Seminar Series

Although affiliation and social support are generally beneficial for people’s health and well-being across situations, certain situations nevertheless increase people’s affiliative motives. The luteal phase of the menstrual cycle may be one such situation for women. In the luteal phase (i.e., the 14 days after ovulation), women’s progesterone levels increase, and their bodies begin physiological—and psychological—preparations for (possible) pregnancy. Pregnancy is a time of increased stress and threats, many of which can be alleviated by a close social support system. This talk will present findings from three studies that examine women’s psychological processes and/or hormonal changes across the menstrual cycle to test the hypothesis that women’s affiliation is higher in the luteal phase (compared to other phases) and is positively associated with within-woman fluctuations in progesterone. To provide more nuance, each study examined women’s affiliation toward different targets (e.g., potential new friends, classmates, close friends, family, and romantic partners). This talk will also discuss how the use of different types of hormonal contraceptives can affect women’s affiliation and, in the context of romantic relationships, dyadic sexual desire.

Dr. Anastasia Makhanova is an Associate Professor at the University of Arkansas. Broadly, her research focuses on examining motivational and biological processes that affect social perception. One of the core research areas of her lab is examining how women’s psychological processes are affected by fluctuations in reproductive hormones across the menstrual cycle as well as the use of different hormonal contraceptives. Much of this work focuses on women’s affiliative motives. Dr. Makhanova was also the principal investigator of a longitudinal transition to parenthood study for which data collection was recently completed. The PEA in a POD study (Physiological and Emotional Adjustment in a Parenthood Outcomes Dataset) followed couples who were first-time parents from approximately 30 weeks of pregnancy to 1-year post-partum through seven varied assessments. In addition to her work on close relationships, Dr. Makhanova studies social perception in the domain of intergroup bias. In particular, she examines how people’s motivation to avoid pathogens and protect their health—as well as acute immune activity if they do encounter a pathogen—affects perceptions of people from different groups. This work has been funded by two grants from the National Science Foundation and an R01 grant from the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities.