The Implicit Positive and Negative Affect Test (IPANAT) is an instrument for the indirect assessment of positive and negative affect. A Japanese version of the IPANAT was developed and its reliability and validity were examined. In Study 1, factor analysis identified two independent factors that could be interpreted as implicit positive and negative affect, which corresponded to the original version. The Japanese IPANAT also had sufficient internal consistency and acceptable test-retest reliability. In Study 2, we demonstrated that the Japanese IPANAT was associated with explicit state affect (e.g., PANAS), extraversion, and neuroticism, which indicated its adequate construct validity. In Study 3, we examined the extent to which the Japanese IPANAT was sensitive to changes in affect by assessing a set of IPANAT items after the presentation of positive, negative, or neutral photographs. The results indicated that the Japanese IPANAT was sufficiently sensitive to changes in affect resulting from affective stimuli. Taken together, these studies suggest that the Japanese version of the IPANAT is a useful instrument for the indirect assessment of positive and negative affect.

People with low self-esteem, when experiencing a threat to self-evaluation, reportedly tend to place higher value in a romantic partner as an indirect form of self-enhancement. This study examined whether such an indirect form of self-enhancement is also found when considering a close friend. Participants' trait self-esteem was measured. Then, they participated in an experiment in which they experienced (or not) a threat to their self-evaluation. They were subsequently asked to evaluate their close friends and acquaintances using trait adjectives. The results showed that participants with low self-esteem valued their close friends and acquaintances highly when they experienced a threat, compared with those who did not experience one. Meanwhile, participants with high self-esteem devalued their close friends but not their acquaintances when they experienced a threat, compared with those who did not. These results suggest that people with high self-esteem devalue their close friends as an indirect form of self-enhancement. We discuss the need to examine the effects of the difference in relationship quality between a close friend and a romantic partner, as well as the cross-cultural differences in indirect forms of self-enhancement.

IntroductionThe sexual imagination hypothesis suggests that responses to a partner’s infidelity emerge from the sociocultural factors that affect individuals’ imagining of that occurrence irrespective of biological sex, including relationship status (i.e., the experience of a serious, committed relationship). Nevertheless, evolutionary psychological perspectives predict that responses to a partner’s infidelity emerge from a sex-specific evolved innate mechanism.MethodsA lower 2D:4D digit ratio is associated with more robust responses to a partner’s sexual infidelity. In this study, participants (660 males and 912 females) were requested to measure finger lengths, reactions to their partners’ sexual and emotional infidelity, and relationship status.ResultsA logistic regression and multiple regression analyses revealed that relationship status was uniquely associated with responses to a partner’s sexual and emotional infidelity beyond the effects of sex and 2D:4D. Those in committed relationships were more upset or distressed over their partners’ infidelity, particularly over sexual infidelity, than those not in committed relationships.DiscussionThe results supported the sexual imagination hypothesis indirectly, while evolutionary psychological perspectives were met with skepticism. Our findings implied that sex differences in jealousy result from relationship status, and that responses to partners’ infidelity are more alike than different.

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This study examined the effects of attention by a third party to a comparison target on self-evaluation in social comparison. University students (N=114; 42 males and 72 females) were randomly assigned to comparison-target (superior, inferior) and perspective-taking (perspective taking of a third party, nonperspective taking) conditions. First, participants completed a linguistic performance test and were given feedback on their results. Next, participants were asked to look at another's score (either high or low) from the viewpoint of a friend, or from their own viewpoint. Finally, participants rated their own test performance. In social comparison research, a contrast effect is said to occur when self-evaluation is displaced away from the evaluation of the comparison target. The results indicated that undergraduate females who saw the other's score from the viewpoint of a friend had a contrast effect in their self-ratings. Conversely, undergraduate males who saw the other's score from their own viewpoint showed a contrast effect in their self-ratings. The results suggest that social comparison depends on the attention of a third party and that there are gender differences in the direction of this influence.