Given the powerful implications of relationship quality for health and well-being, a central mission of relationship science is explaining why some romantic relationships thrive more than others. This large-scale project used machine learning (i.e., Random Forests) to 1) quantify the extent to which relationship quality is predictable and 2) identify which constructs reliably predict relationship quality. Across 43 dyadic longitudinal datasets from 29 laboratories, the top relationship-specific predictors of relationship quality were perceived-partner commitment, appreciation, sexual satisfaction, perceived-partner satisfaction, and conflict. The top individual-difference predictors were life satisfaction, negative affect, depression, attachment avoidance, and attachment anxiety. Overall, relationship-specific variables predicted up to 45% of variance at baseline, and up to 18% of variance at the end of each study. Individual differences also performed well (21% and 12%, respectively). Actor-reported variables (i.e., own relationship-specific and individual-difference variables) predicted two to four times more variance than partner-reported variables (i.e., the partner’s ratings on those variables). Importantly, individual differences and partner reports had no predictive effects beyond actor-reported relationship-specific variables alone. These findings imply that the sum of all individual differences and partner experiences exert their influence on relationship quality via a person’s own relationship-specific experiences, and effects due to moderation by individual differences and moderation by partner-reports may be quite small. Finally, relationship-quality change (i.e., increases or decreases in relationship quality over the course of a study) was largely unpredictable from any combination of self-report variables. This collective effort should guide future models of relationships.
The literature on the role of attention in sexual arousal is reviewed, especially that which has implications for noninvasive treatment of sexual dysfunction. Findings suggest that voluntary control of sexual arousal can be achieved through attentional focus on nonsexual cognitions or sexual fantasy. Cognitive biases may direct attention and thus facilitate or impede sexual arousal. Sexual arousal may be influenced by directed attentional focus, and preliminary evidence suggests that mindfulness techniques may result in longer-term changes in attentional focus; these changes, in turn, may improve sexual response. Information-processing models of sexual arousal developed in light of such findings are discussed. This research establishes the central role of attentional processes in facilitating physiological and, especially, subjective sexual arousal. Implementing approaches that capitalize on attentional processes could advance noninvasive treatment of sexual dysfunction. Future avenues of research might investigate how play, mammalian play circuits, and flow states are relevant to sexual response and satisfaction.
Among young women, hookups have been found to lead to varied emotional responses. The authors tested three hypotheses to disentangle these contradictory findings in a weekly diary study. A trait-level motives hypothesis suggests that trait-level motives moderate emotional responses to hookups. A motive satisfaction hypothesis suggests that emotional responses to hooking up depend on satisfaction within hookups. A dual-effects hypothesis proposes the co-occurrence of positive and negative emotional responses. In this study, 203 college women reported trait-level motives for hooking up (e.g., pleasure/fun, intimacy, coping). Next, 5 weekly surveys asked about recent hookup experiences. These responses were compared to the same women’s emotions on weeks they did not hook up, thereby controlling for selection bias. All three hypotheses were supported. Pleasure/fun motives predicted more positive and less negative emotions; satisfaction of pleasure, intimacy, and affirmation motives resulted in more positive and less negative emotions; and simultaneous positive and negative reactions were common.
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