Exchange and Communal Strengths’ Associations With Relational Characteristics and Forgiveness

Clark and Mills (2012) proposed that communal norms characterize “healthy marriages,” whereas exchange norms indicate “troubled” ones. Using the actor–partner interdependence model, we consider this proposal. Heterosexual married partners’ exchange and communal strength are examined with several relational features including trust, commitment, relational satisfaction, and control mutuality, as well as partner-specific tendencies toward forgiveness. The findings indicate that one’s communal strength is associated with positive relational features for both oneself and one’s spouse, as well as a greater propensity to forgive and lesser tendencies toward negative forgiveness (retaliation). Exchange strength was generally associated with negative forgiveness. However, the relationship between exchange strength and relational features is more complicated. Lesser communal strength was generally associated with lower levels of the relational characteristics. Yet, exchange and communal strength interacted, indicating exchange may play a protective function by buffering against the ill effects of a lack of communal strength for some relational characteristics.

Responsiveness and Relationship Satisfaction in Couples Coping With Parkinson’s Disease: A Pilot Study

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disorder which impacts the person’s physical, psychological and relational well-being, and the well-being of their romantic partner, who is often in a caregiving role. People with PD may struggle to empathize with and respond to their partner’s emotional states, which can hinder relationship satisfaction for both partners. Care partners, who may feel burnt out from caring for their partner’s physical and cognitive needs, may be limited in their ability to be responsive to their spouse’s relational needs, which can hinder satisfaction. Despite the challenges faced by couples coping with PD, little work has considered the interpersonal factors associated with relationship satisfaction for affected couples. In the current study, we investigated individual differences in the motivation to be responsive to a partner’s needs (i.e., communal strength), as well as perceptions of a partner’s responsiveness (i.e., the extent to which a person perceives their partner to care for, validate, and understand them). We recruited 20 couples in which one partner was diagnosed with PD and their romantic partner self-identified as a full-time caregiver, in order to examine how responsiveness is associated with both partners’ relationship satisfaction. When partners with PD reported higher communal strength, they reported higher relationship satisfaction and so did their care partner. When partners with PD perceived their care partner to be more responsive, they reported higher relationship satisfaction. These findings provide some preliminary evidence for responsiveness as one interpersonal factor worthy of further consideration for helping couples cope with PD.

Communal strength, exchange orientation, equity, and relational maintenance

The purpose of this study was to explore communal strength (i.e., partner-specific communal orientation) and partner-specific exchange orientation, as well as equity, as predictors of relational maintenance. A sample of 309 heterosexual couples completed self-reports. Given the dyadic interdependence, the actor–partner independence model was used. Dyadic analyses were undertaken using structural equation modeling conducted in AMOS. Results indicated that underbenefitedness was a predictor of maintenance behaviors, but overbenefitedness was not. Communal strength was also associated with engagement in maintenance behaviors. Importantly, communal strength moderated the association between underbenefitedness and maintenance such that underbenefitedness did not result in decreases in self-reported maintenance behaviors for those with greater communal strength to the same extent as it did for those with lower communal strength. Exchange orientation also moderated the association between underbenefitedness and maintenance behaviors such that a decline in maintenance behaviors was not as pronounced for those with lower exchange orientations as those with higher exchange orientations. Findings suggest the important role relational orientations may play in enacting our relationships.

Colonialism and Communal Strength

This chapter takes a look at the way that nutritional science moved out of Europe and into the colonial world in the first three decades of the twentieth century. Soon it was not just the strength of individual Western workers that became a governmental concern, but the strength of whole communities instead. The colonial world in this period was often treated as a vast nutritional laboratory, with scholars in the British Empire looking at the diverse people they governed and testing their different theories. This chapter examines how David McCay along with Robert McCarrison, John Gilks, and John Boyd Orr examined diet and human difference in Africa as well as India, reflecting wider debates around racism and eugenics. Nutritional science was heading in an expansive new direction, and food was no longer just an input to the working body or a way to manage closed institutions; it was increasingly seen as responsible for the fate of whole communities, even the fate of the whole world.

Gratitude Increases the Motivation to Fulfill a Partner’s Sexual Needs

Maintaining sexual satisfaction is a critical, yet challenging, aspect of most romantic relationships. Although prior research has established that sexual communal strength (SCS)—i.e., the extent to which people are motivated to be responsive to their partner’s sexual needs—benefits romantic relationships, research has yet to identify factors that promote SCS. We predicted that gratitude would increase SCS because gratitude motivates partners to maintain close relationships. These predictions were supported in three studies with cross-sectional, longitudinal, and experimental methods. Specifically, experiencing and receiving expressions of gratitude were associated with greater SCS. These studies are the first to investigate the benefits of gratitude in the sexual domain and identify factors that promote SCS. Together, these results have important implications for relationship and sexual satisfaction in romantic relationships.

The Detriments of Unmet Sexual Ideals and Buffering Effect of Sexual Communal Strength

Despite the importance of sex for the maintenance of satisfying romantic relationships, our understanding of a person’s sexual ideals—the traits and attributes a person desires in a sexual partner or experience—and what might buffer against lower satisfaction associated with unmet sexual ideals, is limited. Across four studies including cross-sectional, dyadic, longitudinal, and experimental methods (N = 1,532), we draw on the Ideal Standards Model and theories of communal motivation to examine whether unmet sexual ideals are associated with lower sexual satisfaction and relationship quality and test whether higher sexual communal strength—the motivation to meet a partner's sexual needs—buffered these effects. Across studies, when individuals perceived their partner to fall short in meeting their sexual ideals, they reported poorer sexual and relationship quality. People with partners low in sexual communal strength reported poorer sexual satisfaction and relationship quality when their sexual ideals were unmet, but these associations were attenuated among people with partners who were high in sexual communal strength. Perceived partner responsiveness—both in general (Study 2) and to a partner’s sexual needs specifically (Study 3)—was one reason why people with partners high in sexual communal strength were buffered against the lower sexual and relational quality associated with unmet ideals. Please note this manuscript has received provisional acceptance in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.