Eye of the beholder: The individual and dyadic contributions of empathic accuracy and perceived empathic effort to relationship satisfaction.

Cohen, Saul D.; Schulz, Milford D.; Weiss, Emily; Waldinger, Robert J.

doi:10.1037/a0027488

Cited by 94 publications

(108 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…Building on MFT, this strengthens the view that purity concerns, which may be tightly associated with religious norms about sexual restraint and chastity, are the most crucial in predicting a variety of relationship morality norms. Whereas relationships research has often focused on equity and dyadic fairness norms (e.g., Bartz & Lydon, 2008), as well as empathy and perceived harm (e.g., Cohen, Schulz, Weiss, & Waldinger, 2012), the current data underscore the importance of using a perspective that goes beyond these variables. It appears that sensitivity to purity violations may be the best predictor of the extent to which people perceive behaviors as morally wrong in a relational context.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Moral judgment of close relationship behaviors

Selterman

Koleva

2014

Journal of Social and Personal Relationships

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Two studies with a college student (n ¼ 287) and an Internet volunteer sample (n ¼ 795) assessed moral judgments for norm violations in close relationships. We developed a 31-item questionnaire that assessed participants' moral judgments of potential norm violations in relationships, including sexual threats (e.g., watching others masturbate), emotional threats (e.g., keeping romantic memorabilia from past relationships), friendship boundaries (e.g., dating a best friend's ex-partner), digital infidelity (e.g., sexting), and privacy violations (e.g., looking through a partner's belongings). In addition, we assessed general moral concerns, attachment style, and sociosexuality. Results showed that concerns about purity/degradation predicted harsher moral judgments for most types of violations, even when controlling for other moral concerns. Attachment-related avoidance predicted greater permissiveness toward emotional threats, digital infidelity, and friendship boundaries but harsher judgments for privacy violations, whereas attachment anxiety predicted the opposite pattern. Sociosexuality predicted greater permissiveness toward sexual behaviors. Female participants judged most behaviors more harshly than did males. We interpret findings within the frameworks of Attachment Theory and Moral Foundations Theory.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Moral judgment of close relationship behaviors

Selterman

Koleva

2014

Journal of Social and Personal Relationships

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“…However, positive perceptions of partners, including their empathy, has been linked to higher quality of the romantic relationship, especially among women (Busby & Gardner, 2008;Cohen, Schulz, Weiss, & Waldinger, 2012;Long & Andrews, 1990). Moreover, self-empathy has been found to be a strong predictor of whether or not one views their partner as empathic (Kazmierczak, 2008(Kazmierczak, , 2013.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 93%

Couple empathy – the mediator of attachment styles for partners adjusting to parenthood

Kaźmierczak

2014

Journal of Reproductive and Infant Psychology

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Objective and Background: Attachment styles and empathy with respect to couples' functioning during the period of transition to parenthood have rarely been studied. The aim of the present study was to examine the link between attachment security and perceived empathy as well as their role in the adjustment to parenthood. It was hypothesised that secure parents, as opposed to insecure ones, would perceive themselves and their partners as more empathic after the child's birth and, as a consequence, more effectively adapt to parenthood. Methods: Sixty-seven couples experiencing their first transition to parenthood participated in the study. Their attachment styles were measured before the birth of the child. Empathy (as perceived in oneself and in a partner) and adjustment to parenthood were measured when the child was a few months old. Results:The results indicated that new parents with more secure, less anxious-ambivalent, and less avoidant attachment styles expressed and perceived more empathy in their relationships, and they were better adjusted to parenthood. A partner's perceived empathy was found to be a mediator between one's attachment styles and their adjustment to parenthood. In particular, men's self-assessed empathy and men's empathy as perceived by their wives was a significant mediator of the relationship between one's attachment styles and adjustment to parenthood. Conclusion: Attachment styles are associated with the empathy of partners (both declared and perceived), which in turn predicts their better adjustment to parenthood.

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“…Further, perceived empathic effort appears to be more strongly associated with couple relationship satisfaction than accuracy per se(Cohen et al 2012).…”

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confidence: 99%

Attuned to the positive? Awareness and responsiveness to others’ positive emotion experience and display

et al. 2015

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Positive emotions are implicated in affiliation and cooperation processes that are central to human social life. For this reason, we hypothesized that people should be highly aware of and responsive to the positive emotions of others. Study 1 examined awareness by testing the accuracy with which perceivers tracked others' positive emotions. Study 2 examined responsiveness by testing whether positive emotions were predictive of perceivers responding to new relationship opportunity. In Study 1, multilevel analyses of dating couples' estimates of their partner's emotions across four semi-structured interactions revealed that both women and men tracked partner positive emotions with considerable accuracy. Additional analyses indicated that tracking accuracy was most pronounced for positive emotions whose display is known to include the Duchenne smile. In Study 2, multilevel analyses of dyads who watched a set of positive and negative emotion-eliciting film clips with a stranger indicated that only positive emotion display predicted subsequent closeness. Together, these findings show that people are highly attuned to the positive emotions of others and can be more attuned to others' positive emotions than negative emotions.

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Eye of the beholder: The individual and dyadic contributions of empathic accuracy and perceived empathic effort to relationship satisfaction.

Cited by 94 publications

References 33 publications

Moral judgment of close relationship behaviors

Moral judgment of close relationship behaviors

Couple empathy – the mediator of attachment styles for partners adjusting to parenthood

Attuned to the positive? Awareness and responsiveness to others’ positive emotion experience and display

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