Social Psychological and Personality Science

Power balance, that is, equal levels of potential influence between relationship partners, has been linked to relationship happiness. This study examined whether power balance is indeed positively related to relationship quality (RQ) for both couple members using dyadic response surface analysis (total N = 879 couples). In Studies 1 to 3, we found linear but no similarity effects of power on RQ. Experiencing power was positively related to both actor’s and partner’s RQ. In Study 4, again, no similarity but actor and partner effects were found on sexual satisfaction. These findings show that the link between power balance and RQ found in previous research does not hold with sophisticated analysis techniques that overcome issues of previous approaches (e.g., difference scores). In fact, the absolute level of experienced power, not power balance, matters for both RQ and sexual satisfaction. Practitioners may target strengthening an individual’s power instead of focusing on issues of power balance.

The present study aimed to examine whether the spillover effects existed between daily marital interactions and daily parenting practices after disentangling the between- and within-family effects and whether parents’ sensory processing sensitivity (SPS) would moderate such associations. The current study included 127 parents (83.3% female and 16.7% male; M age = 34.18, SD = 4.15) who reported their marital interactions and parenting practices over 14 consecutive days. The results of two separate dynamic structural equation models showed that the spillover effects of marital interactions to parenting occurred in a transient and mood-congruent pattern, and SPS traits moderated the relations between marital conflict and negative parenting practices.

Previous research has established that gendered sexual scripts shape sexual behavior. This study seeks to expand prior work on orgasm disparities for women across sexual orientations by exploring the role of partner gender. Across two studies, we examined how the gender of women’s sexual partners influenced their orgasm goal pursuit. We compared lesbian and heterosexual women’s experience with their most recent partner in Study 1, and experimentally compared bisexual women partnered with a woman or a man in a hypothetical sexual encounter in Study 2. In both studies, women reported higher clitoral stimulation and orgasm expectations when partnered with a woman compared to a man. Moreover, partner gender had a significant indirect effect on women’s orgasm goal pursuit through clitoral stimulation and expectations for orgasm. These results suggest that sexual scripts associated with partner gender play a key role in the orgasm gap for women who have sex with men.

Past research has been inconclusive regarding the continued existence of the sexual double standard (SDS)—that is, differential expectations and evaluations of sexual activity for men (rewarded for sexual activity) and women (punished for sexual activity). Here, we present the similarities and differences (S&D) model of sexual standards, which significantly qualifies the traditional SDS by highlighting both similarities and differences between standards applied to women and men. Across two samples (student/community sample, crowdsourcing sample; N_total = 342) and seven sexual outcomes, high sexual activity was rated more favorably in men than in women (replicating previous research), and the opposite was true for low sexual activity (extending previous research). Importantly, moderate (not extremely low or high) sexual activity was rated most favorably in both genders, suggesting similar and curvilinear intragender trajectories. These findings illustrate a distinctly different perspective on male and female sexuality and open avenues for new research.

Conventional wisdom suggests that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Echoing this sentiment, theoretical perspectives on close relationships suggest that the synergistic combination of both partners’ personal qualities can influence relationship outcomes above and beyond the simple additive influence of each partner’s qualities. Yet, empirical research leaves it unclear whether the interactive effects of own and partner attachment insecurity, one of the most notable individual difference predictors of relationship outcomes, predicts relationship dissolution, one of the most notable relationship outcomes. We combined data from five independent longitudinal studies of 539 newlywed couples to address this issue. Three of the four interactive combinations (all except own attachment avoidance × partner attachment avoidance) predicted marital dissolution serially through (a) initial marital satisfaction and (b) changes in satisfaction. Findings provide evidence of interactive attachment effects and underscore the importance of both couple members’ characteristics for maintaining satisfying romantic relationships.

The present study examined the size and possible sources of life satisfaction differences between immigrants and natives in a sample of over 55,000 adults (aged 50+ years) across 16 European countries and Israel. Consistent with theory and prior research, immigrants reported lower life satisfaction than natives on average, while the size of the life satisfaction gap varied substantially across individuals and countries. Low neuroticism and high extraversion reduced the life satisfaction gap, suggesting that these personality traits may serve as internal resources for immigrants when faced with migration-related stressors. In contrast, we found a wider life satisfaction gap between immigrants and natives in high-income countries, suggesting that economic disparities between immigrants and natives in prosperous nations may contribute to the observed life satisfaction gap.

Communities across the United States are removing Confederate monuments from public spaces. Little work, however, has considered downstream consequences of these decisions. Across three experiments and four replications in Supplemental Material, we examine impacts of community decisions on individuals’ perceptions of communities’ efforts toward racial equity. We find that the removal of monuments leads White Americans—but not Black Americans—to believe that communities will sufficiently prioritize policies aimed at redressing racial inequity in the future. Taken together, these findings suggest that the symbolic removal of Confederate monuments may signal different structural equity investments to different constituencies, with Whites anticipating that communities will engage in sufficient racial equity policy efforts and Black Americans remaining skeptical.

When people say a value is important to them, does it have consequences years later? Recent research found that among people who hold a value to be highly important, there tend to be strong relations between that value and behavior. But does this effect persist over time? The current research found that highly important values correlate with behavior, 1 and 2 years later, significantly more strongly than less important values, using a sample of Australian adults (n = 2,333 to 3,135). We found this between refined values and indices of value-expressive behaviors, as well as between tradition and universalism values and charitable donations. This adds to our understanding of the nature of values as priorities, showing that highly important values operate differently to less important values by having a stronger role in their effect on behavior, not just in the present but also in the future.

Despite political and societal efforts to reduce social inequality in education, students from nonacademic households (no parent holds a university degree) are less likely to enter higher education than their peers from academic households. Drawing on Cultural Mismatch Theory, we tested whether social disparities in enrollment intentions are related to students’ anticipated mismatch between their self-construal and expected higher education culture. Experimental data (N = 264) revealed a corresponding mismatch effect between students’ self-construal and expected culture on their anticipated fit in a higher education program. In addition, field data (N = 574) from upper secondary school students revealed that students from nonacademic households more strongly anticipate a mismatch and, in turn, have a lower intention to enter higher education. Corroborating our theorizing, these social disparities are contingent on the expected culture in higher education. These findings highlight the role of students’ self-construal and anticipated fit for higher education enrollment.

Research on person-situation dynamics has mostly focused on only the person or the situation in isolation in the prediction of outcomes and has relied on single rating sources. The current work examined simultaneously the effects of personality traits, personality states, situation characteristics, and trait × state as well as trait × situation interactions on teachers’ job performance using self-ratings and two types of other ratings. Twice daily during a 13- or 14-day experience sampling study, teachers’ personality states, situation characteristics, and job performance were rated by N = 173 teachers, N = 98 supervisors, and N = 1,295 students (69 classes). Results demonstrated main effects of personality traits, personality states, and situation characteristics on momentary job performance, with meaningful alignments between significant predictors (e.g., Extraversion and Positivity). With only one exception, no statistically significant interactions were found. Overall, these findings highlight that both personality and situation characteristics uniquely predict teaching performance.

How does character information inform judgments of blame? Some argue that character information is indirectly relevant to blame because it enriches judgments about the mental states of a wrongdoer. Others argue that character information is directly relevant to blame, even when character traits are causally irrelevant to the wrongdoing. We propose an empirical synthesis of these views: a two channel model of blame. The model predicts that character information directly affects blame when this information is relevant to the wrongdoing that elicits blame. Furthermore, the effect of character information on blame depends on judgments about the true self that are independent of judgments of intentionality. Across three preregistered studies (N = 662), we found support for all three predictions of the two channel model. We propose that this reflects two distinct functions of blame: a social regulatory function that encourages norm compliance and a pedagogical function that encourages personal improvement.