Tamara Afifi

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Tamara Dawn Afifi is a communications scholar who focuses on topics such as family communication, stress, and communication. She is one of the creators of the Theory of Resilience and Relational Load (TRRL) and is currently a professor in the department of communication at the University of California, Santa Barbara and the editor of Communication Monographs . [1] As of June 2020, Afifi has an h-index of 25. [2]

Contents

Education

Afifi received her bachelor's degree from Concordia College in 1990. She earned her Master's degree from North Dakota State University in 1996 and her Ph.D. from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 1999. [1]

Career

Afifi is currently a professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where she has taught through the years 2011 to 2013 and 2016 to present. From 2013 to 2016 she taught at the University of Iowa. Before that, she was an associate professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and Penn State University. She was also an assistant professor at Penn State University and Luther College. [1]

Theory of Resilience and Relational Load

In 2017, Afifi explained her research on her communications Theory of Resilience and Relational Load in the book Engaging Theories in Family Communication: Multiple Perspectives. The Theory of Resilience and Relational Load is the theory to understand how families and relationships deal with stride and resilience. [3] [4] The basic idea of TRRL (Theory of Resilience and Relational Load) is that when couples or relationships have a more positive outlook on the stress they appraise the other with positivity which lets the relationship grow together to create a healthier relationship mentally. [5] However, when a relationship or family handles the stress poorly it can cause a distance between parties by allowing the people involved to diminish the others. If this occurs for a long period of time it creates a relational reload. [6]

In 2018, Afifi continued to study the Theory of Resilience and Relational Load with families who had a child that had Type 1 diabetes. They wanted to see if the stress in a relationship affects Type 1 Diabetes stress. They started by having the couples talk about a stressful situation and then had them do a two weeks intervention to increase the amount of time the couple had to put in their relationship. They found out that the children and the wife's stress level with Type 1 Diabetes correlated together and the husbands were not. They also found out that by putting the amount of time into the relationship caused less stress and they had less stress about the conversation. However, for the children, they found that it reduced stress in general, not specifically for type 1 diabetes. [7]

Awards

Bibliography

Related Research Articles

Equity theory focuses on determining whether the distribution of resources is fair. Equity is measured by comparing the ratio of contributions and benefits for each person. Considered one of the justice theories, equity theory was first developed in the 1960s by J. Stacey Adams, a workplace and behavioral psychologist, who asserted that employees seek to maintain equity between the inputs that they bring to a job and the outcomes that they receive from it against the perceived inputs and outcomes of others. According to Equity Theory, in order to maximize individuals' rewards, we tend to create systems where resources can be fairly divided amongst members of a group. Inequalities in relationships will cause those within it to be unhappy to a degree proportional to the amount of inequality. The belief is that people value fair treatment which causes them to be motivated to keep the fairness maintained within the relationships of their co-workers and the organization. The structure of equity in the workplace is based on the ratio of inputs to outcomes. Inputs are the contributions made by the employee for the organization.

Expectancy violations theory (EVT) is a theory of communication that analyzes how individuals respond to unanticipated violations of social norms and expectations. The theory was proposed by Judee K. Burgoon in the late 1970s and continued through the 1980s and 1990s as "nonverbal expectancy violations theory", based on Burgoon's research studying proxemics. Burgoon's work initially analyzed individuals' allowances and expectations of personal distance and how responses to personal distance violations were influenced by the level of liking and relationship to the violators. The theory was later changed to its current name when other researchers began to focus on violations of social behavior expectations beyond nonverbal communication.

Psychological resilience is the ability to cope mentally and emotionally with a crisis, or to return to pre-crisis status quickly.

Obsessive relational intrusion (ORI) occurs when someone knowingly and repeatedly invades another person's privacy boundaries by using intrusive tactics to try to get closer to that person. It includes behaviors such as repeated calls and texts, malicious contact, spreading rumors, stalking, and violence.

Relational dialectics is an interpersonal communication theory about close personal ties and relationships that highlights the tensions, struggles and interplay between contrary tendencies. The theory, proposed respectively by Leslie Baxter and Barbara Montgomery in 1988, defines communication patterns between relationship partners as the result of endemic dialectical tensions. Dialectics are described as the tensions an individual feels when experiencing paradoxical desires that we need and/ or want. The theory contains four assumptions, one of them being that relationships are not one dimensional, rather, they consist of highs and lows, without moving in only one direction. The second assumption claims that change is a key element in relational life, in other words, as our lives change, our relationships change with it. Third, is the assumption that, “contradictions or tensions between opposites never go away and never cease to provide tension,” which means, we will always experience the feelings of pressure that come with our contradictory desires. The fourth assumption is that communication is essential when it comes to working through these opposing feelings. Relationships are made in dialogue and they can be complicated and dialogue with similarities and differences are necessary. Relational communication theories allow for opposing views or forces to come together in a reasonable way. When making decisions, desires and viewpoints that often contradict one another are mentioned and lead to dialectical tensions. Leslie A. Baxter and Barbara M. Montgomery exemplify these contradictory statements that arise from individuals experience dialectal tensions using common proverbs such as "opposites attract", but "birds of a feather flock together"; as well as, "two's company; three's a crowd" but "the more the merrier". This does not mean these opposing tensions are fundamentally troublesome for the relationship; on the contrary, they simply bring forward a discussion of the connection between two parties.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tamara Sher</span>

Tamara Goldman Sher, Ph.D. is a licensed clinical psychologist and professor at The Family Institute at Northwestern University. She is a leading researcher in the fields of Behavioral Medicine and Couples Therapy. Sher was awarded a $2.4 million grant from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) which combined both of these fields in a study measuring the benefits of couples' involvement in cardiac treatment. This grant is part of Sher's work with the National Institute of Health's Behavior Change Consortium. Sher's research has been mentioned in the Chicago Tribune, Psychology Today, on Chicago Public Radio, and published in several leading psychology journals.

Ecological threshold is the point at which a relatively small change or disturbance in external conditions causes a rapid change in an ecosystem. When an ecological threshold has been passed, the ecosystem may no longer be able to return to its state by means of its inherent resilience. Crossing an ecological threshold often leads to rapid change of ecosystem health. Ecological threshold represent a non-linearity of the responses in ecological or biological systems to pressures caused by human activities or natural processes. Critical load, regime shift, critical transition and tipping point are examples of other closely related terms.

Cognitive valence theory (CVT) is a theoretical framework that describes and explains the process of intimacy exchange within a dyad relationship. Peter A. Andersen, PhD created the cognitive valence theory to answer questions regarding intimacy relationships among colleagues, close friends and intimate friends, married couples and family members. Intimacy or immediacy behavior is that behavior that provides closeness or distance within a dyad relationship. Closeness projects a positive feeling in a relationship, and distance projects a negative feeling within a relationship. Intimacy or immediacy behavior can be negatively valenced or positively valenced. Valence, associated with physics, is used here to describe the degree of negativity or positivity in expected information. If your partner perceives your actions as negative, then the interaction may repel your partner away from you. If your partner perceives your actions as positive, then the interaction may be accepted and may encourage closeness. Affection and intimacy promotes positive valence in a relationship. CVT uses non-verbal and verbal communications criteria to analyze behavioral situations.

Predicted outcome value theory introduced in 1996 by Michael Sunnafrank, posits that people seek information in initial interactions and relationships to determine the benefits of interpersonal relationships by predicting the value of future outcomes whether negative or positive. If a person predicts a positive outcome in the relationship this can lead to increased attraction, however if a person predicts a negative outcome then he or she would pursue limited interaction or possibly relationship termination. The processes of predicted outcome value directly link to continued relationship development and communication as well as stronger attraction and intimacy within the relationship.

Affection exchange theory (AET) was introduced in 2001 by Kory Floyd, who is currently a professor of communication at the University of Arizona. The theory was first presented in two of Floyd’s research projects. The first was in a paper presented to the Western States Communication Association in Coeur d’Alene, ID in February 2001. The paper was titled "Elements of an affection exchange theory: Socioevolutionary paradigm for understanding affectionate communication". The second was in an article titled “Human Affection Exchange I: Reproductive probability as a predictor of men’s affection with their sons,” published in The Journal of Men’s Studies in Fall 2001. When this theory was constructed, Floyd was working as a professor at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona in the Hugh Downs School of Human Communication. Many studies had been done up to this point regarding affection and its involvement in interpersonal relationships, particularly between romantic partners and between parents and their children. In 2001, Floyd introduced AET, which was the first theory to address some of the short and long-term effects of the exchange of affection.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Interpersonal communication</span> Exchange of information among people

Interpersonal communication is an exchange of information between two or more people. It is also an area of research that seeks to understand how humans use verbal and nonverbal cues to accomplish several personal and relational goals. Communication includes utilizing communication skills within one's surroundings, including physical and psychological spaces. It is essential to see the visual/nonverbal and verbal cues regarding the physical spaces. In the psychological spaces, self-awareness and awareness of the emotions, cultures, and things that are not seen are also significant when communicating.

Joseph B. Walther is the Mark and Susan Bertelsen Presidential Chair in Technology and Society and the Director of the Center for Information Technology & Society at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His research focuses on social and interpersonal dynamics of computer-mediated communication, in groups, personal relationships, organizational and educational settings. He is noted for creating social information processing theory in 1992 and the hyperpersonal model in 1996.

An important part of the heritage of family resilience is the concept of individual psychological resilience which originates from work with children focusing on what helped them become resilient in the face of adversity. Individual resilience emerged primarily in the field of developmental psychopathology as scholars sought to identify the characteristics of children that allowed them to function "OK" after adversity. Individual resilience gradually moved into understanding the processes associated with overcoming adversity, then into prevention and intervention and now focuses on examining how factors at multiple levels of the system and using interdisciplinary approaches promote resilience. Resilience also has origins to the field of positive psychology. The term resilience gradually changed definitions and meanings, from a personality trait to a dynamic process of families, individuals, and communities.

Dr. Leslie A. Baxter is an American scholar and teacher in communication studies, best known for her research on family and relational communication. Her work is focused on relationships: romantic, marital, and friendly. She is best known for her Relational Dialectics theory. She is a professor emeritus at The University of Iowa's department of Communication Studies.

Loreen Olson is an American scholar of family communication, with an emphasis on gender, communication, and violence. She is an assistant professor for the Communication Studies department at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She teaches graduate and undergraduate classes on communication theory, gender communication, relational communication, family communication, qualitative research methods, and interpersonal communication theory. Olson and co-authors Elizabeth A. Baiocchi-Wagner, Jessica M. Wilson-Kratzer, and Sarah E. Symonds published a book entitled The Dark Side of Family Communication. Loreen Olson is also the current editor of the Journal of Family Communication.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tie signs</span> Clues pointing to a relationship

Tie signs are signs, signals, and symbols, that are revealed through people's actions as well as objects such as engagement rings, wedding bands, and photographs of a personal nature that suggest a relationship exists between two people. For romantic couples, public displays of affection (PDA) including things like holding hands, an arm around a partner's shoulders or waist, extended periods of physical contact, greater-than-normal levels of physical proximity, grooming one's partner, and “sweet talk” are all examples of common tie signs. Tie signs inform the participants, as well as outsiders, about the nature of a relationship, its condition, and even what stage a relationship is in.

Gene Howard Brody is an American developmental psychologist and prevention scientist and Regent's Professor at the University of Georgia and is the founder and co-director of the University of Georgia's Center for Family Research. He is known for his research on the physiological, biological, and mental health effects of poverty, community disadvantage, and racial discrimination and for the development of efficacious prevention programs for African American youth and their families.

Communal coping is the collective effort of members of a connected network to manage a distressing event. This definition and the scope of the concept positions communal coping as an offshoot of social support. According to Lyons et al. (1998), the communal coping conceptual framework emerged for two reasons. First, to expand the research that supports the claim that the coping process sometimes requires individual and collective effort. Second, the need for a specific framework for investigating the cooperative characteristic of coping. To support the need for a framework which explores the social aspect of coping as a combined effort, the authors argued that the communal coping conceptual framework emphasizes the connectedness and reliance on personal network for coping. Developments to the communal coping framework include the explanation of the complex nature of the communal coping process and specific personal outcomes following a communal coping process.

Hurtful communication occurs when the receiver perceives a specific social interaction as upsetting or harmful emotionally. In the course of human interaction, one party will say or do something that results in unpleasant emotional feelings for another. Negative social interactions can be intentional, when one or both parties are involved in interpersonal conflict, or unintentional, such as when misunderstandings occur. Actions such as failure to recognize accomplishments or significant dates can cause hurtful outcomes within relationships.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shardé M. Davis</span> Afro-American academic

Shardé M. Davis is an Afro-American academic who created the hashtag #BlackintheIvory, which was popularised on Twitter in the wake of widespread protests following the murder of George Floyd.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Tamara Afifi, Department of Communication". UC Santa Barbara. Retrieved 2020-04-22.
  2. "Author details (Afifi, Tamara D.)". Scopus. Retrieved 2020-06-04.
  3. Afifi, Tamara D.; Harrison, Kathryn (2017-09-13). "Theory of Resilience and Relational Load (TRRL) : Understanding Families as Systems of Stress and Calibration". Engaging Theories in Family Communication. doi:10.4324/9781315204321-29 . Retrieved 2020-04-22.
  4. Rubinsky, Valerie (2019-12-20). "Extending the theory of resilience and relational load into polyamorous relationships". Interpersona: An International Journal on Personal Relationships. 13 (2): 144–170. doi: 10.5964/ijpr.v13i2.364 . ISSN   1981-6472.
  5. Duggan, Ashley P. (2019-01-31). Health and Illness in Close Relationships. Cambridge University Press. pp. 151–152. ISBN   978-1-108-32973-6.
  6. Afifi, Tamara D.; Merrill, Anne F.; Davis, Sharde (2016). "The theory of resilience and relational load". Personal Relationships. 23 (4): 663–683. doi:10.1111/pere.12159. ISSN   1475-6811. S2CID   151669017.
  7. Afifi, Tamara; Granger, Douglas; Ersig, Anne; Tsalikian, Eva; Shahnazi, Ariana; Davis, Sharde; Harrison, Kathryn; Callejas, Michelle Acevedo; Scranton, Audrey (2019-08-24). "Testing the Theory of Resilience and Relational Load (TRRL) in Families with Type I Diabetes". Health Communication. 34 (10): 1107–1119. doi:10.1080/10410236.2018.1461585. ISSN   1041-0236. PMID   29667488. S2CID   4950320.
  8. 1 2 3 4 "Interpersonal Communication Division". National Communication Association. 2016-10-17. Retrieved 2020-06-04.
  9. Richards, Adam S. (2010-11-09). "A Review of: "Tamara D. Afifi & Walid A. Afifi (Eds.), Uncertainty, Information Management, and Disclosure Decisions: Theories and Applications.": New York: Routledge, 2009; pp. 432. ISBN: 978-0-415-96515-6, $140.00 (hardcover); ISBN: 978-0-415-96515-3, $53.95 (paperback)". Southern Communication Journal. 75 (5): 539–541. doi:10.1080/1041794x.2010.500888. ISSN   1041-794X. S2CID   143301603.