Two comparable random samples of 100 high school students each were given the opportunity to respond to open-ended questions about what makes for a popular teenager and what makes for an "oddball" or "square." The importance attached to being popular in the high school crowd seems to have been modified little over the 16-year…

This study is of heterosexually married couples in which one partner reports having experienced same-sex attraction and both partners report satisfaction with their marriage despite facing such constraints. Analysis suggested a number of themes related to how spouses learned about their partners' experiences of same-sex attraction, motivations for…

Presented potential areas of social interaction to college students (N=420) to judge their likelihood of desired interaction with argumentative or nonargumentative person. Found preference for association with nonargumentative person in situations low in conflict and nonaggressive. Males and females responded in similar fashion in reporting…

Finds that similarity in communication values among heterosexual dating partners did not contribute to whether people dated one another, but did contribute to how satisfied they were with their dating relationship and how attracted they were to their partners. (SR)

Assess the expectedness, interpretations, and evaluations of touch and its influence on such communication outcomes as communicator attractiveness and credibility. Finds that brief touches among strangers may have positive consequences, especially when initiated by high-valence communicators, for whom they may qualify as positive violations. (SR)

Gathered data from 100 couples married 45 years or more to identify factors involved in stable and satisfying marriages. Variables identified as important were being married to someone person liked and enjoyed being with, commitment to spouse and marriage, sense of humor, and consensus on matters such as aims in life, friends, and decision making.…

The purpose of this study was to investigate how the attractiveness bias that influences the judgment of a variety of characteristics and behaviors in infants, children, and adults affects the evaluation of young pianists' performances. The assumption was that both the visual and the audio components of a videotaped musical performance influence…

We hypothesized that women who dress in a sexy versus business-like manner evoke negative emotions and perceptions of lesser competence if employed in high-(but not low-) status jobs. Male and female undergraduates evaluated a videotaped female target whose physical attractiveness was held constant, but who was (a) dressed in sexy or business-like…

The fact that love is so fundamental to the human experience and can affect clients in so many ways suggests that counselors may frequently encounter clients seeking assistance with problems involving love, and that counselors may consequently be interested in scientific inquiry regarding the nature and experience of love. This paper reviews two…

Social exchange theory asserts that satisfaction is not the only factor that determines whether relationships last. Whether or not individuals are happy, interactions are evaluated using a comparison level for alternatives that describes the quality of outcomes judged to be available in the other partnerships. In this study, college students…

Compatibility has recently been conceived as the degree to which partners either facilitate or interfere with each other's interaction goals. Compatability is thus perceived as an on-going process, rather than an end state. A study was conducted to develop an index of compatibility based on pair interaction, where compatibility is conceived as the…

Two studies were conducted to investigate the relationship between academic performance and physical attractiveness, using an elementary school sample. (BRT)

Examined which of two sociological theories of dating preference was more powerful in predicting women's actual dating frequency. The theories tested were Waller's theory, which emphasizes physical attractiveness, and Blood's theory, which emphasizes personality. Evidence supported Waller's theory. Discussion and implications for women and…

Tested structural equation model of marital functioning based on an attraction paradigm and social-penetration variables. The model posited that the attraction paradigm factors of being satisfied with marital issues and of perceived attitudinal similarity would have an impact upon marital happiness as well as perceived partner understanding, which…