Biomedical subjects

Duncan Cramer

Publications and source records attributed to Duncan Cramer.

8 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2005

Effect of the destructive disagreement belief on satisfaction with one's closest friend.

The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that, when imagining a serious disagreement with one's closest friend, verbalizing the irrational belief that disagreement is destructive would lead to greater relationship dissatisfaction than would verbalizing the rational belief that disagreement is not destructive. The author used two counter-demand-control conditions to test a second hypothesis that this effect would not be the result of demand characteristics. Undergraduates (119 women and 43 men) were randomly assigned to 1 of 5 conditions in a pretest-posttest design. In comparison with a control condition, posttest relationship dissatisfaction was significantly higher in the irrational condition and was lower, but not significantly so, in the rational condition. These results were not attributable to demand characteristics and suggested that this irrational belief increased relationship dissatisfaction.

Adult↗

PubMed2004

Satisfaction with a romantic relationship, depression, support and conflict.

A major aim of this study was to determine whether the association between support and conflict would be weaker when assessed in terms of a specific instance than in general and, if so, whether conflict as well as depression would mediate the association between support and satisfaction with a romantic relationship as suggested by Cutrona (1996). The Relationship Assessment Scale (Hendrick, 1988), the Revised SCL-90 Depression Subscale (Derogatis, 1983) and four scales measuring conflict and support as typically and as last shown were completed by 76 female and 24 male college students. Because they were so highly correlated, the typical and the specific measures were combined to form a conflict and a support scale. There was a direct association between support and relationship satisfaction which was not mediated by either conflict or depression. These results indicate that support may play a stronger role in determining satisfaction with a romantic relationship than conflict, which has received the most attention.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2004

Effect of the destructive disagreement belief on relationship satisfaction with a romantic partner or closest friend.

This study tested the rational-emotive-behaviour theory hypothesis that, when imagining having a serious disagreement with one's romantic partner or closest friend, imagining believing the rational belief that disagreement is not destructive will lead to less dissatisfaction with either relationship than imagining endorsing the irrational belief that disagreement is destructive. The influence of demand characteristics on such an effect was assessed with two counter-demand control conditions. Undergraduates (106 women and 44 men) were assigned randomly to one of five conditions in a pretest/posttest design. The belief appeared to be effectively manipulated. Post-test relationship satisfaction was significantly higher in the rational condition than in the control or irrational condition. These results were not affected by the counter-demand instructions and suggest that this rational belief may reduce relationship dissatisfaction during disagreements.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2004

Emotional support, conflict, depression, and relationship satisfaction in a romantic partner.

One aim of this study was to determine the relative contribution of partner conflict and support to satisfaction with a romantic relationship when conflict and support are measured in terms of the same characteristics. Another aim was to ascertain whether support is indirectly associated with relationship satisfaction through reduced conflict and depression, as suggested by C. E. Cutrona (1996). The Relationship Assessment Scale (S. S. Hendrick, 1988), the Revised SCL-90-R Depression subscale (L. R. Derogatis, 1983), and a conflict and support scale were completed by 76 female and 35 male college students. Relationship satisfaction was explained only by support. Support was indirectly associated with relationship satisfaction through a reduction of depression but was not associated with conflict. The results suggest that a better understanding of satisfaction with a romantic relationship may be obtained through the study of support rather than conflict.

Adult↗

PubMed2003

Facilitativeness, conflict, demand for approval, self-esteem, and satisfaction with romantic relationships.

This study is an examination of the extent to which satisfaction with a main current romantic relationship is associated with negative conflict, demand for approval, self-esteem, and the 3 facilitative conditions of unconditional regard, empathy, and congruence. One or more of these conditions have been proposed as important determinants of relationship satisfaction by various relationship-enhancement approaches such as behavioral marital therapy and cognitive-behavioral marital therapy. College students (86 women and 58 men) completed S. S. Hendrick's (1988) Relationship Satisfaction Scale, a measure of negative conflict formulated by the author, R. G. Jones's (1969) Demand for Approval Scale (modified for a particular relationship), M. Rosenberg's (1965) Self-Esteem Scale, and a shortened modified version of G. T. Barrett-Lennard's (1964) Relationship Inventory. Relationship satisfaction was most strongly related to the level of regard and empathy, which is consistent with approaches to relationships that emphasize empathy training.

Adult↗

PubMed2003

Acceptance and need for approval as moderators of self-esteem and satisfaction with a romantic relationship or closest friendship.

According to predictions of self-esteem theorists, the association between self-esteem and satisfaction with a relationship will be negative under perceptions of high acceptance and positive under perceptions of low acceptance; consistency theorists make the opposite prediction. The author primarily sought to test those predictions. By completing 4 measures, 88 female and 62 male students described their main current romantic relationship (defined as being in love and physically intimate), and 54 female and 32 male students described their relationship with their closest friend. Results supported only the self-esteem predictions for the romantic relationship. Contrary to this perspective, need for approval did not mediate this effect. In addition, self-esteem was significantly and positively correlated with satisfaction with the romantic relationship under high but not low need for approval.

Adult↗

PubMed2003

A cautionary tale of two statistics: partial correlation and standardized partial regression.

Partial correlation and standardized partial regression are widely used to control for other variables in cross-sectional and longitudinal studies. Two aspects of these statistics can radically alter the interpretation of data and so deserve attention. First, their sign will be opposite to that of the original zero-order correlation when this correlation is of the same sign as and smaller than the product of the other 2 correlations. Second, their size will be considerably larger than a weak zero-order correlation when either that correlation is positive and the product of the other 2 correlations is negative or that correlation is negative and the product of the other 2 correlations is positive. The first aspect is illustrated with data from J. M. Gottman and L. J. Krokoff (1989) on initial conflict behavior and initial and later marital satisfaction, and the 2nd aspect is illustrated with data from C. L. Heavey, C. Layne, and A. Christensen (1993) on the same issue. Their interpretation of their findings is questioned.

Conflict, Psychological↗

PubMed2002

Relationship satisfaction and conflict over minor and major issues in romantic relationships.

In this study the question of whether conflicts over minor issues and over major issues were equally strongly related to satisfaction in romantic relationships was examined. Sixty-four women and 29 men completed the Hendrick (1988) Relationship Assessment Scale for their current main romantic relationship and a 12-item conflict scale (Cramer, 2000b) for minor and major issues. All the relationships were heterosexual. Satisfaction was significantly and equally negatively correlated with conflict over minor and major issues, suggesting that whether an issue is of major or minor importance does not affect satisfaction or dissatisfaction in a romantic relationship. Thus, assessing conflict over major issues may be unnecessary in predicting relationship satisfaction. Conflict over minor and major issues was significantly and positively correlated even when satisfaction was controlled, indicating consistency in conflict resolution.

Adolescent↗