A Qualitative Examination of Dialogical Elements in Anti-Racist Deep Canvassing Conversations

This community-based action research study aimed to better understand the dialogical process underlying deep canvassing (Denizet-Lewis, 2016), a social justice intervention technique for engaging in nonconfrontational discussions designed to constructively challenge prejudicial attitudes. Previously, it has been suggested, but not demonstrated, that cognitive dissonance and perspective taking may serve as the mechanisms of change that facilitate shifts in the process of these dialogues. In the current study, 15 anti-racist deep canvassing conversations with White individuals were facilitated by White canvassers working with Showing Up for Racial Justice New York City. A dialogical approach was used to address the question of what intrapsychic and interpersonal processes occurred in these conversations on the topic of reparations. Themes included Interpersonal Agreement, Intervoice Dynamics, Authoring the Self and the Other, and Bringing in Personal Experience. We discuss the results and implications for future action research with prejudice reduction interventions.

Will You Go on a Date with Me? Predicting First Dates from Linguistic Traces in Online Dating Messages

From conveying intimacy (“I like you”) to irritation (“stop messaging me!”) and dissatisfaction (“I don’t think we’ll work out”), language use plays a fundamental yet often overlooked role in the initiation of relationships. In online dating, daters exchange messages to determine how interested they are in a partner and whether they would like to go on a first date with them. In two studies, we examined whether linguistic features present in online dating messages can predict whether a first date took place. In Study 1, we identified five interpersonal processes related to first date outcomes: investment, interdependence, emotional dynamics, decision-making, and coordination. In Study 2, we tested our hypotheses generated from Study 1 on a new dataset. Our results suggest that certain linguistic features within online dating messages can be used to predict above chance the likelihood of going on a first date.

The process, benefits and challenges of providing psychological consultation in adoption services

Psychological consultation is one way of reaching a greater number of families with limited resources, yet little is known about the benefits and challenges of this intervention in adoption. We qualitatively explored consultations provided to adoption social workers by clinical psychologists. Six social workers and four clinical psychologists participated in semi-structured interviews. Five themes with supporting sub-themes were identified: (1) A context of highly emotive work with scarce resources; (2) consultations draw on Dyadic Developmental Practice and systemic thinking and involve goal-oriented and interpersonal processes; (3) consultations experienced as valuable despite challenges; (4) consultations facilitate learning for both social workers and psychologists; and (5) a collaborative focus and the ‘expert role’. Our findings suggest consultation is experienced positively by social workers and psychologists, that it successfully facilitates the transfer of psychological knowledge, and has the potential to enhance multi-agency working. Future research needs to better understand the impact of consultation on adoptive families.

Parent-Adolescent Reminiscing and Youth Psychopathology: A Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Investigation

<p>Parent-child conversations about past experiences—reminiscing—are key in children’s growing emotional competency and their psychological well-being (Salmon & Reese, 2016). Very little research, however, has investigated the relationship between parent-adolescent reminiscing conversations and adolescent psychological adjustment, which is particularly important because adolescence is a period of heightened risk for the development of rumination and internalising disorders, especially anxiety and depression (Miller-Slough & Dunsmore, 2016). This thesis extended the literature on reminiscing in three ways. First, we examined different qualities of mother-adolescent reminiscing and their relationships to psychological outcomes during the period of middle adolescence. Second, we investigated the associations between mother-adolescent reminiscing qualities and youth rumination and internalising symptoms (anxiety and depression), cross-sectionally and longitudinally to help disentangle the direction of the associations. Finally, we applied dyadic methods of coding and statistical analyses in a novel approach that modelled the transactional nature of reminiscing conversations and their associations with youth psychological outcomes. In Study 1 we tested the discriminant and convergent validity of a dyadic coding scheme, for use on parent-adolescent conversations about past events. The aim of Study 1 was to establish the methodological foundations for examining parent-adolescent reminiscing conversations in a way that lends itself to dyadic analysis. To do this, two coding schemes (a traditional reminiscing scheme and a dyadic scheme) were applied to a community sample of 67 mother-adolescent dyad and their conversations about a past shared conflict event. Consistent with our predictions, parent-adolescent reminiscing qualities that extended the conversation and promoted highly detailed narratives were correlated with supportive interpersonal processes that endorsed co-construction and collaboration during the discussion. In contrast, qualities that discontinued the conversation were correlated with unsupportive interpersonal processes that promoted avoidance/disengagement and repetitive problem engagement. Next, we applied the dyadic coding scheme to assess the transactional relationships between parent-adolescent reminiscing qualities and youth rumination and internalising symptoms. In Study 2 we tested the cross-sectional (Study 2a) and longitudinal (Study 2b) relationships between parent-adolescent reminiscing qualities and youth rumination, anxiety, and depression. Using the same sample of 67 mother-adolescent dyads in Study 1, transcripts of the past conflict discussions were coded dyadically for unsupportive and supportive mother and adolescent reminiscing qualities. Self-report measures of rumination, anxiety, and depression were also collected from mothers and adolescents, respectively. The adolescents then completed the same self-report measures at a follow-up time-point one year later. Overall, dyadic analyses found no significant associations between mother-adolescent reminiscing qualities and youth rumination or depression, cross-sectionally or longitudinally. We did, however, find a bi-directional relationship between unsupportive mother-adolescent reminiscing qualities and heightened anxiety symptoms cross-sectionally. The concurrent findings suggest that mothers and adolescents are mutually reinforcing youth anxiety symptoms, in part, through the promotion of emotional avoidance. Furthermore, exploratory moderation findings, indicated a significant buffering effect of youth engagement in supportive conversational qualities during reminiscing about past negative events with their mothers, and lower levels of youth anxiety over time. These findings have implications for practice and theory. First, in terms of clinical intervention, the research refines our understanding of interpersonal factors related to youth anxiety during middle adolescence, in particular the role of the parent-adolescent reminiscing conversations. Second, the current research highlights the importance of adopting interpersonal methods when studying parent-adolescent interactions as a way to accurately model and test the inherently interpersonal nature of reminiscing.</p>

Parent-Adolescent Reminiscing and Youth Psychopathology: A Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Investigation

<p>Parent-child conversations about past experiences—reminiscing—are key in children’s growing emotional competency and their psychological well-being (Salmon & Reese, 2016). Very little research, however, has investigated the relationship between parent-adolescent reminiscing conversations and adolescent psychological adjustment, which is particularly important because adolescence is a period of heightened risk for the development of rumination and internalising disorders, especially anxiety and depression (Miller-Slough & Dunsmore, 2016). This thesis extended the literature on reminiscing in three ways. First, we examined different qualities of mother-adolescent reminiscing and their relationships to psychological outcomes during the period of middle adolescence. Second, we investigated the associations between mother-adolescent reminiscing qualities and youth rumination and internalising symptoms (anxiety and depression), cross-sectionally and longitudinally to help disentangle the direction of the associations. Finally, we applied dyadic methods of coding and statistical analyses in a novel approach that modelled the transactional nature of reminiscing conversations and their associations with youth psychological outcomes. In Study 1 we tested the discriminant and convergent validity of a dyadic coding scheme, for use on parent-adolescent conversations about past events. The aim of Study 1 was to establish the methodological foundations for examining parent-adolescent reminiscing conversations in a way that lends itself to dyadic analysis. To do this, two coding schemes (a traditional reminiscing scheme and a dyadic scheme) were applied to a community sample of 67 mother-adolescent dyad and their conversations about a past shared conflict event. Consistent with our predictions, parent-adolescent reminiscing qualities that extended the conversation and promoted highly detailed narratives were correlated with supportive interpersonal processes that endorsed co-construction and collaboration during the discussion. In contrast, qualities that discontinued the conversation were correlated with unsupportive interpersonal processes that promoted avoidance/disengagement and repetitive problem engagement. Next, we applied the dyadic coding scheme to assess the transactional relationships between parent-adolescent reminiscing qualities and youth rumination and internalising symptoms. In Study 2 we tested the cross-sectional (Study 2a) and longitudinal (Study 2b) relationships between parent-adolescent reminiscing qualities and youth rumination, anxiety, and depression. Using the same sample of 67 mother-adolescent dyads in Study 1, transcripts of the past conflict discussions were coded dyadically for unsupportive and supportive mother and adolescent reminiscing qualities. Self-report measures of rumination, anxiety, and depression were also collected from mothers and adolescents, respectively. The adolescents then completed the same self-report measures at a follow-up time-point one year later. Overall, dyadic analyses found no significant associations between mother-adolescent reminiscing qualities and youth rumination or depression, cross-sectionally or longitudinally. We did, however, find a bi-directional relationship between unsupportive mother-adolescent reminiscing qualities and heightened anxiety symptoms cross-sectionally. The concurrent findings suggest that mothers and adolescents are mutually reinforcing youth anxiety symptoms, in part, through the promotion of emotional avoidance. Furthermore, exploratory moderation findings, indicated a significant buffering effect of youth engagement in supportive conversational qualities during reminiscing about past negative events with their mothers, and lower levels of youth anxiety over time. These findings have implications for practice and theory. First, in terms of clinical intervention, the research refines our understanding of interpersonal factors related to youth anxiety during middle adolescence, in particular the role of the parent-adolescent reminiscing conversations. Second, the current research highlights the importance of adopting interpersonal methods when studying parent-adolescent interactions as a way to accurately model and test the inherently interpersonal nature of reminiscing.</p>

Exploring Collaboration Enjoyment and Decisional Uncertainty: Actor-Partner Effects in Advanced Care Planning

Caregivers are often engaged in decision making with and for patients. However, the role of patient-caregiver interpersonal processes on decisions about advance care planning (ACP) are not well known. This secondary data analysis examined the effects of patient-caregiver enjoyment about collaboration regarding choices for life-sustaining treatment on patients’ and caregivers’ decisional uncertainty following a dyadic ACP intervention. A purposive sample of 18 adult home health patients and their informal caregivers (N=36) participated in a one-group pretest posttest study. The Interpersonal Enjoyment subscale of the Perceptions of Collaboration Questionnaire and the Decisional Uncertainty subscale of the Decisional Conflict Scale were administered using parallel questionnaires. The Actor-Partner Interdependence Model (APIM) was used to examine actor and partner effects of patients and caregivers’ interpersonal enjoyment on their uncertainty in decisions about ACP before and after the intervention. The mean age was 68.2±9.6 years for patients and 61.3±13.6 years for caregivers. The majority of patients (61.1%) and caregivers (72.2%) were female and married (55.6% and 66.7%, respectively). Almost all were non-Hispanic White (97.0%). Patients’ and caregivers’ interpersonal enjoyment and uncertainty scores were similar before the intervention. A significant partner effect between greater interpersonal enjoyment among caregivers at pretest and greater patient uncertainty at posttest (β=0.44, p=.037) was found. Previous analyses found that overall patients improved in decisional uncertainty at posttest. However, these findings suggest that for some dyads, interpersonal factors can negatively affect patients’ decisional certainty. Future research is needed to verify this finding with a larger sample.

Dance

The study of dance can be summed up as the four Ps: patterning, partnering, pacing, and person. Patterning is about the intra- and interpersonal processes used in creating complex movement patterns in space and time. Partnering in dance involves the coordinated movement of multiple dancers, generally in defined spatial configurations, sometimes occurring through direct body contact. Next, pacing in dance refers to the synchronization of movement patterns with both musical beats and interaction partners. Finally, the person aspect of dance deals with how dancers are able to engage in acting by portraying characters in narrative forms of dance and to tell stories with their bodies in a wordless manner using iconic and affective gestures.

How to Expand and Fill the Self in Organizations: The Role of Interpersonal Processes in the Employee Organizational Identity Construction

In the era of Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity (VUCA), the fluidity of organizations and the variability of individual work gradually replace the traditional stability and continuity. The question of how to connect employees and organizations has long intrigued researchers and practitioners. Employee organizational identity is the stable force that binds employees to organizations. Drawing on social identity theory, we argue the role of interpersonal processes in the employee organizational identity construction. We suggest that an employee’s relationship-building behaviors can promote employee organizational identity through the connected self. The indirect effect is stronger for employees who make more social comparisons because they are more sensitive to social influence. We collected data through questionnaires of 333 employees using a two-wave research design in China. The results indicate that an employee’s relationship-building behaviors enhance employee organizational identity. The connected self fully mediates the positive relationship between relationship-building and employee organizational identity. The outcomes also show that the positive effect of relationship-building toward connected self is intensified, when an employee engages in more social comparisons. The findings imply that interpersonal processes play an important role in the employee organizational identity construction. Then, the theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Signaling Trustworthiness: A Self-Regulation Account

Trustworthiness is generally considered a positive trait, and past research has investigated different factors that lead a person to be deemed trustworthy. As suggested in recent work, one important predictor and signal of trustworthiness is self-control. In this chapter, we offer a literature review on the social effects of self-control on trustworthiness. We first outline basic models of self-control and review empirical evidence of the interpersonal processes through which perceptions of self-control and trustworthiness are formed and connected. Then, we review evidence to identify and propose implications, both potential upsides and downsides, of self-control induced trustworthiness. We conclude by discussing understudied and novel factors that may potentially influence the associations between self-control and trust, and offer ideas for future directions.