Romantic Attachment and Difficulties in Emotion Regulation on Dyadic Adjustment: A Comprehensive Literature Review

In romantic relationships, individual differences are determinant factors for relational quality. Specifically, romantic attachment (RA) and difficulties in emotional regulation influence each other and may have predictive potential for the perceived dyadic adjustment (DA) level. This paper aims to identify the developmental parallel between behavioral patterns built since childhood and the construction of the emotional regulation skills that characterize them. Our analysis was based on the attachment theory and the concepts of romantic relationship and DA. In this way, we sought to further the understanding of relationship dynamics, beyond the usual focus on a single element and on associative relationships, and by exploring other effects among the different dimensions of relational functioning. In particular, we explored the predictive ability of emotional regulation patterns (more flexible individual characteristics) in discriminating between RA styles (more perennial influences), and their impact on the quality of romantic relationships, in the anticipation of dyadic adjustment variations.

Customer relationship marketing & enterprise performance

The seeming eternal pursuit of profit by financial institutions and other enterprises have proved to be short-sighted judging from recent studies. Emphases have shifted to securing the goose that lays the golden-egg (the customer) rather than the egg itself. This study focused on the imperative of deploying evolving customer centric platforms such as CRM to manage customer needs satisfactorily to guarantee continued patronage and profit (performance). CRM is revealed as a competitive strategy hotly becoming popular among Nigerian banks - extant literatures on its dynamics were clinically x-rayed. Models of relationship management such as relational benefit, network and relational quality models were discussed in relation to service offerings. Survey research was used in a cross-sectional study to test the nature of association between CRM predictor variables of interactive marketing, service quality and bonding among leading banks in the South-South geopolitical zone of Nigeria. These variables were tested to ascertain whether they would become significant predictors of performance among the leading banks sampled. Outcome reveals a positive association and a strongly significant influence at 0.05%. This necessitated the rejection of all two hypotheses tested.

Mindfulness in the professional lives of K-12 educators

This interpretive case study explored how K-12 educators conceptualized and applied mindfulness in their professional lives while taking the Stress Management and Relaxation Techniques (SMART) in Education professional development program. Participants believed mindfulness practice strengthened awareness and improved relational quality. Participants with regular mindfulness practice reported greater benefits and deeper insights about being present, compassion for self and others, and awareness of patterns of thought and behavior. This unique type of professional learning supported greater self-awareness. The study suggests mindfulness for educators presents opportunities for individual and school transformation, although the amount of school change participants reported was influenced by systemic support and privilege. Strengthening relational quality in schools, empowering teachers, and shifting school culture from places of cultural reproduction to those of transformation may more effectively address the social and civic issues that face society.

Aesthetics and Environment: What is the Role of Beauty in Supporting Ageing Well?

Access to beauty is intrinsic to psychological, social, and spiritual health. Aesthetic sensibility includes awareness initiated in both mind and emotion accessed through nurturing environments (Caspari, Eriksson, & Naden, 2011). While individual tastes vary and aesthetic preferences are culturally conditioned, an appreciation of natural and constructed beauty is fundamental to human meaning-making, creativity, and innovation (Hillman 1998). Beauty is thus an instrumental tool that may support ageing well. We investigated the question of what aesthetics/beauty meant to older adults in England, how they experienced it, and whether experiencing beauty sustained them. Three focus groups were conducted with community dwelling participants aged between 60 and 93 (median age 75) for a total N of 14. Five themes emerged related to experience: an unexpected recognition; an evolving openness to experience; a universal perception available in micro and macro environments; a force that can alleviate depression; and a relational quality of some interactions. The value of beauty was identified through all groups: participants found it difficult to imagine a world with no beauty in it. They wondered if age made discernment capacity greater. Appreciation of beauty in unexpected places like a cracked pot led participants to identify happiness and wellbeing as outcomes of perception. This study suggests that beauty is essential for wellbeing and human flourishing and can emerge in unlikely ways. Implications are that professionals should assist older people to consider the role of beauty in life and develop interventions to consciously keep beauty awakened in normal and aesthetically-deprived environments.

The impact of physician empathy on patient outcomes: A gender analysis

Background: Empathy in primary care settings has been linked to improved health outcomes. However, the operationalisation of empathy differs between studies, and no study concurrently compared affective, cognitive, and behavioural components of empathy regarding patient outcomes. Moreover, it is unclear how gender interacts with the studied dimensions. Aim: To examine the relationship between several empathy dimensions and patient-reported satisfaction, consultation’s quality and trust in physician, and to determine whether this relationship is moderated by physician’s gender. Design and setting: Analysis of 61 primary care physicians’ empathy in relation to 244 patient experience questionnaires in French-speaking part of Switzerland. Method: Sixty-one physicians were videotaped with two male and two female patients. Six different empathy measures were assessed: two self-reported measures, a facial recognition test, two external observational measures, and a Synchrony of Vocal Mean Fundamental Frequencies (SVMFF), measuring vocally coded arousal. After the consultation, patients indicated their satisfaction, trust, and quality of the consultation. Results: Female physicians self-rated their empathic concern above their male counterparts, whereas male physicians were more synchronised to their patients. SVMFF was the only significant predictor of all patient outcomes. Verbal empathy statements were linked to higher satisfaction when the physician was a man. Conclusion: Gender differences were observed more often in self-reported measures of empathy than in external measures, indicating a probable social desirability bias. SVMFF significantly predicted all patient outcomes and could be used as a cost-effective proxy of relational quality.