Biomedical subjects

Benjamin R Karney

Publications and source records attributed to Benjamin R Karney.

12 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

The context of aggressive behavior in marriage: a longitudinal study of newlyweds.

Under what circumstances are spouses more or less likely to engage in aggressive behaviors? To address this question, the current study drew on multiple longitudinal assessments of 1st-married newlyweds to examine correlates of within-subject variability in aggressive behavior. Controlling for marital satisfaction, the authors found that spouses were more likely to engage in physical aggression at times when they engaged in higher levels of psychological aggression. Additionally, husbands reporting higher levels of chronic stress were more likely to engage in physical aggression overall and were more likely to engage in physical aggression when they were experiencing higher than average levels of acute stress. These results highlight how demands and supports in the context external to a marriage may affect processes within the marriage.

Adult↗

PubMed2005

Problem-solving skills and affective expressions as predictors of change in marital satisfaction.

Specific skills and affective expressions coded from the problem-solving interactions of 172 newlywed couples were examined in relation to 8-wave, 4-year trajectories of marital satisfaction. Effects varied as a function of whether husbands' versus wives' topics were under discussion and whether husbands' versus wives' satisfaction was predicted, but results indicate that skills, affect, and their statistical interaction account for unique variance in rates of change in marital satisfaction. The interaction between positive affect and negative skills was particularly robust, indicating that (a) low levels of positive affect and high levels of negative skills foreshadowed particularly rapid rates of deterioration and that (b) high levels of positive affect buffered the effects of high levels of negative skills. Findings suggest specific targets for intervention in programs for developing marriages.

Adult↗

PubMed2005

Gender differences in social support: a question of skill or responsiveness?

Spouses often report that wives provide better social support than husbands. Yet studies observing spouses' supportive interactions challenge this perception, finding no differences between husbands' and wives' supportive behaviors. This article offers reconciliation by suggesting that husbands and wives may differ, not in their skill at providing support, but in their responsiveness to their partners' changing needs over time. Observational and diary data from couples confirmed that, whereas husbands and wives did not differ on average in the support they provided each other, they did differ in the timing of that support. Wives tended to provide better support on days that their husbands experienced greater stress. However, when wives experienced greater stress, their husbands displayed both support and negativity.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

PubMed2005

To know you is to love you: the implications of global adoration and specific accuracy for marital relationships.

Despite the strong positive feelings that characterize newlyweds, many marriages end in disappointment. To understand this shift, the authors argue that although newlyweds' global relationship evaluations may be uniformly positive, not all spouses base their global adoration on an accurate perception of their partner's specific qualities. Two longitudinal studies confirmed that whereas most newlyweds enhanced their partners at the level of their global perceptions, spouses varied significantly in their perceptions of their partners' specific qualities. For wives, but not for husbands, more accurate specific perceptions were associated with their supportive behaviors, feelings of control in the marriage, and whether or not the marriage ended in divorce. Thus, love grounded in specific accuracy appears to be stronger than love absent accuracy.

Adult↗

PubMed2004

Positive expectations in the early years of marriage: should couples expect the best or brace for the worst?

The current study examined whether the effects of positive expectations on changes in marital satisfaction over the first 4 years of marriage were moderated by the nature of spouses' interaction behaviors and relationship attributions. Consistent with predictions, when spouses' skills were most positive, positive expectations predicted more stable satisfaction over time whereas less positive expectations predicted steeper declines. Alternatively, when spouses' skills were most negative, positive expectations predicted steeper declines in satisfaction over time whereas less positive expectations predicted more stable satisfaction. Thus, in contrast to the idea that expectations in the early years of marriage exert main effects on satisfaction, the current findings suggest that the effects of expectations interact with the skills partners bring to their relationships.

Adult↗

PubMed2004

Interpersonal mediators in the intergenerational transmission of marital dysfunction.

Intergenerational transmission of marital functioning was examined in a sample of 60 newlywed couples by collecting (a) retrospective reports of conflict and divorce in spouses' families of origin, (b) data on demographic variables and interactional processes likely to increase risk for adverse marital outcomes, and (c) couples' actual 4-year marital outcomes. The association between wives' parental divorce and marital outcome was mediated by their verbal and physical aggression. The association between negativity in husbands' family of origin and marital outcome was mediated by dyadic expressions of negative affect. Demographic variables did not operate as mediators. Negative interpersonal processes appear to be a vehicle by which experiences in the family of origin are carried forward into the next generation of relationships.

Adult↗

PubMed2004

How does context affect intimate relationships? linking external stress and cognitive processes within marriage.

Stressors external to the marriage frequently affect the way spouses evaluate their marital quality. To date, however, understanding of the interplay between external stress and internal relationship processes has been limited in two ways. First, research has generally examined only the short-term consequences of stress. Second, the mechanisms through which external stressors influence relationship outcomes are unclear. This study addressed both limitations by examining relationship cognitions that may mediate the effects of external stress throughout 4 years of marriage. Analyses confirmed that stressful experiences were associated with the trajectory of marital quality overtime. Furthermore, both the content and the organization of spouses' specific relationship cognitions mediated this effect. That is, stress negatively influenced the nature of spouses' marital perceptions as well as the way spouses interpreted and processed those perceptions. These findings draw attention to ways that the context of relationships shapes and constrains relationship processes.

Adult↗

PubMed2003

Depressive symptoms and marital satisfaction: within-subject associations and the moderating effects of gender and neuroticism.

Given the emphasis on within-subject associations between depression and marital quality in recent theory and practice, this study was undertaken with three goals: to examine within-subject associations between depressive symptoms and marital quality over time, to address gender differences in the magnitude and direction of these associations, and to determine whether neuroticism moderates the strength of these associations. A total of 164 newly wed couples provided 8 waves of data over 4 years of marriage. Hierarchical linear modeling confirmed the existence of bidirectional within-subject associations between marital satisfaction and depressive symptoms. Gender differences were rarely significant. Although neuroticism strengthened the effect of marital distress on symptoms as predicted, it weakened the effect of symptoms on marital distress among husbands. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

Adult↗

PubMed2003

The dynamic structure of relationship perceptions: differential importance as a strategy of relationship maintenance.

How do couples maintain relationship satisfaction despite specific negative perceptions of their relationships? One way to minimize the global implications of negative perceptions is to attribute differential importance to positive and negative features of the relationship. As those features change over time, satisfied intimates may alter their perceived importance, ensuring that positive features are always more closely associated with global satisfaction than negative ones. The current study examined the specific perceptions of 82 newly married couples at five assessments across their first 3 years of marriage. A tendency to view positive perceptions as more important than negative perceptions was associated with higher marital satisfaction. Moreover, a tendency to alter the importance of specific perceptions as those perceptions changed over time was associated with more stable global satisfaction. These findings highlight the interplay between the content and the structure of intimates' perceptions in determining relationship outcomes.

Adult↗

PubMed2002

Judgments of a relationship partner: specific accuracy but global enhancement.

How do partners in satisfying close relationships perceive each other? Some argue that relationships benefit from each partner having an accurate view of the other, while others maintain that partners benefit when they perceive each other in the most positive light possible. The current paper proposes that each of these benefits operates at a separate level of abstraction. Specifically, we propose that satisfied partners tend to be accurate in their specific perceptions of each other, but enhancing in their global evaluations. To address hypotheses derived from this model, global and specific perceptions of self and partner were obtained from a sample of 82 newlywed couples. Results indicate that: 1) trait perceptions assessed by different commonly used measures differ significantly in their breadth; 2) broader or more global traits are rated as significantly more desirable and important; 3) spouses in satisfying marriages describe their partners' positive traits in more global terms and their negative traits in more specific terms; and 4) spouses perceive each other more accurately on specific traits than global traits.

Adult↗

PubMed2002

"But we've been getting better lately": comparing prospective and retrospective views of relationship development.

What kinds of stories do people wish to tell about the development of their close relationships? To address this question, 2 studies of newlyweds compared retrospective reports of marital satisfaction over 4 years with prospective data on marital satisfaction over the same period. In both studies, growth curve analyses revealed that spouses tended to recall satisfaction that had declined in the distant past but made up for those declines with recent improvements. Prospective reports, however, tended to decline linearly over time. Furthermore, Study 2 revealed that current confidence in the future of the relationship was associated with perceptions of change in satisfaction but not perceptions of past levels of satisfaction. Results suggest that the ability to perceive improvements, especially over the recent past, may be a source of hope for partners in less satisfying relationships.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Gender and attitudes toward nutrition in prospective physicians.

OBJECTIVES: To examine gender differences in attitudes towards nutrition therapy within first- and fourth-year medical students. METHODS: Participants (n = 128) completed a computer self-administered questionnaire assessing attitudes towards nutrition therapy. RESULTS: Analysis of covariance revealed that females report significantly more positive attitudes toward nutrition than males do, controlling for age. The magnitude of the difference was the same in beginning and graduating medical students. CONCLUSIONS: Gender differences in attitudes towards nutrition are not moderated by medical school socialization. Standardized nutrition education may be required to address disparities in knowledge, attitudes, and efficacy with regard to nutrition and preventive care measures.

Adult↗