A model of risk regulation is proposed to explain how low and high self-esteem people balance the tension between self-protection and connectedness goals in romantic relationships. This model assumes that interpersonal risk automatically activates connectedness and self-protection goals. The activation of these competing goals then triggers an executive control system that resolves this goal conflict. One correlational study and 8 experiments manipulating risk, goal strength, and executive strength and then measuring implicit and explicit goal activation and execution strongly supported the model. For people high in self-esteem, risk triggers a control system that directs them toward the situations of dependence within their relationship that can fulfill connectedness goals. For people low in self-esteem, however, the activation of connectedness goals triggers a control system that prioritizes self-protection goals and directs them away from situations where they need to trust or depend on their partner.
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.
Alcohol use has been associated with intimate partner aggression
perpetration and victimization; however, much of the evidence is based on survey
research. Few studies have addressed the proximal effects of drinking episodes
on the subsequent occurrence of partner aggression. The current study used daily
diary methodology to consider the daily and temporal association between
drinking episodes and episodes of partner verbal and physical aggression among a
community sample of married and cohabiting couples (N = 118). Male and female partners each provided 56 days of independent daily
reports of drinking and partner conflict episodes, including verbal and physical
aggression, using interactive voice response technology. Dyadic data analyses,
guided by the actor-partner interdependence model, were conducted using
hierarchical generalized linear modeling with multivariate outcomes. Daily
analyses revealed that alcohol consumption was associated with perpetration of
verbal and physical aggression the same day, but not with victimization.
Temporal analyses revealed that the likelihood of perpetrating verbal and
physical aggression, and the likelihood of being verbally and physically
victimized, increased significantly when alcohol was consumed in the previous
four hours. Findings did not differ according to gender of perpetrator or
victim, and the interaction between perpetrator and victim's alcohol use was not
significant in any analysis. The study provides clear evidence that, within a
sample of community couples without substance-use disorders or other
psychopathology, alcohol consumption by men and women contributes to the
occurrence of partner aggression episodes.
The current research proposes that low self‐esteem people can use parasocial relationships to experience movement toward the ideal self, a benefit they may miss in real relationships. In Study 1, low self‐esteem undergraduate psychology students at a public university in the United States felt closest to celebrities who were similar to their ideal self. In Study 2, low self‐esteem college students primed with their favorite celebrity became more similar to their ideal selves. In Study 3, low self‐esteem college students primed with their favorite celebrity, but not a close relationship partner, became more similar to their ideal selves. Results are discussed in terms of the implications for parasocial relationships, self‐esteem, and the flexibility of the need to belong.
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