Research Summary: We develop a multi-level theory of dynamic capabilities (DCs) that explains resource dynamics by giving a central role to persons and interpersonal interactions rather than to ...abstract, firm-level entities. Our theory integrates the contrasting approaches to DCs in individual-, interpersonal-, and organization-level scholarship. Existing organization-level approaches portray DCs as collective endeavors but do not specify how they emerge and operate within organizations, while microfoundational approaches illuminate actors' contributions but reduce a firm's DCs to the cognitions and actions of a few top managers. Our integrated theory instead explains DCs as effortful social accomplishments emerging from individual employees' capacity to leverage interpersonal relationships conducive to productive dialogue. The framework we propose offers new ground for understanding how DCs can be sources of sustainable competitive advantage. Managerial Summary: How can firms navigate the transformations that relentlessly raise new threats and opportunities in dynamic environments? We suggest that firms develop dynamic capabilities to navigate change when their employees are connected through high-quality relationships, empowering their innovative potential. Strategic adaptation is possible when people are given the opportunity to act, think, and feel creatively while performing tasks, thus envisioning opportunities to improve how the firm operates. This ability supports sustainable, firm-level innovation when employees are connected through interpersonal relationships founded on constructive dialogue. Dialogue allows participants to advance and accept proposals for change even in the presence of conflicting interests and viewpoints. Managers may therefore enhance their firm's capacity for change by fostering individual integration and developing contexts that facilitate dialogue and constructive opposition.
Psychotherapy is an interpersonal process of collaboration toward specified treatment goals. The therapeutic alliance is well established as an important factor of psychotherapeutic change. However, ...the experience of distress in social interactions, commonly referred to as interpersonal problems, might be interfering with the collaborative process during psychotherapy. This study systematically reviews the literature and obtains an estimate of the relationship between pretreatment interpersonal problems and the quality of the therapeutic alliance. Overall, 27 studies with 48 correlation coefficients were included in the final analysis. Due to the nested structure of the data, a three-level meta-analytic approach with a restricted maximum likelihood estimator was applied. Alliance assessment phase, alliance rater, alliance measure instrument, and treatment type were tested as potential moderators. Heterogeneity and publication bias test were performed. The meta-analysis showed a small, but significant negative relationship between interpersonal problems at the beginning of psychotherapy and subsequent therapeutic alliance (r = −.12, SE = .02, 95% CI −.16, −.08, p < .001, d = −.27). Only alliance assessment phase accounted for significant variability. There were no indications for a substantial publication bias. Interpersonal problems of patients before psychotherapy are a robust predictor for lower therapeutic alliance quality, albeit a small effect size. Consequently, patients who experience interpersonal problems may face greater challenges in developing a strong alliance with their therapists, especially in early stages of the treatment.
Clinical Impact Statement
Question: How are patients' interpersonal problems at the beginning of a psychotherapy associated with the subsequent quality of the therapeutic alliance? Findings: Overall, there is a small but significant negative relationship between interpersonal problems at the beginning of psychotherapy and subsequent therapeutic alliance (r = −.12). Meaning: Individuals with higher levels of interpersonal problems may face greater challenges in developing a strong therapeutic alliance with their therapists. However, these interpersonal problems also appear to present an opportunity for fostering a strong alliance. Next Steps: Future research ought to focus on how therapists adequately manage patients' preexisting interpersonal problems.
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Lower SES (socioeconomic status) couples tend to face particular challenges in their relationships. Relative to higher SES couples, they are less likely to marry and more likely to divorce-but they ...do not value their romantic relationships any less. Drawing on risk regulation theory and theories of social class as culture, we suggest that lower SES individuals adapt to their more chronically precarious environments by prioritizing self-protection more than higher SES individuals do, but that the need to self-protect may undermine relationship satisfaction. We investigate these ideas across 3 studies, using cross-sectional, longitudinal, and daily-diary methods. Lower SES individuals were more self-protective, both in their thoughts about their relationship (Studies 2-3), and in the judgments they made about their partner's commitment level over 2 years (Study 1) and 2 weeks (Study 3). Self-protection, in turn, was associated with lower relationship satisfaction (Studies 2-3). However, lower SES individuals were only self-protective when feeling vulnerable in their relationships (Study 3). Taken together, these studies identify psychological mechanisms to explain why the structural challenges that lower SES individuals experience can make it more difficult to achieve satisfying relationships.
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Do people realize the evaluative feelings that are spontaneously activated by their partner? If so, do they use those evaluations when judging their romantic relationships? To answer these questions, ...we investigated the association between automatic partner attitudes and judgments of relationship satisfaction in 7 studies. Study 1 was a meta-analysis of 86 correlations that revealed a very weak association between implicitly and explicitly assessed relationship evaluations, and Studies 2a-2c revealed that people failed to accurately report their automatic partner attitudes even when specifically asked to do so. Consistent with the idea that such inaccuracy emerged in part because motivational factors led people to override their automatic attitudes, Studies 3 and 4 demonstrated that automatic partner attitudes better aligned with relationship judgments when people were incentivized with money (Study 3) and had dissolved their relationship (Study 4). Nevertheless, consistent with the idea that overriding automatic attitudes requires the opportunity to deliberate, Studies 4 and 5 demonstrated that automatic partner attitudes better aligned with relationship judgments when people experienced more stress at the daily level (Study 4) and yearly for two years (Study 5). In Study 5, the interaction between stress and automatic attitudes emerged controlling indicators of negativity and was further moderated by relationship enhancing motivations among wives. These studies (a) help explain why automatic partner attitudes predict self-reported relationship satisfaction over time and (b) provide support for theories of social cognition suggesting that people have access to implicitly assessed attitudes that is obscured by motivations and opportunities to deliberate.
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A robust body of scientific evidence has indicated that being embedded in high-quality close relationships and feeling socially connected to the people in one's life is associated with decreased risk ...for all-cause mortality as well as a range of disease morbidities. Despite mounting evidence that the magnitude of these associations is comparable to that of many leading health determinants (that receive significant public health resources), government agencies, health care providers and associations, and public or private health care funders have been slow to recognize human social relationships as either a health determinant or health risk marker in a manner that is comparable to that of other public health priorities. This article evaluates current evidence (on social relationships and health) according to criteria commonly used in determining public health priorities. The article discusses challenges for reducing risk in this area and outlines an agenda for integrating social relationships into current public health priorities.
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Satisfaction with a romantic relationship often changes over time, and individuals differ in how satisfied they are in their relationship. However, no systematic review is available regarding the ...stability of individual differences in relationship satisfaction. Therefore, this meta-analysis synthesizes the available longitudinal data on rank-order stability of relationship satisfaction, as a function of age and relationship duration. Analyses were based on 148 samples including 153,396 participants reporting on their relationship over time. Mean age associated with the effect sizes ranged from 19 to 71 years, and mean relationship duration from 3 months to 46 years. On average, individual differences in relationship satisfaction were highly stable over time (r = .76, corrected for attenuation due to measurement error and based on an average time lag of 2.30 years). Rank-order stability varied systematically as a function of age, increasing from young to late adulthood with a slight decline during middle adulthood. Rank-order stability also varied as a function of relationship duration, increasing over the course of the relationship with a slight decline around 20 years of relationship duration. Moderator analyses suggested that relationship transitions shortly before Time 1 and sample type explained variance in rank-order stability. However, except for these two moderators, the pattern of findings was robust across all characteristics tested. In sum, this meta-analysis indicates that relationship satisfaction is a relatively stable construct, with lower stabilities in young adulthood and in the first years after beginning a relationship. This knowledge may stimulate future research on developmental processes within romantic relationships.
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The present study is a case study of an adolescent who suffers bullying and plays soccer in a youth team. The objective was to know and understand the meanings acquired by the practice of sports for ...this player and in relation to the bullying suffered. Data collection was carried out through semi-structured interviews with the main participant, as well as with his soccer and family environment. From the analysis carried out using the instrument for evaluating cohesion in team sports by Carron et al. (1985), it was found that the positive interpersonal relationships among the team players and the democratic leadership of the coach were two key aspects in overcoming to a certain extent the isolation of the bullied adolescent, becoming an efficient strategy for overcoming this situation. This research could be of great importance for people who suffer bullying, such as the main participant in this study, to be able to deal with this situation by playing soccer in teams that generate positive and safe environments.
El presente estudio es un estudio de caso de un adolescente que sufre acoso escolar y practica fútbol en un equipo de categoría juvenil. El objetivo fue conocer y comprender los significados que adquiría la práctica deportiva para este jugador y en relación al acoso sufrido. La obtención de datos se realizó mediante entrevistas semiestructuradas al principal participante, así como a su entorno futbolístico y familiar. Del análisis realizado a partir del instrumento de evaluación de la cohesión en los deportes de equipo de Carron et al., (1985) se constató que las relaciones interpersonales positivas entre los jugadores del equipo y el liderazgo democrático del entrenador fueron dos aspectos clave para superar en cierta medida el aislamiento del adolescente acosado, llegando a ser una estrategia eficiente para superar dicha situación. La realización de esta investigación podría ser de gran importancia para que personas que sufran acoso escolar como el principal participante del presente estudio puedan hacer frente a dicha situación mediante la práctica del fútbol en equipos que generan entornos positivos y seguros.
The current research tested whether individuals high in attachment anxiety react to relationship threats in ways that can help them feel secure and satisfied in their relationship. Individuals higher ...in attachment anxiety experienced greater hurt feelings on days they faced partner criticism or conflict (Study 1) and during observed conflict discussions (Study 2). These pronounced hurt feelings triggered exaggerated expressions of hurt to induce guilt in the partner. Partners perceived the hurt feelings of more anxious individuals to be more intense than low anxious individuals' hurt and, in turn, experienced greater levels of guilt (Study 1). More anxious individuals were also rated by objective coders as exhibiting more guilt-induction strategies during conflict, which led to increases in partner guilt (Study 2). Moreover, partner guilt helped anxious individuals maintain more positive relationship evaluations. Although greater partner guilt had detrimental effects for individuals low in anxiety, more anxious individuals experienced more stable perceptions of their partner's commitment and more positive relationship evaluations when their partner felt more guilt. Unfortunately, these benefits were accompanied by significant declines in the partner's relationship satisfaction. These results illustrate that anxious reactions to threat are not uniformly destructive; instead, the reassuring emotions their reactions induce in relationship partners help anxious individuals feel satisfied and secure in their partner's commitment.
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Compelling evidence demonstrates that peer influence is a pervasive force during adolescence, one that shapes adaptive and maladaptive attitudes and behaviors. This literature review focuses on ...factors that make adolescence a period of special vulnerability to peer influence. Herein, we advance the Influence‐Compatibility Model, which integrates converging views about early adolescence as a period of increased conformity with evidence that peer influence functions to increase affiliate similarity. Together, these developmental forces smooth the establishment of friendships and integration into the peer group, promote interpersonal and intragroup compatibility, and eliminate differences that might result in social exclusion.
Objective: This study examines the association of marital strain—as reported by each spouse—with psychological distress and considers whether the associations vary for men and women in gay, lesbian, ...and heterosexual marriages.
Background: Prior studies show that marital strain is associated with psychological distress. However, most studies rely on only one spouse's perspective and do not consider how appraisals of strain from both spouses may contribute to distress. Moreover, possible gender differences in these associations have been considered only for heterosexual couples.
Method: The analyses are based on 10 days of dyadic diary data from 756 midlife U.S. men and women in 378 gay, lesbian, and heterosexual marriages. Multilevel modeling is used to examine the association of self‐ and spouse‐reported marital strain with psychological distress; actor‐partner interdependence models explore possible gender differences in these associations.
Results: Both self‐reports and spousal reports of marital strain are associated with psychological distress, with notable gender differences. The associations of self‐ and spouse‐reported marital strain with distress are stronger for women in different‐sex marriages when compared with men in same‐sex and different‐sex marriages. The association is also stronger for women in different‐sex marriages when compared with women in same‐sex marriages, but for self‐reported strain only.
Conclusion: Marital appraisals by both spouses are important for psychological well‐being and may be especially important for the well‐being of women in different‐sex marriages.