Lara Kammrath

My research concerns the study of close relationships, specifically how friends and romantic partners seek and provide support to one another for their daily struggles. Surprisingly, research shows that when people seek and receive support from friends and partners, only about half of those interactions actually make the seeker feel supported – in fact many support interactions make the seeker feel worse! My research asks, what is going wrong in these unsupportive interactions and can we identify strategies that can help both parties engage in support interactions more skillfully. This work is important for mental-well being and physical health – people who feel supported in their lives have improved life outcomes, at levels similar to some of the most positive health behaviors (e.g. avoiding smoking, exercising, eating well).

Some of the questions recent graduate and undergraduate students have asked:

·      Are some types of support behaviors more “risky” than others (e.g. giving advice)

·      Do some types of support messages that are helpful when used on oneself (e.g. minimization) backfire when spoken to another person?

·      What supporter works or behaviors tend to make a seeker feel most understood?

·      Is there a way to validate a seeker who is perceived as overreacting – without being dishonest?

My work draws on social/personality psychology, as well as having connections to communications and counseling.

Publications
^†student

• Armstrong, B. ^† & Kammrath, L.K. (in press). Depth and breadth tactics in support seeking. In press at Social and Personality Psychological Science.
• Cortes, K. ^†, Kammrath, L.K., Scholer, A.A., & Peetz, J. (2014). Self regulating the effortful “social dos”. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 106, 380-397.
• Peetz, J., & Kammralk, L.K. (2013). Folk understandings of self-regulation in relationships: Recognizing the importance of self-regulatory ability for others, but not the self. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 49, 712-718.
• Kammrath, L.K. (2012). The Cognitive Affective Personality System. In Howard Tennen & Jerry Suls, Eds, Handbook of Psychology, 2^nd Ed., Vol 5: Personality and Social Psychology. John Wiley & Sons.
• Kammrath, L.K., & Peetz, J. (2012) You promised you’d change: How incremental and entity theorists react to a romantic partner’s change attempts. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 48, 570-574.
• Kammrath, L.K. (2011). What we think we do (to each other): How the same relational behaviors mean different things to people with different personality profiles. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 101, 754-770.
• Kammrath, L.K., & Scholer, A.A. (2011) The Pollyanna myth: How highly agreeable people judge positive and negative relational acts. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 37, 1172 – 1184.
• Friesen, C. ^† & Kammrath, L.K. (2011). What it pays to know about a close other: The value of contextualized “if-then” personality knowledge in close relationships. Psychological Science, 22, 567-571.
• Kammrath, L.K., & Peetz, J. ^† (2011). The limits of love: Predicting immediate versus sustained caring behaviors in close relationships. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 47, 411-417.
• Peetz, J. & Kammrath, L.K. ^† (2011) Only because I love you: Why people make and why they break promises in romantic relationships. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 100, 887-904.
• Ames, D.R., Kammrath, L.K. Suppes, A. ^†, & Bolger, N. (2010).  Not so fast: The (not-quite-complete) dissociation between accuracy and confidence in thin slice impressions. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 36, 264-277.
• Kammrath, L.K., Ames, D.R., & Scholer, A.A. ^† (2007).  Keeping up impressions: Inferential standards for impression change across the Big Five. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 43, 450-457.
• Kammrath, L.K. & Dweck, C. (2006).  Voicing conflict: Preferred conflict strategies among incremental and entity and theorists. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 32, 1497-1508.
• Kammrath, L.K., Mendoza-Denton, R., & Mischel, W. (2005).  Incorporating if…then… signatures in person perception: Beyond the person-situation dichotomy.  Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 88, 605-618.
• Ames, D.R., & Kammrath, L.K. (2004).  Mind-reading and metacognition: Narcissism, not actual competence, predicts self-estimated ability. Journal of Non-Verbal Behavior, 28, 187-210.

Manuscripts In Revision or Under Review

• Kammrath, L.K., Peetz, J., Demarco, A.^†, Hara, K. ^†, Wood, K. ^†, Kirconnell, J. ^†, Meirovich, H. ^†, & Allen, T. ^† (in revision).  It’s a matter of time: The effect of depletion on helpful behavior in romantic relationships is moderated by relationship length. In revision at Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
• Kammrath, L.K., McCarthy, M. ^†, Cortes, K. ^†, & Friesen, C. ^† (in revision).  Picking one’s battles: How skilled assertiveness and skilled unassertiveness are associated with extraversion and agreeableness.  In revision at Social Psychological and Personality Science.
• Petrocelli, J.V., Kammrath, L.K., Brinton, J. ^†, Uy, M. ^†, Cowens, D. ^†, (in revision). Holding on to what might have been may loosen (or tighten) the ties that bind us: A counterfactual potency analysis of previous dating alternatives. In revision at Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.

Manuscripts In Preparation

• Armstrong, B. ^†, Kammrath, L.K., Iida, M., & Suppes, L. (in prep). Who you gonna call? Support selection decisions and consequences for psychological well-being. Manuscript in preparation.
• McCarthy, M. ^†, & Kammrath, L.K. (in prep). All fired up but nothing to say: The null association between dissatisfaction and verbalization close relationships. Manuscript in preparation.
• Locke, A. ^†,  Kammrath, L.K., Armstrong, B. ^† (in prep). Going through the motions: Depleted relationship partners perform communal behaviors automatically, but mindlessly. Manuscript in preparation.
• Kammrath, L.K., Armstrong, B. ^†, Kichline, T. ^†, Whitmill, A. ^†, & Locke, A. ^† (in prep) Relational mindfulness as a predictor of positive relationship outcomes. Manuscript in preparation.
• Kichline, T. ^†, Kammrath, L.K., & Armstrong, B. ^† (in prep). The Ways of Expressing Love questionnaire. Manuscript in preparation.
• Kichline, T. ^†, Kammrath, L.K., & Armstrong, B.^† (in prep). Metacognitive “Love Styles”: Can people accurately report the loving behaviors that make them most satisfied? Manuscript in preparation.