"But we've been getting better lately": Comparing prospective and retrospective views of relationship development.

Revision in memories of relationship development: Do biases persist over time?

“…That is, they tend to remember declines in the relatively distant past but improvements that compensate for those declines in the more recent past (Karney & Frye, 2002;Sprecher, 1999;Vaillant & Vaillant, 1993). This pattern of remembering distant decline and recent improvement is robust, having been demonstrated across intervals of 4 years (Karney & Frye, 2002) and 40 years (Vaillant & Vaillant, 1993) of marriage.…”

“…In contrast, to the extent that a particular time period is perceived as being relatively more distant from the present, people are more likely to remember negative events as having taken place during that time period (Ross & Wilson, 2002;Wilson & Ross, 2001). Similarly, spouses who remember more improvements in their satisfaction across time periods that appear to be relatively more recent than across time periods that are in the more distant past tend to report more confidence in the future of their relationship, even after controlling for observed changes in their marital quality over time (Karney & Frye, 2002). Thus, although people may be motivated to perceive improvement generally, this motivation may be stronger for memories of the more recent past than for the more distant past.…”

“…First, retrospective reports are frequently used by researchers to gain an understand-ing of courtship processes and relationship development (e.g., Orbuch, Veroff, & Holmberg, 1993;Surra, Arizzi, & Asmussen, 1988). Second, couples themselves draw on their memories to evaluate their relationships in the present and to predict how they might change in the future (see Albert, 1977;Karney & Frye, 2002).…”

“…Despite the detail with which partners can recount the history of their romantic relationships, however, retrospective reports may differ markedly from observations of how relationships develop (Karney & Coombs, 2000;Karney & Frye, 2002;Schacter, 1995;Sprecher, 1999). For instance, although longitudinal studies of newlyweds suggest that, on average, marital satisfaction declines linearly over time (e.g., Karney & Bradbury, 1995;Karney & Frye, 2002;Vaillant & Vaillant, 1993), spouses tend to remember curvilinear changes. That is, they tend to remember declines in the relatively distant past but improvements that compensate for those declines in the more recent past (Karney & Frye, 2002;Sprecher, 1999;Vaillant & Vaillant, 1993).…”

“…For instance, although longitudinal studies of newlyweds suggest that, on average, marital satisfaction declines linearly over time (e.g., Karney & Bradbury, 1995;Karney & Frye, 2002;Vaillant & Vaillant, 1993), spouses tend to remember curvilinear changes. That is, they tend to remember declines in the relatively distant past but improvements that compensate for those declines in the more recent past (Karney & Frye, 2002;Sprecher, 1999;Vaillant & Vaillant, 1993). This pattern of remembering distant decline and recent improvement is robust, having been demonstrated across intervals of 4 years (Karney & Frye, 2002) and 40 years (Vaillant & Vaillant, 1993) of marriage.…”