Eva C. Klohnen’s research while affiliated with University of Iowa and other places

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Publications (15)


Figure 1 Individuals' general attachment models expressed in zscores are predicted from relationship length in months (log transformed and singles added as zero) and from romantic partner attachment models. NOTE: Low = 1 SD below the mean; high = 1 SD above the mean. 
TABLE 2 : Regressions Predicting General Attachment Representations From All Four Relationship-Specific Representations Relationship-Specific Attachment Models 
TABLE 5 : Correlations Between Attachment Representations (General and Relationship-Specific) and Relationship Quality in Four Relationships 
Organization and Predictive Power of General and Relationship-Specific Attachment Models: One for All, and All for One?
  • Article
  • Full-text available

January 2006

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605 Reads

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135 Citations

Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin

Eva C Klohnen

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Mary Choe

Given recent evidence for multiple attachment models, we examined the organization and predictive power of general and relationship-specific attachment representations in two samples using two distinct measures of attachment models. With regard to associations among relationship-specific models, peer models (romantic partner and friend) and parental models (mother and father) were more similar to each other than to any other models, and anxiety/self-model representations were more consistent across relationships than avoidance/other-model representations. With regard to links between general and specific models, romantic and friend models made the strongest and independent contributions to general models, and romantic relationship involvement moderated the importance of romantic models to general models. With regard to differential predictive power of multiple models, general, romantic partner, and mother attachment made unique contributions to well-being indicators; relationship outcomes, however, were only predicted by individuals' corresponding relationship-specific models. Implications for the measurement and conceptualization of adult attachment are discussed.

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Figure 1. Frequency distributions of profile-similarity correlations (Fisher r-to-z transformed) for real and random couples on two individual difference domains.
Assortative Mating and Marital Quality in Newlyweds: A Couple-Centered Approach

February 2005

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474 Reads

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545 Citations

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

Using a couple-centered approach, the authors examined assortative mating on a broad range of variables in a large (N = 291) sample of newlyweds. Couples showed substantial similarity on attitude-related domains but little on personality-related domains. Similarity was not due to social homogamy or convergence. The authors examined linear and curvilinear effects of spouse similarity on self and observer indicators of marital quality. Results show (a) positive associations between similarity and marital quality for personality-related domains but not for attitude-related domains, (b) that similarity on attachment characteristics were most strongly predictive of satisfaction, (c) robust curvilinear effects for husbands but not for wives, (d) that profile similarity remained a significant predictor of marital quality even when spouses' self-ratings were controlled, and (e) that profile-based similarity indices were better predictors of marital quality than absolute difference scores.


Match Makers and Deal Breakers: Analyses of Assortative Mating in Newlywed Couples

November 2004

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727 Reads

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519 Citations

Journal of Personality

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Eva C Klohnen

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Diane S Berry

We conducted a comprehensive analysis of assortative mating (i.e., the similarity between wives and husbands on a given characteristic) in a newlywed sample. These newlyweds showed (a) strong similarity in age, religiousness, and political orientation; (b) moderate similarity in education and verbal intelligence; (c) modest similarity in values; and (d) little similarity in matrix reasoning, self- and spouse-rated personality, emotional experience and expression, and attachment. Further analyses established that similarity was not simply due to background variables such as age and education and reflected initial assortment (i.e., similarity at the time of marriage) rather than convergence (i.e., increasing similarity with time). Finally, marital satisfaction primarily was a function of the rater's own traits and showed little relation to spousal similarity.


Interpersonal Attraction and Personality: What Is Attractive-Self Similarity, Ideal Similarity, Complementarity, or Attachment Security?

October 2003

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1,776 Reads

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219 Citations

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

Little is known about whether personality characteristics influence initial attraction. Because adult attachment differences influence a broad range of relationship processes, the authors examined their role in 3 experimental attraction studies. The authors tested four major attraction hypotheses--self similarity, ideal-self similarity, complementarity, and attachment security--and examined both actual and perceptual factors. Replicated analyses across samples, designs, and manipulations showed that actual security and self similarity predicted attraction. With regard to perceptual factors, ideal similarity, self similarity, and security all were significant predictors. Whereas perceptual ideal and self similarity had incremental predictive power, perceptual security's effects were subsumed by perceptual ideal similarity. Perceptual self similarity fully mediated actual attachment similarity effects, whereas ideal similarity was only a partial mediator.


Personality Development and Growth in Women Across 30 Years: Three Perspectives

March 2002

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352 Reads

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131 Citations

Journal of Personality

This article addresses three questions about personality development in a 30-year longitudinal study of women (N = 78): (1) To what extent did the women maintain the same position in relation to each otheron personality characteristics over the 30 years, and what broad factors were related to the amount of change in their rank order? (2) Did the sample as a whole increase or decrease over time on indices of personality growth, and did they change in ways distinctive to women? (3) Were experiential factors associated with individual differences in the amount of change? Results showed that personality was quite consistent while also showing that time interval was positively related to rank-order change and age was negatively related to rank-order change. Over the period from age 21 to age 52, the women increased on measures of norm-orientation and complexity and showed changes on measures of Dominance and Femininity/Masculinity consistent with the hypothesis that changing sex roles would lead to increases in Dominance and increases, then decreases, in Femininity/Masculinity. A third set of results showed that changes in Dominance and Femininity/Masculinity were associated with life circumstances such as marital tension, divorce, and participation in the paid labor force. The implications of the findings for personality development and growth are discussed.


Table 1 Thematic Expression of the Affiliation and Power Motives in the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) Motive TAT story 
Table 3 Hypotheses About the Interactions of the Affiliation Motive and Extraversion-lntroversion In combination with 
Table 8 
Traits and Motives: Toward an Integration of Two Traditions in Personality Research

April 1998

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5,229 Reads

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508 Citations

Psychological Review

After reviewing classic and current conceptions of trait (as measured by questionnaires) and motive (as measured by the Thematic Apperception Test [TAT] or other imaginative verbal behavior), the authors suggest that these 2 concepts reflect 2 fundamentally different elements of personality--conceptually distinct and empirically unrelated. The authors propose that traits and motives interact in the prediction of behavior: Traits channel the behavioral expression of motives throughout the life course. The authors illustrate this interactive hypothesis in 2 longitudinal studies, focusing on the broad trait of extraversion and the 2 social motives of affiliation and power. In interaction with extraversion, both motives show predicted and replicated relations to independently measured life outcomes in the domains of relationships and careers. Extraversion facilitates unconflicted motive expression, whereas introversion deflects social motives away from their characteristic goals and creates difficulties in goal attainment.


Partner Selection for Personality Characteristics: A Couple-Centered Approach

March 1998

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283 Reads

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119 Citations

Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin

Both personality similarity and complementarity have been hypothesized to underlie mate selection. However, neither hypothesis has received strong and consistent empirical support. This study examined personality matching in couples by taking within-couple similarity as the basic unit of analysis. On the assumptions that individuals seek in another what they value in themselves but that they cannot always get what they want, it was hypothesized (a) that the similarity of partners' self-descriptions is positively related to self-liking, (b) that there is assortative mating for self-liking, (c) that there is significant similarity between subjects' ideal self-descriptions and their perceptions of their partners, and (d) that participants bias their perceptions of their partners in the direction of their ideal self-conceptions. The authors examined and found support for the four hypotheses by analyzing California Q-set ratings provided by both partners of couples, who described themselves, their ideal selves and their partners.


Affective Coloring of Personality from Young Adulthood to Midlife

March 1998

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50 Reads

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52 Citations

Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin

New Adjective Check List (ACL) scales (Gough, Bradley, and Bedeian) to measure Tellegen's dimensions of positive emotionality (PEM), negative emotionality (NEM), and constraint (CNS) were scoredfor a longitudinal sample of women and their male partners over 25 years. For women, data were available to show that convergent and discriminant relations with life data and selected personality traits across time supported the construct validity and usefulness of NEM, PEM, and, to a lesser extent, CNS. Rank order stability coefficients ranged from .51 to .65 and were similar to those obtained for other personality scales. In line with expectations, the women increased in PEM and CNS and decreased in NEM. Analyses of 21 couples studied at two times suggested that both men and women decreased in NEM and that women may have increased more than men in PEM. In these and all other couples, women tended to score higher on NEM than partners in young adulthood and higher on PEM than partners in mature middle age.


Behavioral and Experiential Patterns of Avoidantly and Securely Attached Women Across Adulthood: A 31-Year Longitudinal Perspective

January 1998

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103 Reads

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174 Citations

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

Attachment patterns of women avoidantly or securely attached at age 52 were studied using a 31-year longitudinal design and multiple perspectives, including life outcomes, observer descriptions of behavioral and personality characteristics, and self-reports of working models collected at ages 21, 27, 43, and 52. Findings from these diverse data sources provide evidence for the continuity of the behavioral and experiential patterns associated with attachment styles across adulthood. Avoidant compared with secure participants (a) experienced diverging relationship trajectories that were less happy and less steady, (b) showed a consistent pattern of behavioral and personality characteristics, including interpersonal distance, defensiveness, and vulnerability, as assessed by observers, (c) reported distinct and longitudinal consistent internal working models characterized by distrustful self-reliance and interpersonal and emotional distance, and (d) had childhood environments that afforded fewer opportunities for developing close interpersonal ties.


On the Nature of Self-Monitoring: Construct Explication With Q-Sort Ratings

October 1996

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26 Reads

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88 Citations

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

To explicate M. Snyder's (1987) construct of self-monitoring (SM), a new Q-sort prototype is introduced. Analyses of Q-sorts by both observers and self demonstrated cross-method convergent validity for the revised 18-item Self-Monitoring Scale (SMS-R) and its Public Performing subscale; however, neither scale showed discriminant validity against measures of extraversion. The Other-Directedness items remaining on the SMS-R correlated neither with the other measures of SM nor with extraversion. These findings suggest that the scale revision led to a conceptual shift toward extraverted (and away from other-directed) features of self-presentation. To adequately assess the conceptual domain of SM phenomena, researchers should administer the original 25-item SMS (not the abbreviated 18-item SMS-R) and score Public Performing and Other-Directedness separately to examine their individual and joint effects.


Citations (15)


... individuals to withstand difficulties (e.g., ego resilience, Klohnen, 1996;hardiness, Bartone, 2007). Likewise, many authors have recognized the relevance of resources or other protective factors like social support that similarly predispose individuals to be able to withstand challenges (e.g., DeSimone et al., 2017;M. ...

Reference:

A Meta-Analysis of Resilience in the Workplace
Conceptual Analysis and Measurement of the Construct of Ego-Resiliency

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

... In comparison with the LGS, other questionnaires or scales to measure generativity are used far less frequently. For instance, some studies have used the California Adult Q-set Generativity Scale (CAQ-GS), which includes the thirteen items of the original California Q-set measure that have more to do with generativity, and particularly with the realization of (rather than with the interest in) generativity (Peterson and Klohnen, 1995). Another popular measure is the Generative Behaviors Checklist (GBC), originally proposed by McAdams and de St. Aubin (1992), an inventory proposed to assess the presence of certain activities or acts expressing generativity. ...

Realization of Generativity in Two Samples of Women at Midlife

Psychology and Aging

... By contrast, perceptual similarity-the similarity of one person's (self-concept about his/her) personality with his/her perception of the other person's personality-is closer to an individual's cognitions when evaluating the respective other person in terms of attrac tion. Therefore, perceptual similarity might act as a more proximate predictor of initial attraction than actual similarity (Klohnen & Mendelsohn, 1998;Selfhout et al., 2009). Empirical findings from the few studies that involved at least some amount of dyadic interaction indeed indicated mostly positive effects of perceptual personality similarity on romantic attraction and only a few effects of actual similarity (Montoya et al., 2008;Tidwell et al., 2013). ...

Partner Selection for Personality Characteristics: A Couple-Centered Approach
  • Citing Article
  • March 1998

Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin

... Another key finding in the economics of SWB literature is that SWB decreases from adolescence to midlife and increases thereafter, resulting in a U-shaped age-SWB relationship until old age. While this finding has been disputed by some psychologists (Freund and Baltes 1998;Helson and Klohnen 1998;Hamarat et al. 2002), Blanchflower and Graham (2020) show that the pertinent claims are based on small, non-representative samples or incomplete age ranges in the datasets. In contrast, a vigorous literature in economics has introduced terms in age and age-squared into wellbeing regressions, producing strong evidence of a U-shaped relationship. ...

Affective Coloring of Personality from Young Adulthood to Midlife
  • Citing Article
  • March 1998

Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin

... The Generativity Scale contains items regarding perceptions about cultural demands (e.g., "Adults should be more concerned about what kind of a world they are leaving for their children"), generative concern (e.g., "I am concerned about providing guidance and direction to younger people"), and generative action (e.g., "I spend a good deal of time sharing my experience and know-how with younger people"). The development of generativity has also been investigated through measures assessing the other stages of Erikson's psychosocial development (e.g., Inventory of Psychosocial Development [IPD], Whitbourne et al., 1992; California Adult Q-sort items [CAQ], Peterson & Klohnen, 1995). In addition to measuring stagnation, ego integrity, and despair, the observer-rated CAQ measures generative realization, which has been argued to reflect the extent to which individuals actually express generativity in their lives (Peterson & Klohnen, 1995). ...

Realization of generativity in two samples of women at midlife

Psychology and Aging

... Resilient individuals have the ability to positively cope and adapt during risk and adversity (Masten, 2001). Resilient individuals are optimistic, energetic towards life, curious, and open to new experiences (Klohnen, 1996). These individuals are humorous (Masten, 1994), and use creative exploration (Cohler, 1987). ...

Conceptual Analysis and Measurement of the Construct of Ego-Resiliency
  • Citing Article
  • May 1996

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

... The first dimension is 'Protective Self-monitoring', which refers to avoiding social rejection; the second dimension is 'Acquisitive Self-monitoring', which refers to the active effort to gain social approval and reward. The protective and acquiring self-monitoring dimensions have also been discussed by some researchers in the context of 'extraversion', 'acting', and 'other-directedness' (John, Cheek, & Klohnen, 1996;Laux & Renner, 2002;Lennox, 1988). Acquisitive self-monitors tend to be more extroverted and role-playing in order to endear themselves to others and feel good about themselves; protective self-monitors tend to be more concerned with how others behave on specific occasions and avoid making themselves look inferior. ...

On the Nature of Self-Monitoring: Construct Explication With Q-Sort Ratings

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

... Connor and Davidson (2003) defined resilience as 'the personal qualities that enable one to thrive in the face of adversity.' From this point of view, resilience has also been defined as the ability to adapt to situational demands in a flexible manner (Klohnen et al., 1996) and the cognitive capacity to deal with negative outcomes resulting from stress (Tugade et al., 2004). In general, highly resilient individuals tend to adapt well psychosocially (Park and Jung, 2010), and exhibit more positive emotions and higher self-confidence in the face of adversities than individuals with low resilience (Tugade et al., 2004). ...

Negotiating the Middle Years: Ego-Resiliency and Successful Midlife Adjustment in Women

Psychology and Aging

... Each individual has varying levels of avoidance and anxiety; however these operate as independent constructs and they have separate influences on relational outcomes. While studies have previously supported the position that attachment patterns remain relatively stable over the lifespan (Kirkpatrick & Hazan, 1994;Klohnen & Bera, 1998;Steele & Steele, 2007;Zhang & Labouvie-Vief, 2004), more recent research indicates those with insecure attachment may become more secure over time in the context of supportive relationships (Hudson et al., 2014). Attachment informs how one connects with their partner through communication, intimacy, and support. ...

Behavioral and Experiential Patterns of Avoidantly and Securely Attached Women Across Adulthood: A 31-Year Longitudinal Perspective

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

... Motives describe what people want and why they want it-they are the reasons people offer as an explanation or a cause of their behavior (American Psychological Association, 2018;Wicker et al., 1984). Motives are contextually relevant transformations of what people value or what desirable goals people pursue (Schwartz, 2016;Winter et al., 1998). For example, people for whom justice is an important value will be motivated to pursue behavioral goals that align with this value and will cite "the pursuit of justice" as a reason for their behavior (Schwartz, 2016). ...

Traits and Motives: Toward an Integration of Two Traditions in Personality Research

Psychological Review