Research Interests and Goals

My research has focused in three areas, both basic and applied: 1) the study of the self, especially self-presentation and self-conscious emotions such as embarrassment; 2) life-span strategy dynamics, including mate selection; and 3) affective responses to behavior in romantic relationships. With respect to the first area, I have examined the intersection of self-presentation and embarrassment by looking at what I call preventative face-saving (PFS). PFS is a helping behavior in which bystanders may engage by telling someone who is unwittingly experiencing an embarrassing situation (such as an unzipped fly) about his or her situation. My research in this area has examined the conditions under which people engage in PFS, and the motivations they have for helping or choosing not to help. My findings thus far point to a cost-reward analysis. Specifically, bystanders weigh the costs of helping (including one's own embarrassment at appearing forward and awkward about telling the other, and fear of embarrassing the other person) against the benefits of helping (including avoidance of guilt for failing to help, the potential for reciprocal altruism, and the improvement of the other's self-presentation).

The goals of this research are threefold: I am interested in examining the underlying dynamics of helping in scriptless situations, particularly when the costs of helping are unclear (as with anticipated felt embarrassment). I am also interested in increasing helping behavior of all types (ranging from organ donation to helping in emergency situations). Finally, I am interested in understanding several somewhat debilitating and related individual differences in self-conscious emotions. I especially plan to examine social anxiety as it relates to a fear of appearing inappropriate or awkward. I also plan to examine high embarrassibility, which has been found to result in such unfortunate outcomes as individuals’ quietly choking to death in restaurants in order to avoid making an embarrassing scene.

With respect to the second of my interests, our laboratory’s research has called into question some of the assumptions (both scientifically based and popularly disseminated) about the extent to which differences between men’s and women’s affect, cognition, and behavior reflect fundamental, biological sex differences. With respect to life-span strategy dynamics, our lab has revealed the remarkable similarities between the traits men and women prefer in long-term relationship partners. In addition to finding that men and women have similar preferences, we have found that the parents also hope for the same care-based traits that their children desire. Further, we have begun to examine the effects of attachment style, background, and personality variables on life decisions (including mate selection) and goal-directed attitudes and behavior.

My goal with this research is to minimize misunderstandings and perceived differences between men and women as social groups, as well as partners in close relationships. Gender acts as a strong social cue and elicits gender-stereotypic interactions. The social cognition of stereotyping has been of interest to me for some time, and I plan to examine a number of aspects of cross-gender and inter-ethnic interactions. I am especially interested in how people feel about these interactions, as well as the person-perception aspects of inter-ethnic and cross-gender interactions. My examination of gender has thus far focused on how people feel about their interactions with opposite-sexed persons. I would like to examine both how majority and minority members feel about interactions with each other, as well as self-perceptions that result from such interactions. I have not yet explored these aspects of my interests, but look forward to doing so.

My third primary interest involves affective responses to romantic relationship partner-behaviors. In particular, I plan to examine the effects of increases and decreases in negative behaviors (called Social Allergens; Cunningham, Barbee, & Druen, 1997) and increases and decreases in positive behaviors (called Social Enrichments, Cunningham, Shamblen & Ault, 2001) on relationship quality. Specifically, I am examining the effects of these changes on liking and loving one’s partner, and on feeling liked and loved by one’s partner. These feelings, in turn, are expected to affect relationship satisfaction.

In the future, I plan to address mediators of affective responses to partner behaviors. I am currently building a model whose variables mediate the relationship between gender and affective responses to partner-behaviors. Specifically, this model posits that outcome-dependence and need for intimacy mediate the differential effect of gender on affective responses to romantic partners’ negative behavior. Prior research has found that women’s affect and behavior are influenced by men’s behavior much more than men’s behavior and affect are guided by women’s behavior. Other research has shown that women tend to have a higher need for intimacy than do men, and also tend to be more outcome-dependent than are men, due to their relatively lower interpersonal power compared to men. I hypothesize that these specific covariates of gender, rather than biological sex per se, are largely responsible for the differences in affective intensity found in many studies involving close relationships. I further hypothesize that both outcome dependence and need for intimacy lead to increased cognition about relationship-related issues and partner acts, and that this increased analysis and attention creates what Tesser (1999) calls affective polarization, which in turn accounts for the affective response differences, which have previously been attributed primarily to biological differences. Other future directions for this research will examine which of two motives (fear of abandonment and feelings of neglect, or feelings of powerlessness and outcome dependence) contributes most to women's greater attention to relationship details.

My goal with this research is to improve understanding between close relationship partners, especially married couples. Gaining insight into the positive aspects of partner behavior that enhance relationships, as well as the negative aspects that undermine relationships, will ultimately guide the development of preventative marital care. Before marital unhappiness leads to enduring negativity and eventual dissolution of the relationship, I hope to develop and train strategies that will enable partners to recognize the strengths in their relationships, as well as the problem areas. Ultimately, I hope to address some of the precursors to divorce with this research.