This study investigated young adults' judgments regarding the degree to which relationships with celebrity idols influenced their sense of identity and feelings of were recruited from a larger sample (N = 213) of young adults whose responses to a brief survey instrument indicated that they were moderately to strongly attracted to media figures they identified as idols in their lives. The present paper discusses the characteristics of the sample of idols participants reported as well as descriptive data concerning the degree to which participants perceived these idols as influential in shaping their sense of identity and feelings of self-worth. We also present the results of an exploratory path analysis that tested hypotheses about the possible relational antecedents of participants' perceived influence ratings, hypotheses derived from Caughey's (1984) analysis of celebrity-admirer relationships. The results highlight the utility of adopting a relational orientation to the study of how attachments to celebrities can significantly shape identity development. I n addition to relations with family and peers, adolescents often form secondary attachments to figures they encounter in the popular media. Many theorists believe these attachments foster the transition to adulthood in much the same way that relationships with peers do, serving as important arenas in which the development of a mature adult

This investigation explored the provocations that spark intimates’ desires for revenge, the kinds of vengeful responses they enact, and the motives that underlie decisions to retaliate. Eighty-five undergraduates were interviewed about incidents in which they “got even” with a current or former romantic partner. Both provocations and revenge responses predominately involved relationship rules violations, and most revenge responses were mild to moderate in severity and mundane in nature. In addition, most participants attributed their decisions to retaliate to the desire to bring about desired change in their partners (e.g., suffering, correction, or empathy), to redress their own unpleasant feelings, or to rectify injustice. Implications for research on revenge in romantic relationships are discussed.

This study explored the role that relationship strength, generally, and emotional closeness, more specifically, may play in delimiting the bounds of grandparental influence in young adults' lives. One-hundred and seventy-one college-aged young adults completed a questionnaire evaluating their relationship with the living grandparent to whom they felt most emotionally close or, if they felt close to none of their living grandparents, the grandparent with whom they had the most contact. Participants' perceptions of the strength of this relationship were significantly and positively related to their responses on measures of the extent to which their closest grandparent influenced various aspects of their lives (e.g., their beliefs and values, how much their lives would be missing had they never known the grandparent). In addition, participants whose grandparent-grandchild relationships were emotionally close endorsed a broader range of alternatives on checklist measures of perceived relationship impact than did those whose relationships were more emotionally distant.

Despite valuable lessons that may be learned about forgiveness from studying instances when people do not forgive, few investigations have directly targeted unforgiven offenses. the present study extends the literature on forgiveness by analyzing responses to open-ended questions in which 185 participants discussed interpersonal offenses they had not forgiven, explained why they did not forgive, and identified advantages and disadvantages of not forgiving. unforgiven episodes varied substantially in type and severity, suggesting that people differ in their forgiveness thresholds. additionally, analysis of participants' explanations for not forgiving highlighted the possibility that beliefs about forgiveness may sometimes impede forgiveness. Finally, most participants reported both costs and benefits associated with not forgiving. implications for conceptualizing forgiveness and implementing forgiveness interventions are discussed.Despite a burgeoning literature on forgiveness, the systematic study of situations in which individuals do not forgive is in its infancy. The present study sought to build on the relatively small body of

This research presents a multidimensional conceptualization of unforgiveness and the development and validation of the unforgiveness measure (UFM). The scale was developed based on a qualitative study of people's experiences of unforgiven interpersonal offences (Study 1). Three dimensions of unforgiveness emerged (Study 2): emotional-ruminative unforgiveness, cognitive-evaluative unforgiveness, and offender reconstrual. We supported the scale's factor structure, reliability, and validity (Study 3). We also established the convergent and discriminant validity of the UFM with measures of negative affect, rumination, forgiveness, cognitive reappraisal, and emotional suppression (Study 4). Together, our results suggest that the UFM can capture variability in victims' unforgiving experiences in the aftermath of interpersonal transgressions. Implications for understanding the construct of unforgiveness and directions for future research are discussed.