Patterns and Universals of Adult Romantic Attachment Across 62 Cultural Regions

As part of the International Sexuality Description Project, a total of 17,804 participants from 62 cultural regions completedthe RelationshipQuestionnaire(RQ), a self-reportmeasure of adult romanticattachment. Correlational analyses within each culture suggested that the Model of Self and the Model of Other scales of the RQ were psychometrically valid within most cultures. Contrary to expectations, the Model of Self and Model of Other dimensions of the RQ did not underlie the four-category model of attachment in the same way across all cultures. Analyses of specific attachment styles revealed that secure romantic attachment was normative in 79% of cultures and that preoccupied romantic attachment was particularly prevalent in East Asian cultures. Finally, the romantic attachment profiles of individual nations were correlated with sociocultural indicators in ways that supported evolutionary theories of romantic attachment and basic human mating strategies.

Time to face it! Facebook intrusion and the implications for romantic jealousy and relationship satisfaction

Young people's exposure to social network sites such as Facebook is increasing, along with the potential for such use to complicate romantic relationships. Yet, little is known about the overlaps between the online and offline worlds. We extended previous research by investigating the links between Facebook intrusion, jealousy in romantic relationships, and relationship outcomes in a sample of undergraduates currently in a romantic relationship. A Facebook Intrusion Questionnaire was developed based on key features of technological (behavioral) addictions. An eight-item Facebook Intrusion Questionnaire with a single-factor structure was supported; internal consistency was high. Facebook intrusion was linked to relationship dissatisfaction, via jealous cognitions and surveillance behaviors. The results highlight the possibility of high levels of Facebook intrusion spilling over into romantic relationships, resulting in problems such as jealousy and dissatisfaction. The results have implications for romantic relationships and for Facebook users in general.

The hypnotist in the hypnosis interaction: the impact of first impressions on perceptions of hypnotizability

Hypnotist perceptions of participant cues and behaviors were investigated in an in-depth phenomenological study focusing on the influence of participant hypnotizability and hypnotist style. Two hypnotists and 124 participants (63 hypnotizable and 61 nonhypnotizable) took part. Two modifications of the Experiential Analysis Technique (EAT) were employed. One version involved a new modification where both hypnotist and participant took part together in the EAT session. The second version involved the EAT with the hypnotist alone as per an existing modification of the technique. Results extend earlier work pointing to the active, sentient nature of hypnotist involvement and highlight the particular importance of first impressions in shaping hypnotists' perceptions of participant hypnotizability. Results point to difficulties inherent in the hypnotist role. Findings overall support devoting increased attention to the nature of hypnotists' involvement and its implications for understanding relational processes in hypnosis.

Patterns and universals of mate poaching across 53 nations: the effects of sex, culture, and personality on romantically attracting another person's partner

As part of the International Sexuality Description Project, 16,954 participants from 53 nations were administered an anonymous survey about experiences with romantic attraction. Mate poaching--romantically attracting someone who is already in a relationship--was most common in Southern Europe, South America, Western Europe, and Eastern Europe and was relatively infrequent in Africa, South/Southeast Asia, and East Asia. Evolutionary and social-role hypotheses received empirical support. Men were more likely than women to report having made and succumbed to short-term poaching across all regions, but differences between men and women were often smaller in more gender-egalitarian regions. People who try to steal another's mate possess similar personality traits across all regions, as do those who frequently receive and succumb to the poaching attempts by others. The authors conclude that human mate-poaching experiences are universally linked to sex, culture, and the robust influence of personal dispositions.

Universal sex differences in the desire for sexual variety: tests from 52 nations, 6 continents, and 13 islands

Evolutionary psychologists have hypothesized that men and women possess both long-term and short-term mating strategies, with men's short-term strategy differentially rooted in the desire for sexual variety. In this article, findings from a cross-cultural survey of 16,288 people across 10 major world regions (including North America, South America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Southern Europe, Middle East, Africa, Oceania, South/Southeast Asia, and East Asia) demonstrate that sex differences in the desire for sexual variety are culturally universal throughout these world regions. Sex differences were evident regardless of whether mean, median, distributional, or categorical indexes of sexual differentiation were evaluated. Sex differences were evident regardless of the measures used to evaluate them. Among contemporary theories of human mating, pluralistic approaches that hypothesize sex differences in the evolved design of short-term mating provide the most compelling account of these robust empirical findings.

Universal sex differences in the desire for sexual variety: tests from 52 nations, 6 continents, and 13 islands

Evolutionary psychologists have hypothesized that men and women possess both long-term and short-term mating strategies, with men's short-term strategy differentially rooted in the desire for sexual variety. In this article, findings from a cross-cultural survey of 16,288 people across 10 major world regions (including North America, South America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Southern Europe, Middle East, Africa, Oceania, South/Southeast Asia, and East Asia) demonstrate that sex differences in the desire for sexual variety are culturally universal throughout these world regions. Sex differences were evident regardless of whether mean, median, distributional, or categorical indexes of sexual differentiation were evaluated. Sex differences were evident regardless of the measures used to evaluate them. Among contemporary theories of human mating, pluralistic approaches that hypothesize sex differences in the evolved design of short-term mating provide the most compelling account of these robust empirical findings.

Adolescents' interactions with the opposite sex: influence of attachment style and gender

The present research assessed attachment style and gender differences in adolescents' relationships with the opposite sex, using questionnaire and diary methodologies. In Study 1, 193 unmarried undergraduate subjects completed questionnaire measures of attachment style, relationship history and attitudes to sex. Relationship history data supported previous findings: avoidant subjects reported fewer and less intense love experiences; anxious/ambivalent subjects reported frequent but less enduring love relationships; secure subjects reported more loving and satisfying relationships. As hypothesized, avoidant subjects were more accepting of casual (uncommitted) sex than other attachment groups. In Study 2, 85 subjects from the previous study used a diary format to record their interactions with members of the opposite sex, classifying each interaction according to intimacy level and partner type. Avoidant subjects engaged in fewer interactions overall, fewer chats, and interacted with a smaller number of friends. Anxious/ambivalent subjects engaged in fewer interactions with strangers than did secure subjects. Female avoidants and male anxious/ambivalents were the least likely to report engaging in sexual intercourse during the course of the study, suggesting that attachment style and gender role expectations jointly influence relationship development.

Parent and adolescent perceptions of family functioning: a comparison of clinic and non-clinic families

In this paper two studies are reported which compare (a) the perceptions of family functioning held by clinic and non-clinic adolescents, and (b) the perceptions of family functioning held by adolescents and their mothers in clinic and non-clinic families. In Study 1, matched group of clinic and non-clinic adolescents were compared on their responses to a 30-item scale (ICPS) designed to measure three factors of family functioning: Intimacy (high vs. low), Parenting Style (democratic vs. controlled) and Conflict (high vs. low). Clinic and non-clinic adolescents were also compared on their responses to a multi-dimensional measure of adolescent self-concept. Although there was little difference between the two groups of adolescents in terms of their perceptions of family functioning, there were strong relationships between the self-concept variables and the family functioning variables. In Study 2, comparisons were made between the perceptions of family functioning held by mothers and adolescents for both clinical and non-clinic families. There were no differences between the two groups of adolescents in terms of their perceptions of family functioning, although there were clear differences between the two groups of mothers. In addition, clinic adolescents and their mothers did not differ in their perceptions of the family, whereas adolescents in the non-clinic group saw their families significantly as less intimate and more conflicted than did their mothers.

The family and the unemployed adolescent

The present study explores the relationship between adolescent unemployment and family functioning. Adolescents and their parents completed the Family Adaptability and Evaluation Scales (FACES III) initially when the adolescents were in the final year of compulsory schooling, and then again at yearly intervals for 2 years. During this time the adolescents had either returned to school, or become employed or unemployed. Differences in perceptions according to employment group of the adolescent were found for both adolescents and their parents, highlighting the effect of an unemployed adolescent on adolescent and parent perceptions of family functioning. Unemployed adolescents and their parents saw the family as less cohesive at all three times of the study. Parents of employed and unemployed adolescents wanted more cohesion, as did unemployed males and females, and employed males. Greater dissatisfaction about family cohesion was expressed by unemployed adolescents and their parents than by the other groups.

Factor Analysis of the Comrey Personality Scales in an Australian Sample

The Comrey Personality Scales (CPS) were administered to a sample of 669 Australians. The 40 subscales that define the eight CPS factors were intercorrelated along with two validation scale scores, age and sex. This matrix of correlations was factor analyzed to determine if the same structure of personality traits previously found in other groups would also hold for Australians. All eight CPS personality factors appeared as expected, showing excellent agreement with past findings in other groups. This agreement in factor structure occurred despite many significant differences in personality factor score means between this sample and the normative group sample. These findings lend additional support to the premise that the eight personality factors measured by the CPS have considerable stability across cultural boundaries.

Eyseneck Personality Inventory Item Factor Structure

The Eysenck Personality Inventory (EPI) was administered to a sample of 583 Australians. Responses to the 57 items were intercorrelated and factor analyzed by three different methods: (a) extract two principal factors and rotate them by varimax; (b) extract as many factors as possible by the minimum residual method, determine the correct number of factors using the Tandem Criteria method and then rotate that number of factors by the Tandem Criterion I method; (c) using ones in the diagonals, extract all factors with positive eigen values and rotate these factors by varimax. All three methods obtained major Neuroticism and Extraversion factors but the third method gave the poorest confirmation of the expected factor structure for these items. Of the remaining two methods, the second is preferred for testing the expected underlying factor structure for these items since it permits items to remain on the same factor only if they are correlated with each other and it reveals what other constructs may be required in addition to those hypothesized to account for all the common factor variance.

Adolescent and parent perceptions of family cohesion and adaptability

This study examined across 281 families of different aged adolescents the similarity of parent-adolescent perceptions of levels of adaptability and cohesion in families. Compared to parents, adolescents of almost all age groups (13-17 years) were less satisfied with levels of adaptability in families and so the ability of the family to change its roles and rules in relation to stress. Adolescents judged the present state of the family as more inflexible to changes in its structure than did parents. Asked about ideal levels of adaptability, fathers with 14 and 16 year old adolescents of both sexes, and fathers with 17 year old sons were least flexible about changes to the power and role structure of families. Scores on cohesion or the emotional bonding in families indicated that across family types parents judged the family as more cohesive than did adolescents. Adolescents, however, still showed fairly high levels of cohesion, although below their parents. Adolescents desire changes to power and roles in the family system, but still want a relatively cohesive and supportive family environment.

Parent-adolescent communication

This project involved the development of a questionnaire for measuring parent-adolescent communication on both process and content dimensions. The six process dimensions, chosen on the basis of available literature, were: frequency, initiation, recognition, self-disclosure, domination and satisfaction. Six-point scales with clearly defined scale points were designed for each dimension. Fourteen content areas were also chosen and these were selected to include areas representative of two dimensions: general principles vs. specific issues, and external social reference vs. intrafamily references. First-year university students rated their interactions with their mothers, fathers and both parents together on each of the six process dimensions for each of the fourteen content areas. Parents were asked to rate the same items in the way they thought their adolescent son or daughter would rate them. Results were analysed separately for each process dimension using discriminant analysis, with sex of parent and sex of adolescent as independent variables. Overall, adolescents of both sexes tended to communicate more with mothers than with fathers over a wide range of areas. In fact, politics was the only area on which subjects talked more with fathers than mothers. Also, more self-disclosure occurred to mothers than to fathers, with daughters disclosing more to mothers than did sons. Mothers were also more accurate than fathers at predicting adolescents' responses. The usefulness of the questionnaire for exploring this important area of parent-adolescent communication will be discussed.