John Karl Rempel

University of Waterloo | UWaterloo

A multifaceted, relationally focused intervention involving group and individual pre‐ and postnatal counseling, print resources, and community resources encouraged 390 fathers of newborn infants in Vietnam to responsively support mothers and work with them as a parenting team. Both partners completed questionnaires prebirth and 1‐, 4‐, and 9‐months...

Although infant care has traditionally been perceived as women's work, especially when the mother was breastfeeding, fathers are becoming increasingly involved in parenting and breastfeeding support. However, there is little research regarding this transition in an African context. The purpose of this study was to explore the role of the fathers in...

Two experiments used subliminal priming to assess the impact of implied divine or human audiences on endorsement of motives for engaging in sexual behavior. In Study 1, neither "God is watching" nor "People are watching" shifted endorsement of sexual motives compared to neutral or "No one's watching" primes. In Study 2, subliminal disapproval (whet...

Four studies (three Canadian, one African) tested whether lay understandings of hate are congruent with conceptualizing hate as a motive with the goal of diminishing or destroying a target’s wellbeing (Rempel and Burris, Personal Relationships 12:297–313, 2005; Rempel and Sutherland, in: Aumer (ed) The psychology of love and hate in intimate relati...

We examined the extent to which fathers can be taught and encouraged to develop positive relationships with their children, especially in infancy, and the effects of this fathering intervention on infant development. A multifaceted relationally focused intervention was used to assist fathers in Vietnam to engage in responsive direct and indirect in...

Fathers' support can influence mothers' breastfeeding decisions and behavior. Potentially supportive behaviors have been reported in previous studies, but no studies have directly examined which, if any, of those actions are actually more likely to result in desired breastfeeding outcomes. The two studies reported in this paper address this gap by...

We expand on Rempel and Burris’ (Pers Relat 12:297–313, 2005) conceptualization of hate in light of recent theory and research suggesting that emotions and motives represent two distinct but interconnected systems. Prototypical emotional states generate a quick response when there is little time to react, but, with more processing time, the “emotiv...

Two studies explored the relationship between men’s gender role identity (as measured by the Bem Sex Role Inventory) and their experience of empathic concern (situational empathy). In both, participants read of a man coping with his friend’s death while being exposed to one of three subliminal primes: “real men care”/“caring is strength,” “girly me...

Self-expansion without regard for others' well-being may represent the dark side of an otherwise healthy motive. Guided by Amoebic Self-Theory (AST), we developed the Engulfing Self Scale (ESS) to measure acquisitive tendencies across AST's three domains of the self. Four studies revealed that bodily engulfment appeared generally benign, and that t...

Postmaterial spiritual psychology posits that consciousness can contribute to the unfolding of material events and that the human brain can detect broad, non-material communications. In this regard, this emerging field of postmaterial psychology marks a stark departure from psychology's traditional quantum measurements and tenets. The Oxford Handbo...

To test whether emotional empathy is linked to altered perceptions of self in relation to other and/or context, participants read one of two tragic news stories and then completed a self-report empathy measure, as well as an abridged version of Hood's (1975) Mysticism scale either before or after the article. Exposure to a needy other in the story...

Two studies explored variations in women's appraisals of acquaintance rapists. In Study 1, an acquaintance rapist was evaluated the least harshly when he was physically dominating but sexually dysfunctional. In Study 2, this softening of the rapist's perceived qualities was most evident when he attributed his sexual failure to a need for his victim...

Fathers influence mothers' breastfeeding decisions and experiences. Fathers' perceptions of their roles as members of the breastfeeding family are likely important components of that influence. To explore that possibility, 21 involved fathers of breastfeeding babies volunteered to be interviewed regarding their fathering breastfed babies and their...

Three studies examined the causes and consequences of labeling a target as “evil.” Results show that “evil” individuals are seen as dispositionally inclined to engage in “evil” behavior that matches a prototype of intentional, unjustifiable harm. Symbolic “evil” cues make a stereotype of the “truly evil” more accessible and polarize perceived appli...

Beginning from the premise that organisms must ‘eat, retreat, and excrete’ to survive, Amoebic Self Theory (AST) posits that humans also struggle for survival of the psychological sense of self – engulfing that which is desirable, resisting external threats, and disposing that which is toxic or redundant. These motives manifest across three related...

Guided by their own amoebic self theory (C. T. Burris & J. K. Rempel, 2004), in 6 studies the authors explore the impact that involvement in an intimate relationship has on how a person appraises and responds to threat. They first show that people in relationship feel less constrained by their physical bodies compared with single people. In 3 subse...

issues concerning the definition of the attitude concept attitudes: evaluations based on beliefs, feelings, and/or past behavior understanding past research implications for future research research strategies present the outlines of a model of attitudes that incorporates the main ideas of past conceptualizations in a way that (1) capital...

Based on Amoebic Self Theory, the authors propose that the salience of different threats to the self affects the extent to which an intimate relationship partner is pushed away (excluded) or pulled closer (included). When social threat is salient among persons in relationships, it is hypothesized that partners will attempt to defuse the resulting s...

We propose an integrative theory of love and hate intended to help resolve problems and inconsistencies that have emerged from previous conceptualizations. We suggest that love is a motive based on the valuing of the other and is associated with the goal of preserving or promoting the other's well-being. Likewise, hate is a motive based on devaluin...

A cross-lagged panel design was used to examine the links between trust and attributional processes in a sample of 75 married couples throughout a period of 2 years. During the first phase of the study, participants completed a measure of marital trust, engaged in a laboratory problem-solving discussion of a recurrent conflict-related issue, and th...

This longitudinal study examined how male partners affect the breastfeeding decisions and behavior of first-time mothers. Based on the reasons model by Meichenbaum and Fong (1993), the breastfeeding reasons, intentions, and behavior of 317 first-time mothers were assessed prenatally and at six time points in the first year postpartum. In a prenatal...

Reports an error in ''It's the End of the World as We Know It': Threat and the Spatial-Symbolic Self" by Christopher T. Burris and John K. Rempel (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2004[Jan], Vol 86[1], 19-42). The article contained two errors. On page 35, second column, line 14, two of the word fragments are notated incorrectly. The wo...

According to amoebic self theory, the boundary defining the self encompasses 3 levels of self-representation--bodily, social, and spatial-symbolic. Study 1 related a newly developed measure of individual differences in sensitivity to boundary threat across these 3 domains to values and disgust sensitivity. Four subsequent studies focused on spatial...

We studied 114 romantically involved women to examine empirically the psychological connections between menstruation and sexuality. As menstruation is a distinctive sign of both reproductive potential and sexual maturity, we hypothesized that the attitudes women have towards menstruation will correlate with their sexual attitudes, desires, and beha...

The attributional statements intimate partners communicate to one another were examined as a function of trust. In discussions by 35 married couples, 850 attributions and corresponding events were coded on dimensions of valence, globality, and locus. Results of regression and contingency analyses indicate that attributional statements expressed in...

The attributional statements intimate partners communicate to one another were examined as a function of trust. In discussions by 35 married couples, 850 attributions and corresponding events were coded on dimensions of valence, globality, and locus. Results of regression and contingency analyses indicate that attributional statements expressed in...

We examined the relationship between women's attitudes about male sexuality and the use of overt and covert pressure tactics to facilitate sex with reluctant or uninterested men. Measures of the likelihood of use of pressure tactics and of the acceptance of sexual stereotypes related to men's sexual interest and availability were completed by 234 w...

Originally published in Contemporary Psychology: APA Review of Books , 1995, Vol 40(2), 127. This book (see record 1993-98279-000 ) is the third volume in a series edited by Howard Giles on language and language behaviors. Ng and Bradac's stated purpose is to identify and discuss how language users may, by using language in particular ways, generat...

Presents a framework for describing behavioral patterns and considers how such patterns affect and are affected by interpersonal psychological dispositions and attitudes. The framework incorporates both objective behavioral elements and the subjective factors of cognition and emotion. Discussion focuses on how the framework contributes to the study...

Tested a theoretical model of interpersonal trust in close relationships with 47 dating, cohabiting, or married couples (mean ages were 31 yrs for males and 29 yrs for females). The validity of the model's 3 dimensions of trust—predictability, dependability, and faith—was examined. Ss completed scales designed to measure liking and loving, trust, a...

in this chapter we will examine the development and impact of trust in the context of close relationships we will begin with a definition of trust and a discussion of its roots in individuals' interpersonal histories we will go on to explore the development of trust in intimate relationships, emphasizing how its foundations are colored by the s...