Social Psychology Commons^™

An Examination Of The Most Recent Episode Of Molly Use Among College Students, Amy L. Stamates, Ashley N. Linden-Carmichael, Brynn E. Sheehan, Perter D. Preonas, Cathy Lau-Barraco

Psychology Faculty Publications

OBJECTIVE--The current study examined event-level characteristics (e.g., contextual factors, risk behaviors) during the most recent episode of Molly use among a sample of college students who reported previously using Molly.

PARTICIPANTS--Participants (N = 151; 66.7% female) were drinkers aged 18 to 25. Data were collected from October to November 2014, February to April 2015, and September to November 2015.

METHOD--Participants completed measures regarding typical Molly use and items related to context and behaviors during their most recent episode of Molly use.

RESULTS--Findings revealed that our sample most commonly reported using Molly earlier in the evening while hanging out with friends …

The Differential Association Between Alexithymia And Primary Versus Secondary Psychopathy, Gwendoline Cecilia Lander, Catherine J. Lutz-Zois, Mark S. Rye, Jackson A. Goodnight

Psychology Faculty Publications

Using a sample of 104 college students, this study tested the hypothesis that alexithymia is positively related to secondary (also known as “neurotic psychopathy”), but not primary psychopathy (i.e., inability to form emotional bonds with others and a fear insensitivity). Participants completed the TAS-20 (alexithymia), the LSRP (primary and secondary psychopathy), the PPI-R (psychopathy), and the trait version of the STAI (trait anxiety). The interaction between the latter two measures was used as a second index of primary and secondary psychopathy. Support was found for the study hypothesis with both methods of assessing psychopathy (i.e., the LSRP subscales or the …

Perceived Similarity And Relationship Success Among Dating Couples: An Idiographic Approach, Catherine J. Lutz, Angela Christine Bradley, Jennifer L. Mihalik, Erika R. Moorman

Psychology Faculty Publications

This study utilized an idiographic approach to investigate the relation between similarity on valued characteristics and relationship success. College students (N = 247) rated their current romantic partner on perceived similarity in personality, attitudes, interests, and religious affiliation; the importance of similarity in these dimensions; and relationship satisfaction. Relationship status was assessed 6 weeks later. Results revealed significant similarity by importance interactions for religion and interests in predicting satisfaction. Participants with high perceived similarity in religion or interests reported greater satisfaction than did their low similarity counterparts, but only to the extent that they rated this type of similarity …

The Information Used To Judge Supportiveness Depends On Whether The Judgment Reflects The Personality Of Perceivers, Objective Characteristics Of Targets Or Their Unique Relationships, Brian Lakey, Catherine Lutz, Alan Scoboria

Psychology Faculty Publications

People who judge their relationships as more supportive enjoy better mental health than people who judge their relationships more negatively. We investigated how people made these judgments; specifically, how people weighed different types of information about targets under three different conditions: when judgments reflected the personality of perceivers, the objective characteristics of targets, and the unique relationships between perceivers and targets. Participants (i.e., perceivers) judged the same four videotaped targets on personality, similarity to perceivers and likely supportiveness. As in previous research, perceivers based their judgments on perceived target similarity to perceivers, and on target personality. However, how perceivers weighed …

Elaboration Versus Fragmentation: Distinguishing Between Self-Complexity And Self-Concept Differentiation, Catherine Lutz, Scott R. Ross

Psychology Faculty Publications

While theorists have argued that self-concept differentiation (SCD) (i.e., the lack of interrelatedness of roles) is an important precursor to mental health problems (Donahue et al., 1993), self-complexity (i.e., having more self-aspects and maintaining greater distinction among self-aspects) is seen as a cognitive buffer against the deleterious effects of stress (Linville, 1985, 1987). Using a sample of 260 college students, the current study was designed to empirically validate the distinction between these seemingly similar constructs. As predicted, SCD and self-complexity demonstrated opposite relationships with indices of psychological distress. Whereas SCD was positively related to depression, loneliness, and dissociation, and negatively …

Context-Induced Contrast And Assimilation In Judging Supportiveness, Catherine Lutz, Jay L. Cohen, Lynn C. Neely, Sarah Baltman, Susan Schreiber, Brian Lakey

Psychology Faculty Publications

Social support research increasingly draws from research on social cognition. Most of this research has studied assimilation and chronically accessible (i.e., frequently activated) social support constructs. This article presents three studies, in both laboratory and treatment settings, on context-induced contrast and assimilation in support judgments. In each study, participants exposed to positive social contexts subsequently rated supportive stimuli more negatively than participants exposed to negative social contexts. These effects were observed in ratings of participants’ own social networks, the social climate of a residential treatment environment, and a videotaped supportive interaction. In two studies, negative contexts also were associated with …

Positive And Negative Symptoms Of Schizotypy And The Five-Factor Model: A Domain And Facet Level Analysis, Scott R. Ross, Catherine J. Lutz, Steven E. Bailley

Psychology Faculty Publications

In this study, we investigated the Five-factor model in the concurrent prediction of positive symptomschizotypy as measured by the Magical Ideation (Eckblad & Chapman, 1983) and Perceptual Aberration (Chapman, Chapman, & Raulin, 1978) scales and negative symptom schizotypy as measured by the Physical Anhedonia (Chapman, Chapman, & Raulin, 1976) and Revised Social Anhedonia (Eckblad, Chapman, Chapman, & Mishlove, 1982; Mishlove & Chapman, 1985) scales. Previous studies suggest that these measures reflect the core symptoms found in schizotypal and schizoid personality disorder (Bailey, West, Widiger, & Freiman, 1993). Negative symptoms were significantly predicted by Neuroticism (+), Extraversion (-), Openness (-), and …