCLUSION

The effect between parent-adolescent congruence in phubbing and adolescents' depressive symptoms is significant, and it is moderated by attachment avoidance.