NEW PSYCH PAPER 2 and 3

Formation of personal relationships

Johnston et al

Buss

Role of communication

Gottman and Levenson

Rehman and Holtz Munro

Explanation for why relationships change or end

Gottman and Levenson

Rehman and Holtz Munro

Biological explanation of stress

Cohen 1993

Kiecolt-glaser et al

Sociocultural explanation of stress

Evans and kim 2007

Tung et al

Cognitive explanation of stress

Newcomer et al

Jamieson et al

Johnson 2001

• determine if females prefer masculine faces during ovulation

• lab experiment

• 42 females

• new mexico state uni

• computer face altering and tracked cycles

• ovulation = more masc face

• fertility high, masc = healthy, best offspring

Buss 1989

• men and women around world have same mate preferences?

• 10,000 participants

• 37 cultures

• questionnaires

• male = good looks, chastity, youth

• female = financial prospects, age

• gender consistency across world supports evolutionary explanation for attraction

Gottman and Levenson

• determine positive communications effect on healthy relationship

• love lab monitoring

• 73 couples

• 4 year period

• regulated = more positive interactions

• non-regulated = more negative interactions

• non-regulated = three times more likely to divorce throughout course of study

• regulated = higher marital satisfaction

• healthy ratio = 5:1 positive to negative interactions

• positive maintains relationship negative damages it

Rehman and Holtz-munro

• compare communication styles and marital satisfaction

• questionnaire correlational study

• 3 groups of married couples

• 50 couples per group

• USA, Pakistani, Pakistani immigrants in US

• more positive communication = higher marital satisfaction (strongest in American couples)

• communication important across all cultures but may be more important in west

Cohen 1993

• to see if stress affects the chance of illness

• experiment

• IV = exposure to cold or saline solution

• DV = whether participants got cold or not

• 276 healthy participants had health ad stress levels determined

• participants exposed to cold or placebo

• quarantined for 5 days

• checked daily for signs of illness

• nature and duration of stress are strong predictors for contracting cold

• unemployed = 3x more likely

• high stress levels for more than a month = 2x more likely

• relationship problems = 2.5x more likely

Kiecolt-Glaser et al

• to see if stress affects natural killer (NK) immune cell activity

• medical students given social readjustment rating scale to measure stress and loneliness

• participants had blood samples measured for NK cell activity before exams and again after exams

• decrease in cells between test 1 and test 2

• participants in high stress group more likely to have lower levels of NK cells

• stress before exams played a part in dealing with exam stress

• as body deals with stress, immune system become exhausted

Evans and Kim

• investigate long term effect of poverty and physiological stress

• longitudinal correlational study

• 207 13-year-olds in US in poverty

• measured blood pressure, cortisol levels after exposure to stressor

• collected qualitative data on exposure to risk factors (domestic violence, neighborhood crime, and lack of quality housing)

• more years spent in poverty = more health issues

• higher overnight cortisol levels in children who had spent a longer time in poverty

• lower social status correlates with higher physical signs of stress

Tung et al

• investigate whether place in social hierarchy leads to more gene expression in monkeys (genes associated with immune cells, inflammation, and glucocorticoids)

• 49 mid ranking macaques

• introduced to new groups (started as lowest)

• took blood samples to test genes

• 10 social groups used

• monkeys in bottom = more gene expression in immune related inflammation genes (in humans inflammation is risk factor for diseases)

Newcomer et al

• to test whether high levels of cortisol interfere with verbal declarative memory

• 3 conditions (high level, low level, placebo)

• employees/students at washu

• asked to listen to and recall parts of a prose paragraph

• high cortisol = impaired memory task perfromance

• cortisol interferes with the transfer of short term memory to long term memory with interferes with verbal declarative memory

Jamieson et al

• to see if reappraising physiological signs of stress (heart racing, palms sweaty) as helpful could change cognitive outcomes of stress

• 3 groups with different advice

• 1. stress was good and helped their bodies

• 2. block out stress and focus on what’s in front of you

• 3. no guidance

• each group performed a stress inducing task with measured stress response

• group 1 had better cardiovascular response

• reappraisal helped physiological response to stress