Bipolar Opposites Research Articles

“Side by side”: Development of twin relationship dimensions from early to middle childhood and the role of zygosity and parenting

Twin relationships have a significant effect on the twins’ life and their families. In the first comprehensive study of this topic, our purpose was to examine the developmental courses of four dyadic dimensions of twins’ relationships: closeness, dependence, conflict and rivalry, and the impact of zygosity and parenting on their relationships. Parents reported on their twins’ relationships ( N = 1547 mothers and 536 fathers with data from at least one of four measurement points from 3 to 8–9 years of age). The sample included 322 monozygotic twin dyads (sharing virtually 100% of their genes), and 1194 dizygotic twin dyads (sharing 50% of their genetic variance, on average). Our findings indicated that closeness and dependence decreased while rivalry increased through childhood. Dependence and rivalry also presented quadratic change. The twins’ conflict increased only for dizygotic twins. As expected, we found that the twins’ closeness and dependence were highly associated, as did the associations between conflict and rivalry. The mostly nonsignificant associations of closeness with conflict and rivalry reinforced the notion that they are not bi-polar opposites. However, dependence was positively related to the twins’ conflict and rivalry. A zygosity effect was also evident as monozygotic twins had higher levels of closeness and dependence than dizygotic twins through childhood, but there was no significant difference in the levels of their conflict and rivalry. In congruence with family system theories, parental positivity predicted the twins’ closeness and dependence, and parental negativity predicted the twins’ dependence, conflict and rivalry. The results were discussed in light of an evolutionary perspective and the twins’ developmental challenges through childhood.

Securitas libertatis – Dialektik von Freiheit und Sicherheit im Zeichen der Pandemie

The question of the relationship between freedom and security is characteristic of the discourse in times of crisis. In the coronavirus pandemic, too, society is faced with the challenge of how a democratic order can overcome the security crisis while preserving its fundamental principles, such as individual freedom as a highest value. This article explores this question. Following Axel Honneth, it is based on a social concept of freedom, which understands a social coexistence of people in security as essential for freedom in general. Freedom and security are interpreted dialectically and are accordingly not regarded as bipolar opposites, but as a unity. Considering deontological and consequentialist approaches, the text simultaneously assumes a primacy of social freedom. This is due to its dialectical nature. Because of its social character, freedom also implies mutual responsibility between individuals.

The bipolarity of affect and depressive symptoms.

People differ in the extent to which they experience positive (PA) and negative affect (NA) rather independently or as bipolar opposites. Here, we examine the proposition that the nature of the relation between positive and negative affect in a person's emotional experience is indicative of psychological well-being, in particular the experience of depressive symptoms, typically characterized by diminished positive affect (anhedonia) and increased negative affect (depressed mood). In three experience sampling studies, we examine how positive and negative affective states are related within people's emotional experience in daily life and how the degree of bipolarity of this relation is associated with depressive symptom severity. In Study 1 and 2, we show both concurrently and longitudinally that a stronger bipolar PA-NA relationship is associated with, and in fact is predicted by, higher depressive symptom severity, even after controlling for mean levels of positive and negative affect. In Study 3, we replicate these findings in a daily diary design, with the two conceptually related main symptoms of depression, sadness, and anhedonia, as specific manifestations of high NA and low PA, respectively. Across studies, additional analyses indicate these results are robust across different time scales and various PA and NA operationalizations and that affective bipolarity shows particular specificity toward depressive symptomatology, in comparison with anxiety symptoms. Together, these findings demonstrate that depressive symptoms involve stronger bipolarity between positive and negative affect, reflecting reduced emotional complexity and flexibility. (PsycINFO Database Record

Sense of Coherence, Depressive Symptoms, Cardiovascular Diseases, and All-Cause Mortality

There is increasing interest in whether positive and negative psychological constructs are bipolar opposites of the same phenomenon. We examine whether a positive construct--sense of coherence (SOC)--has independent predictive power over and above depressive symptoms for cardiovascular disease (CVD) and all-cause mortality. Participants included 3850 men and 4083 women aged 25 to 74 years who had participated in risk factor surveys conducted in 1992 or 1997. Antonovsky's 13-item SOC scale was used to measure SOC, and had a correlation of -0.60 with the Beck Depression Inventory. During a mean follow-up time of 14.2 years, there were 670 deaths and 487 nonfatal and fatal CVD events. Higher SOC scores were associated with a lower risk of all-cause mortality (relative risk [RR] = 0.90, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.84-0.97 per unit), especially among men, but this association became nonsignificant after adjustment for depressive symptoms (RR = 0.99, 95% CI = 0.90-1.08). Among participants without a history of CVD, higher SOC scores were related to a lower risk for CVD (RR = 0.90, 95% CI = 0.83-0.98), but this association disappeared after adjustment for cardiovascular risk factors. Depressive symptoms remained significant predictors of CVD among women in a model including also SOC (RR = 1.24, 95% CI = 1.06-1.46). SOC was related to all-cause mortality among men; the association with CVD events was modest. Measures for SOC and depressive symptoms were significantly correlated, which might result in overlap in their associations with adverse disease and mortality outcomes.

Negotiating Uncertainty: The Transitional Process of Adapting to Life With HIV

Glaser's (1978) grounded-theory method was used to investigate the transitional process of adapting to life with HIV. Semistructured interviews took place with 8 male HIV-infected participants recruited from a clinic in South Wales, United Kingdom. Data analysis used open, substantive, and theoretical coding. Adapting to a life with HIV infection emerged as a process of adapting to uncertainty with "negotiating uncertainty" as a core concept. Seven subcategories represented movements between bipolar opposites labeled "anticipating hopelessness" and "regaining optimism." This work progresses the theoretical concepts of transitions, uncertainty, and adaptation in relation to the HIV experience.

Exploring and measuring differences in person–thing orientations

Individuals differ in their orientation toward aspects of the environment. Previous work suggests that some individuals orient primarily toward people, whereas others orient toward things. Women generally orient towards people more than men, and men orient towards things more than women. Person–thing orientation is related to occupational choices. This research examined the structure of person–thing orientation using a combination of exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses and structural equation modeling. Analyses suggested that thing orientation and person orientation can be measured (1) with a few items; (2) separately from each other; and (3) person orientation and thing orientation are not necessarily bipolar opposites.

Affective Synchrony: Individual Differences in Mixed Emotions

Most models of affect suggest either inverse or null associations between positivity and negativity. Recent work has highlighted situations that sometimes lead to mixed positive-negative affect. Focusing on the counterpart to these situational factors, the authors explore the individual-difference tendency toward mixed emotions, which they term affective synchrony. In five studies, the authors show that some individuals demonstrate affective synchrony (overlapping experience of positive and negative moods), others a-synchrony (positive and negative mood that fluctuate independently), and still others de-synchrony (positive and negative moods that function as bipolar opposites). These tendencies are stable over time within persons, vary broadly across individuals, and are associated with individual differences in cognitive representation of self and of emotions.

How similar are the conceptual and empirical structures of personality traits?

The congruity of the conceptual and empirical structures of personality traits was examined by comparing the structure of trait covariation ratings to the five‐factor structure of self‐reported traits. The covariation ratings were found to be highly reliable, and no evidence of systematic sex or age differences was found. Besides a rough similarity, there were replicable differences between the conceptual and empirical structures. Most importantly, Neuroticism and Extraversion had a weak negative correlation in self‐reports, but were judged to be almost bipolar opposites in covariation ratings; impulsiveness was judged to be a negative indicator of Conscientiousness in covariation ratings, but was equally strongly related to Neuroticism component in self‐ratings. These systematic differences demonstrate that the structure of self‐rated traits is not reducible to semantic similarities of traits descriptors. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

A premature consensus: are happiness and sadness truly opposite affects?

Within the debate on the structure of affect, a consensus began emerging in the last decade regarding the bipolarity of happiness–sadness. We argue that this consensus is premature. Focusing on the psychometrics of momentary affect, particularly happiness and sadness, and using a simulation study, a large-scale data set, and 2 experiments manipulating affect, we plot a map of affective space that departs from the consensus. One key departure is the finding that happiness and sadness are not bipolar opposites. Another is that nonuniform skewness plays a major role in studies of affective structure, but can be addressed with appropriate analyses.

Subdomains of Gender‐Related Occupational Interests: Do They Form a Cohesive Bipolar M‐F Dimension?

In four studies, with a total of 1780 male and 2969 female participants, subdomains of masculine and feminine occupations were identified from sets of occupational preference items. Identified masculine subdomains included "blue-collar realistic" (e.g., carpenter), "educated realistic" (electrical engineer), and "flashy, risk-taking" (jet pilot). Feminine subdomains included "fashion-related" (fashion model), "artistic" (author), "helping" (social worker), and "children-related" (manager of childcare center). In all studies, principal components analyses of subdomain preference scales showed that masculine subdomains were bipolar opposites of feminine subdomains. This bipolar structure emerged in analyses conducted on combined-sex groups, high-school boys, high-school girls, men, women, heterosexual men, gay men, heterosexual women, and lesbian women. The results suggest that, although there are distinct masculine and feminine occupational subdomains, gender-related occupational preferences, nonetheless, form a replicable, cohesive, bipolar individual difference dimension, which is not an artifact of studying mixed-sex or mixed-sexual-orientation groups.

Evolution, Gender, and Rape

Back to table of contents Previous article Next article Book ReviewsFull AccessEvolution, Gender, and RapeJoanna Bettmann, L.C.S.W.Joanna BettmannSearch for more papers by this author, L.C.S.W.Published Online:1 Mar 2004https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ps.55.3.324-aAboutSectionsPDF/EPUB ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack Citations ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InEmail In this edited volume, Cheryl Brown Travis attempts to answer the questions, Are women and men bipolar opposites in perpetual discord over conflicting interests? Did we evolve to be this way? And do these differences form "an evolutionary, genetic basis for sexual aggression?" She states at the outset that she is compiling this volume to address issues raised in the book A Natural History of Rape: Biological Bases of Sexual Coercion, by Randy Thornhill and Craig Palmer (1).Evolution, Gender, and Rape attempts to disassemble the Darwinian argument made by Thornhill and Palmer that rape is an evolutionary inevitability. Brown Travis states that the contributors to her volume make their arguments from the perspectives of animal behavior, ecology, evolutionary biology, cultural anthropology, philosophy, primatology, psychology, and sociology, although she declines to identify her writers or herself by title, affiliation, or training. She asserts that, of the authors represented in her volume, "None find the evolutionary account of rape [in the Thornhill and Palmer text] to be in any way compelling."In each section of Evolution, Gender, and Rape, one finds well-written chapters, all of which challenge Thornhill and Palmer's arguments. Brown Travis and several of the book's authors raise a concern about using supposedly scientific evidence to make evolutionary assertions about gender; they note the dangerousness of this argument in cases in which it has historically been applied to both gender and race. They also challenge Thornhill and Palmer's notion that rape has evolved as a means of providing an advantage to males, who need to propagate their genes. Other authors in the book challenge the popular notion that to be a "feminist" is to be antiscience or to be only political.All the authors seem to effectively refute the argument that rape is an evolutionary imperative, an inevitable result of dynamics between women and men. Some make scientific arguments, critiquing Thornhill and Palmer for poor scientific grounding. Others, using sociological approaches, criticize Thornhill and Palmer for the policy implications of their book: "Given the speculative character of their Darwinizing and the elusiveness of their proposals, even their inability to recognize crucial issues, policies influenced by their text might well make matters worse."The collection of chapters in this volume is compelling, in part because such a variety of approaches is represented. All the chapters appear to be well conceived and include academic references. Several of the authors use humor effectively to make their points. One writes, "Evolutionary psychology satisfies our hunger for a comprehensive explanation of human existence, for a theory of inevitability that will remove the ambiguities and the uncertainties of emotional and moral life…. Blame your genes, not your mother."Evolution, Gender, and Rape clearly adds to the literature pertaining to sexual assault and to our understanding of gender issues. However, the book is limited in its scope in that it responds only to Thornhill and Palmer's book and not to broader issues in the field of gender studies. Overall, this book can be considered a valuable resource for anyone who is wrestling with concerns about gender dynamics, sexual aggression, or evolutionary psychology.Ms. Bettmann is assistant clinical director at Aspen Achievement Academy and an adjunct faculty member at the University of Utah College of Social Work in Salt Lake City.edited by Cheryl Brown Travis; Cambridge, Massachusetts, MIT Press, 2003, 454 pages, $24.95 softcoverReference1. Thornhill R, Palmer C: A Natural History of Rape: Biological Bases of Sexual Coercion. Cambridge, Mass, MIT Press, 2000Google Scholar FiguresReferencesCited byDetailsCited ByNone Volume 55Issue 3 March 2004Pages 324-a-325 Metrics PDF download History Published online 1 March 2004 Published in print 1 March 2004

Relationship Styles of Self-Focused Autonomy, Other-Focused Connectedness, and Mutuality across Multiple Relationship Contexts

This study examined relationship styles of self-focused autonomy, other-focused connectedness, or mutuality with mothers, fathers, best friends, and romantic partners to determine if styles would be used consistently or would vary across relationships. Participants included 257 college students ( M= 21.6 years). Mutuality was the most commonly reported relationship style in all relationship contexts, and no sex differences in style were found. Most participants reported using more than one relationship style across contexts, however, and styles were linked to perceptions of power within relationships: autonomy was associated with dominance, connectedness to subordinance, and mutuality to equality. Autonomy was linked to the worst psychological outcomes with parents (in terms of relationship satisfaction, self-worth, and depression), and mutuality was linked to the best outcomes with romantic partners and best friends. Findings caution against the dichotomization of autonomy and connectedness into bipolar opposites, because the integration of these two concerns is more typical in relationships. They also support the contention that orientations towards autonomy and connectedness are best conceptualized as responses to contextual features of relationships–including circumstances of power–rather than stable, fundamental aspects of self.

Assessing alternative models of individualism and collectivism: a confirmatory factor analysis

Six alternative structural models of individualism–collectivism are reviewed and empirically compared in a confirmatory factor analysis of questionnaire data from an Australian student sample (N = 340). Central to the debate about the structure of this broad social attitude are the issues of (1) polarity (are individualism and collectivism bipolar opposites, or orthogonal factors?) and (2) dimensionality (are individualism and collectivism themselves higher‐order constructs subsuming several more specific factors and, if so, what are they?). The data from this Australian sample support a model that represents individualism and collectivism as a higher‐order bipolar factor hierarchically subsuming several bipolar reference‐group‐specific individualisms and collectivisms. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Assessing alternative models of individualism and collectivism: a confirmatory factor analysis

Six alternative structural models of individualism–collectivism are reviewed and empirically compared in a confirmatory factor analysis of questionnaire data from an Australian student sample (N = 340). Central to the debate about the structure of this broad social attitude are the issues of (1) polarity (are individualism and collectivism bipolar opposites, or orthogonal factors?) and (2) dimensionality (are individualism and collectivism themselves higher‐order constructs subsuming several more specific factors and, if so, what are they?). The data from this Australian sample support a model that represents individualism and collectivism as a higher‐order bipolar factor hierarchically subsuming several bipolar reference‐group‐specific individualisms and collectivisms. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The phoenix of bipolarity: Reply to Watson and Tellegen (1999).

In their commentary on our review (J. A. Russell & J. M. Carroll, 1999), D. Watson and A. Tellegen (1999) agreed that when various factors, including activation, are taken into account, the structure of self-reported affect includes a bipolar dimension contrasting pleasant with unpleasant feelings. Agreement on this the central conclusion of our review may surprise readers familiar with the widespread claim that pleasant and unpleasant affect are not bipolar opposites but are largely independent of one another.

Assessing National Stereotypes in Language Attitude Studies: The Case of Class-consciousness in Denmark

In the literature on national cultures and cross-cultural communication, Denmark and Great Britain are frequently presented as bipolar opposites in terms of social-class distinctions and class-consciousness. Britain is referred to as a class-ridden society where the stigma of a non-standard accent is devastating; Denmark is presented as a country in which social-class distinctions are virtually non-existent. This paper presents results from a language attitude study in Denmark arguing that the views presented in the literature are often popular conceptions, or expressions of political correctness, which appear to have very little in common with people's private uncensored stereotypes. The attitude data suggest that, in Denmark, people are quite capable of assigning social-class membership, and other personal characteristics, to members of different regional and social groups. The paper concludes that the overt stereotype of equalisation and a 'classless orientation' presented in the literature may be explained by reference to political decision-making, but that this appears to tell us very little about the social realities of people's lives.

Threats, suggestions, hints, and promises: Gaining compliance efficiently and politely

Threats, suggestions, hints, and promises are examined for their politeness and expediency in gaining others' compliance. The compliance gaining and politeness literatures rank‐order these verbal acts along a unidimensional scale where politeness and efficiency are treated as bipolar opposites (i.e., what is polite is inefficient and what is efficient is impolite). This research tested the predicted rank‐orderings of the politeness and expediency of threats, suggestions, hints, and promises stemming from these literatures and found that: (a) hints, while inefficient, are not among the most polite strategies for gaining compliance; (b) threats, while impolite, are not among the most efficient strategies for gaining compliance; (c) direct requests, while among the most efficient ways to get others to do things, are not impolite; (d) suggestions are neither as inefficient nor as polite as expected; and (e) promises are only moderately polite while equally efficient as threats. The value of politeness theory ...

The conceptual structure of sex role stereotypes in college students

This study investigated sex stereotypes as natural language categories. Ten years ago, sex stereotypes were found to have a core-peripheral structure similar to that of the nonevaluative categories studies by Rosch (1973). Changes and stability in these conceptions were studied by having 56 female and 56 male undergraduate students rate 217 adjectives on Likert scales according to how well each adjective represented their own view of typical Men or Women. Mean ratings were analyzed to reveal a structure of core, peripheral, and nonmembers for Men and for Women. As was the case ten years ago, core traits reflected dimensions of “niceness-nurturance” for Women and “potency-strength” for Men. Female students also viewed Women as “competent,” while male students also viewed Women as “socially effective.” Adjectives that constituted the core for one category were generally placed in the periphery for the other category. As compared to ten years ago, the peripheries of the categories were expanded and showed a greater degree of overlap. College students' conceptions of Men and Women are best characterized as overlapping rather than as bipolar opposites. The formation of sex stereotype categories was discussed in terms of cognitive and social learning processes.

Interpersonal Theory: Criticism, Modification, and Elaboration

Interpersonal theory, as formulated by Freedman and developed by Leary, was constructed around the two dimensions of love vs. hate and dominate vs. submit. The two alternative dimensions of close vs. distant and upper vs. lower are introduced because they are generic and value free. To resolve confusion concerning what the theory is about, it is proposed that it be concerned with inborn dispositions which have their origins in interactions which occur between all animalforms. In humans, such dispositions are elaborated into competencies. Rather than considering negative forms of relating as the extreme of normalforms, it is suggested that they result from the imperfect acquisition of competencies. Interpersonal systems have been distorted by successive attempts to fit them into a circular ordering of bipolar opposites. This calls into question the appropriateness of the circumplex analysis as a means of confirming interpersonal theory.

High and Low Faculty Evaluations: Descriptions by Students

Undergraduate students were asked to describe faculty members to whom they had given their highest and lowest evaluations. Highest rated faculty were described in terms of positive personal/motivational and interpersonal characteristics. Lowest rated faculty were described in terms of classroom behavior. Characteristics of highest evaluated faculty, it is suggested, are not bipolar opposites of characteristics of lowest evaluated faculty.