The relationship of employment to self-perception and well-being in women: A cognitive analysis

We investigated the relationship of employment to self-perception and well-being in women who held two different cognitive orientations toward paid work (career oriented and not career oriented) and who also varied in the degree to which their current employment status realized their view of paid work. The data were taken from a 1977 survey of a large sample of women and included responses to questions about self-esteem, life satisfaction, and self-perception. The results indicated that career-oriented women who were employed full time were happier with themselves and their lives than those employed part time or not employed. In contrast, for women who were not career oriented, being employed was not associated with greater self-esteem or well-being. In addition, career-oriented women who were employed were the most likely to emphasize job-related characteristics in their self-descriptions. These findings suggest that the psychological benefits of employment that have been identified repeatedly in previous research are likely to be accrued only by women who regard paid work as a meaningful self-fulfilling activity.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/45581/1/11199_2004_Article_BF00288148.pd

Machine learning uncovers the most robust self-report predictors of relationship quality across 43 longitudinal couples studies

Given the powerful implications of relationship quality for health and well-being, a central mission of relationship science is explaining why some romantic relationships thrive more than others. This large-scale project used machine learning (i.e., Random Forests) to 1) quantify the extent to which relationship quality is predictable and 2) identify which constructs reliably predict relationship quality. Across 43 dyadic longitudinal datasets from 29 laboratories, the top relationship-specific predictors of relationship quality were perceived-partner commitment, appreciation, sexual satisfaction, perceived-partner satisfaction, and conflict. The top individual-difference predictors were life satisfaction, negative affect, depression, attachment avoidance, and attachment anxiety. Overall, relationship-specific variables predicted up to 45% of variance at baseline, and up to 18% of variance at the end of each study. Individual differences also performed well (21% and 12%, respectively). Actor-reported variables (i.e., own relationship-specific and individual-difference variables) predicted two to four times more variance than partner-reported variables (i.e., the partner’s ratings on those variables). Importantly, individual differences and partner reports had no predictive effects beyond actor-reported relationship-specific variables alone. These findings imply that the sum of all individual differences and partner experiences exert their influence on relationship quality via a person’s own relationship-specific experiences, and effects due to moderation by individual differences and moderation by partner-reports may be quite small. Finally, relationship-quality change (i.e., increases or decreases in relationship quality over the course of a study) was largely unpredictable from any combination of self-report variables. This collective effort should guide future models of relationships

Depression, working models of others and relationship functioning

Two studies examined depressives' working models of others and the relative contribution of these models and depression to relationship functioning. Respondents reported on their childhood relationships, adult attachment style, and relationship functioning. Study 1 compared 163 mildly depressed and nondepressed college women (aged 17-48 yrs), and Study 2 compared 25 married women recovering from clinical depression with 23 nondepressed married women (mean age 40 yrs for both groups). Mildly depressed college women evidenced greater preoccupation and fearful avoidance in romantic relationships than did nondepressed women; recovering depressed women evidenced greater fearful avoidance. In both studies, relationship functioning was predicted more strongly by adult attachment style than by depression status. Among college women, positive experiences with mother also were linked to better relationship functioning; however, attachment style and depression status mediated this effect

Adult Attachment Theory and Affective Reactivity and Regulation

nature of close bonds between two people. Bowlby’s original theory, which focused on understanding the close enduring bonds between infants and their caregivers, highlighted two ways in which emotion is implicated in attachment. First, when infants experience emotional distress, they seek proximity to their caregiver. Second, caregivers who are sensitive and responsive are able to help infants regulate their feelings of distress, enabling them to experience an emotional sense of well-being or “felt security ” (Sroufe & Waters, 1977). Research on attachment in adult close relationships (e.g., romantic relationships), which are the focus of this chapter, also has highlighted the connection between attachment and emotion (e.g., Hazan & Shaver, 1987; Pietromonaco & Feldman Barrett, 2000). Like children, when adults become distressed in the face of a threat, they may seek out an attachment figure in an attempt to regain an emotional sense of felt security (Simpson & Rholes, 1994). Although researchers have examined the link between adult attachment and emotion, the precise role of emotion in attachment processes remains unclear. Most researchers have assumed that mental representations of the self in relation to others, or internal working models (Bowlby, 1973), trigger the experience and regulation of emotion. However, the object relations tradition from which Bowlby emerged reflects a conception of working models as part of a dynamic system that is organized by both the experience and regulation of emotion (Pietromonaco & Feldman Barrett, 2000; Reis & Patrick, 1996). Following this perspective, we (Pietromonaco & Feldman Barrett, 2000) have proposed that emotion and regulation strategies are formative in the developmen