Sharon M Flicker

California State University, Sacramento | CSUS · Department of Psychology

Chapman's claim that the key to marital happiness is “speaking” your partner's primary “love language” has been highly influential in pop culture and incorporated into therapeutic practice. However, the theory has not yet been empirically validated. The current study tests his theory, examining the hypothesis that satisfaction with one's partner's...

In this article, we present a brief overview of the topic of consensual non‐monogamy (CNM) as a scientific inquiry, including reviews related to stigma, relationship functioning, and health and well‐being. Next, we discuss how psychologists can be more responsive to people who engage in CNM, by (1) conducting research that is inclusive of CNM, incl...

This quantitative study tested hypotheses derived from a previous qualitative study of the factors that facilitated and hindered compersion (the positive feelings derived from one’s partner’s intimate relations with others) in consensually non-monogamous (CNM) relationships. A total of 255 participants recruited from online CNM and Alt-Sex communit...

Polyamory is a relationship style in which partners consensually agree to engage in sexual and/or emotional relationships with concurrent partners. Compared with other forms of consensual non-monogamy (CNM), polyamory practitioners tend to report greater relationship satisfaction and less jealousy. However, the unique motivations leading people to...

Definition 1. Compersion refers to a broad range of positive emotions experienced in relation to one’s inti- mate partner’s extradyadic intimate relations. 2. Compersion refers to the broad range of posi- tive attitudes, thoughts, and/or actions manifested in relation to one’s intimate part- ner’s extradyadic intimate relations. 3. Compersion re...

Personality variables, including sensation-seeking, interpersonal trust, avoidance of uncertainty, endorsement of social conformity, and love styles (Ludus, Eros, Pragma, Storge, Mania, and Agape), were examined as predictors of prejudicial attitudes toward individuals who practice polyamory and personal interest in engaging in consensual non-monog...

Compersion refers to the positive feelings, such as joy, excitement and contentment, that one may experience in response to one’s partner’s other consensually non-monogamous (CNM) intimate relationship(s). In the study, we recruited 44 CNM participants who had experienced compersion to complete an open-ended online survey regarding the factors that...

Drawing on an internalized homonegativity and minority stress framework, the present study sought to address whether people engaged in consensual non-monogamy (CNM) internalize stigma toward their relationship style, and if internalized CNM negativity is associated with poorer relationship quality and functioning. We recruited a community sample of...

Although polyamorous relationships have received increasing attention from researchers over the past decade, little attention has been paid to differences in relationship configurations: some individuals arrange their relationships hierarchically, prioritizing a primary partner; other relationship structures are non-hierarchical with no relationshi...

Compersion is a well-known term in polyamorous communities that connotes the positive emotion an individual may experience in relation to their partner’s relationship with another partner. We know little about this emotion or about the factors that facilitate or inhibit its expression. The lack of a standardized measure for compersion has likely co...

Previous comparisons of relationship quality between individuals in couple‐initiated and arranged marriage have yielded inconsistent findings. One factor which may help to explain this inconsistency is variability in the way in which arranged and couple‐initiated marriages are practiced. To test this, we recruited 116 Bangladeshi women engaged to b...

Attachment theory posits that in adulthood, romantic partners typically fill the role of primary attachment figure, yet few studies have examined whether these findings hold in cultures that practice arranged marriage or that emphasise collectivistic values and filial piety. In the current study, we compared attachment hierarchies in 116 Bangladesh...

Attachment theory posits that in adulthood, romantic partners typically fill the role of primary attachment figure, yet few studies have examined whether these findings hold in cultures that practice arranged marriage or that emphasize collectivistic values and filial piety. In the current study, we compared attachment hierarchies in 116 Bangladesh...

Previous comparisons of relationship quality between individuals in love and arranged marriage have yielded inconsistent findings. One factor which may help explain this inconsistency is variability in the way in which arranged and love marriages are practiced. To test this, we recruited 116 Bangladeshi women engaged to be married or within the fir...

Most theorizing about forgiveness conceptualize forgiveness as an intrapersonal process in which negative feelings are transformed into positive ones, with the goal of inner peace for the forgiver. Forgiveness viewed as an interpersonal process, in contrast, focuses on behaviors, such as reconciliation, that lead to the restoration of social harmon...

This study investigates emotional display rules within the Palestinian context, focusing on the seven basic emotions in a sample of 150 college students from the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Overall, participants felt that it was more appropriate to express positive emotions (happiness and surprise) than negative powerful (anger, contempt and disg...

This investigation examined the relationship of abuse-specific coping strategies and perceived responses to abuse disclosure to symptoms of depression and posttraumatic stress among 131 women seeking a protection order against an intimate partner. Disengagement, denial, and self-blame coping strategies, as well as blaming of the participant by othe...

This study uses National Violence against Women Survey data to investigate the differential impact of concomitant forms of violence (sexual abuse, stalking, and psychological abuse) and ethnicity on help-seeking behaviors of women physically abused by an intimate partner (n = 1,756). Controlling for severity of the physical abuse, women who experie...

This study examined treatment outcomes of 86 highly acculturated Hispanic and Anglo substance-abusing adolescents in functional family therapy, testing the hypothesis that ethnic matching of therapist and client is related to better treatment outcomes for clients. Adolescents reported on their substance use pre- and posttreatment on a timeline foll...

In this study, the authors examined the role of balance between adolescent-therapist and parent-therapist alliances in the retention of functional family therapy clients. Therapeutic alliances of mothers, fathers, and adolescents were assessed from videotapes of the 1st treatment session for 43 Hispanic and 43 Anglo families. Hispanic families who...

There is now a variety of replicable, empirically supported family-based treatments for substance use disorders. Unfortunately, the gap between evidence-based substance abuse treatment methods and treatment as usual remains wide. Disseminating evidence-based treatments into practice is of obvious importance as the overall effectiveness of health ca...

Behavioral treatment of adolescent alcohol and drug abuse.

"July 2004." Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of New Mexico, 2004. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 121-130).