Implicitly imprinting the past on the present: Automatic partner attitudes and the transition to parenthood

A new model is proposed to explain how automatic partner attitudes affect how couples cope with major life transitions. The Automatic Partner Attitudes in Transition (APAT) model assumes that people simultaneously possess contextualized automatic attitudes toward their partner that can differ substantively in valence pre- and post-transition. It further assumes that evaluatively inconsistent pre- and post-transition automatic partner attitudes elicit heightened behavioral angst or uncertainty, self-protective behavior in response to risk, and relationship distress. A longitudinal study of the transition to first parenthood supported the model. People with evaluatively inconsistent automatic partner attitudes, whether more negative pre-transition and positive post-transition, or more positive pre-transition and negative post-transition, exhibited heightened evidence of cardiovascular threat discussing conflicts, increased self-protective behavior in response to parenting-related transgressions in daily interaction, and steeper declines in relationship well-being in the year following the transition to parenthood

Facing the Facets: No Association Between Dispositional Mindfulness Facets and Positive Momentary Stress Responses During Active Stressors

Mindfulness has been associated with enhanced coping with stress. However, it remains unclear how dispositional mindfulness impacts the nature and valence of experiences during active stressors. Across 1,001 total participants, we used cardiovascular responses from the biopsychosocial model of challenge/threat to assess the degree to which individuals cared about a stressor in the moment and had a positive versus negative psychological experience. Although we found a small association between mindfulness—particularly the acting with awareness facet—and responses consistent with caring more about the stressor(i.e., greater task engagement), we found no evidence that mindfulness was associated with exhibiting a more positive psychological response (i.e., greater challenge)during the stressor. Despite no differences in the valence of momentary experiences as a function of mindfulness, individuals higher in mindfulness self-reported more positive experiences afterward. These findings suggest that dispositional mindfulness may benefit responses to active stressors only after they have passed

Lovers in a dangerous time: Ecologically motivated relationship safety regulation

The proposed model of ecologically motivated relationship safety regulation posits that close relationships offer symbolic safety when natural ecologically-based threats activate the need for self-preservation. The model makes the twin assumptions that (1) natural ecological threats motivate people in unreliable relationships to perceive their relationships as bastions of safety, but (2) that their personal capacities for resilience in the face of threat constrain such motivated perceptions. Two internal meta-analyses of 4 correlational/cross-sectional and 5 experimental studies (Ntotal=5,030) using different methods and conceptualizations of natural ecological threats (acute and chronic pain; pathogenic transmission) supported the hypotheses. People in less satisfying relationships symbolically defended against natural ecological threats by affirming the available safety in their close relationships when they were high in self-esteem (i.e., high in personal resiliency), but not when they were low in self-esteem. However, people in highly satisfying relationships did not defend against natural ecological threats, likely because they already felt safe in their relationships

Clever girl: Benevolent sexism and cardiovascular threat

Benevolent sexism is a double-edged sword that uses praise to maintain gender inequality, which consequently makes women feel less efficacious, agentic and competent. This study investigated whether benevolently sexist feedback that was supportive could result in cardiovascular responses indicative of threat (lower cardiac output/higher total peripheral resistance). Women received either supportive non-sexist or supportive yet benevolent sexist feedback from a male evaluator following practice trials on a verbal reasoning test. As expected, women receiving benevolent sexist feedback exhibited cardiovascular threat during a subsequent test, relative to women receiving non-sexist feedback. There was no support for an alternative hypothesis that benevolent sexist feedback would lead to cardiovascular responses consistent with disengaging from the task altogether (i.e., lower heart rate and ventricular contractility). These findings illustrate that the consequences of benevolent sexism can occur spontaneously, while women are engaged with a task, and when the sexist feedback is intended as supportive