We applied three Bayesian methods to reanalyse the preregistered contributions to the Social Psychology special issue ‘Replications of Important Results in Social Psychology’ (Nosek & Lakens. 2014 ...Registered reports: a method to increase the credibility of published results. Soc. Psychol. 45, 137–141. (doi:10.1027/1864-9335/a000192)). First, individual-experiment Bayesian parameter estimation revealed that for directed effect size measures, only three out of 44 central 95% credible intervals did not overlap with zero and fell in the expected direction. For undirected effect size measures, only four out of 59 credible intervals contained values greater than 0.10 (10% of variance explained) and only 19 intervals contained values larger than 0.05. Second, a Bayesian random-effects meta-analysis for all 38 t-tests showed that only one out of the 38 hierarchically estimated credible intervals did not overlap with zero and fell in the expected direction. Third, a Bayes factor hypothesis test was used to quantify the evidence for the null hypothesis against a default one-sided alternative. Only seven out of 60 Bayes factors indicated non-anecdotal support in favour of the alternative hypothesis (BF10>3), whereas 51 Bayes factors indicated at least some support for the null hypothesis. We hope that future analyses of replication success will embrace a more inclusive statistical approach by adopting a wider range of complementary techniques.
Individuals differ in the extent to which they are interested in sexualized violence, as displayed in the frequent but not ubiquitous sexual interest in consensual acts of violent sexual role play ...and violent pornographic media in the normal population. The present research sought to develop and validate a multi-method assessment battery to measure individual differences in the preference for sexualized violence. Three indirect measures (Implicit Association Test, Semantic Misattribution Procedure, Viewing Time) were combined in an online study with 107 men and 103 women. Participants with and without an affiliation with sadomasochistic sexual interest groups were recruited on corresponding Internet platforms. Results revealed that all 3 indirect measures converged in predicting self-reported sexual interest in non-consensual sexuality. Specifically, for men all indirect measures were related to non-consensual sadistic sexual interest, whereas for women an association with masochistic sexual interest was found. Stimulus artefacts versus genuine gender differences are discussed as potential explanations of this dissociation. An outlook on the usability of the assessment battery in applied settings is delivered.
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Feeling lonely motivates people to reconnect with others, but it can also trigger a vicious cycle of cognitions and behaviours that reinforces their loneliness. In this study, we examined the ...behavioural consequences of loneliness in a virtual social environment. A total of 176 participants navigated a character (protagonist) through a two-dimensional browser game and rated the character's loneliness multiple times during the game. In the first part of the game, another character is introduced as the protagonist's spouse. At one point, the spouse leaves for an undetermined period of time but later returns. Immediately before this separation, higher ascribed loneliness of the protagonist was associated with more frequent interactions with the spouse. After the reunion, however, higher ascribed loneliness was associated with less frequent interactions with the spouse. Ascribed loneliness was not significantly related to the frequency of interactions with others nor to the frequency of solitary activities. These patterns held after controlling for ascribed positive affect. Participants' levels of loneliness were related to the level of ascribed loneliness only when the spouse was present but not when the spouse was absent. In sum, these findings suggest that the conditions that trigger the vicious cycle of loneliness are person- and situation-specific.
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BFBNIB, DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
The application of basic science research to the development and optimization of psychological treatments holds great potential. However, this process of clinical translation is challenging and ...time-consuming, and the standard route by which it proceeds is inefficient. Adaptive rolling designs, which originated within cancer treatment research, provide an alternative methodology with potential to accelerate development and optimization of psychological treatments. In such designs, multiple treatment options are tested simultaneously, with sequential Bayesian analyses used to remove poorly performing arms. Further, new treatment arms informed by the latest research findings can be introduced into the existing infrastructure as the trial progresses. These features dramatically reduce the sample sizes needed and offer a means for more rapid and efficient clinical translation. This article outlines the utility of such designs to clinical psychological science, focusing on a new variant termed the leapfrog design, and discusses their potential uses to accelerate clinical translation.
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Computer games are advocated as a promising tool bridging the gap between the controllability of a lab experiment and the mundane realism of a field experiment. At the same time, many authors stress ...the importance of observing real behavior instead of asking participants about possible or intended behaviors. In this article, the authors introduce an online "virtual social environment", which is inhabited by autonomous agents including the virtual spouse of the participant. Participants can freely explore the virtual world and interact with any other inhabitant, allowing the expression of spontaneous and unprompted behavior. The authors investigated the usefulness of this game for the assessment of interactions with a virtual spouse and their relations to intimacy and autonomy motivation as well as relationship satisfaction with the real-life partner. Both the intimacy motive and the satisfaction with the real-world relationship showed significant correlations with aggregated in-game behavior, which shows that some sort of transference between the real world and the virtual world took place. In addition, a process analysis of interaction quality revealed that relationship satisfaction and intimacy motive had different effects on the initial status and the time course of the interaction quality. Implications for psychological assessment using virtual social environments are discussed. (Contains 2 figures, 2 tables and 5 footnotes.)
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Motivational variables are considered fundamental factors influencing the occurrence of behavior. The current study compared different types of motivational variables (implicit and explicit motive ...dispositions, motivation as states and as aggregated person-level variables) in their ability to predict communal and agentic behavior reports in intimate relationships. 510 individuals completed measures of dispositional communion and agency motives and participated in a dyadic experience sampling study with five assessments per day across four weeks. They reported on their momentary communal and agentic motivation, as well as on their own and their partner’s behaviors. All examined types of motivational variables predicted certain behavior reports on the between-person or within-person level and had incremental effects beyond the other motivational variables in at least one motive domain. Directly replicating and conceptually extending prior research, the effects of motivational states and their aggregates were consistently found across behavioral outcomes, across self- and partner-reports and across the motive domains of communion and agency. Using the example of motivational states, the general value of assessing within-person variables for psychological phenomena in ESM-designs is discussed.
The study investigated the transfer of attachment working models onto autonomous agents in a virtual social environment (VSE). Participants from a community sample (N = 422; mean age = 29 years; mean ...relationship duration = 4.8 years) encountered three attachment‐related key scenes in a VSE: a separation with a subsequent reunion, a conflict, and an illness. In these scenarios, participants gave instructions to the main character (the “protagonist”), who had a romantic relationship with one of the other agents (the “virtual spouse”). Recorded were numerous behaviors as well as emotions participants ascribed to the protagonist. Generally, participants' attachment styles correlated as predicted with their behavior toward the virtual spouse, with βs up to.42. Thus, the study demonstrates that internal working models are transferred to the virtual relationship. This approach opens new ways to investigate attachment‐related behavior by using VSEs that allow experimental variations of the virtual partner's reactions and other situational variables.
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BFBNIB, DOBA, FZAB, GIS, IJS, IZUM, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Relationship closeness is considered an important psychological variable for studying couple relationships, and is often postulated as cause for important relationship outcomes. The current study ...evaluates four micro-interventions for their suitability to experimentally elicit feelings of closeness towards one’s partner. Using participants’ smartphones, and a combination of experience sampling, event sampling, and ecological momentary interventions, individuals reported for a week on their experiences of closeness before and after completing daily either a neutral task or a task meant to enhance relationship closeness. The closeness tasks included showing physical affection, sharing a childhood memory, looking each other in the eyes for five minutes, and discussing shared life achievements. Results of intention-to-treat analyses on a within-person level showed that closeness increased from pre- to post-measurement on average more strongly on days of any of the four examined closeness conditions than on days of the neutral control conditions. Interindividual variability of this effect was observed, emphasizing the relevance of using within-person designs to evaluate such interventions. Exploratory analyses showed that effect sizes declined across time within the day. This study provides instruments for research on causal effects of closeness in everyday relationship life, and an evidence basis for smartphone-delivered interventions in practitioner settings.
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