Responsiveness as a Key Predictor of Happiness: Mechanisms and Unanswered Questions

Günaydın, Gül Pamukçu; Selçuk, Emre; Karagöbek, A. B.

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-89663-2_1

Cited by 7 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 78 publications

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“…Growing empirical evidence supports these lay beliefs, with studies showing that the quality of social bonds exerts both immediate and lasting influences on well-being (Feeney & Collins, 2015). One particularly potent relational process that contributes to adult health and well-being is perceived partner responsiveness—i.e., the extent to which individuals believe that their romantic partner or spouse understands, appreciates, and cares for them (Reis, 2012; Selcuk, Karagobek, & Gunaydin, in press; Slatcher & Selcuk, 2017). Much of the existing research on the role of perceived partner responsiveness in personal well-being, however, has been conducted with North American samples.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Patterns of perceived partner responsiveness and well-being in Japan and the United States.

Taşfiliz

Selçuk

Günaydın

et al. 2018

Journal of Family Psychology

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Quality of marital relationships is consistently linked to personal well-being. However, almost all of the studies linking marital processes to well-being have been conducted in Western (particularly North American) countries. Growing evidence shows that perceived partner responsiveness is a central relationship process predicting well-being in Western contexts but little is known about whether this association generalizes to other countries. The present work investigated whether the predictive role of perceived partner responsiveness in well-being differs across the United States and Japan-2 contexts with contrasting views on how the self is conceptualized in relation to the social group. A large life span sample of married or long-term cohabiting adults (n = 3,079, age range = 33-83 in the United States and n = 861, age range = 30-79 in Japan) completed measures of perceived partner responsiveness, hedonic and eudaimonic well-being, and demographic (age, gender, education) and personality (extraversion and neuroticism) covariates known to predict well-being. Perceived partner responsiveness positively predicted hedonic and eudaimonic well-being both in the U.S. and in Japan. However, perceived partner responsiveness more strongly predicted both types of well-being in the United States as compared with Japan. The difference in slopes across the 2 countries was greater for eudaimonic as compared with hedonic well-being. The interaction between perceived partner responsiveness and country held even after controlling for demographic factors and personality traits. By showing that the role of perceived partner responsiveness in well-being may be influenced by cultural context, our findings contribute to achieving a more nuanced picture of the role of relationships in personal well-being. (PsycINFO Database Record

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mentioning

confidence: 99%

Patterns of perceived partner responsiveness and well-being in Japan and the United States.

Taşfiliz

Selçuk

Günaydın

et al. 2018

Journal of Family Psychology

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“…Perceived partner responsiveness has been shown to predict numerous beneficial outcomes, such as intimacy (Laurenceau et al, 2004), emotional well-being and happiness (Selcuk & Karagobek, 2018), emotional openness (Ruan et al, 2020), personal growth and sleep efficiency (Selcuk, Stanton, Slatcher, & Ong, 2017), self-esteem (Cortes & Wood, 2018;Murray et al, 2000), and even lower mortality risk (Selcuk & Ong, 2013). In this vein, and supporting our proposal about the relevance of responsiveness to interpersonal emotion dynamics, research shows that perceived partner responsiveness to emotional self-disclosures are more strongly tied to important relational outcomes such as intimacy than to factual selfdisclosures (Laurenceau, Barrett, & Pietromonaco, 1998).…”

Section: Dynamicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Emotion Dynamics in Intimate Relationships: The Roles of Interdependence and Perceived Partner Responsiveness

Sels¹,

Randall²,

Verhofstadt³

2021

Affect Dynamics

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Emotions are not only fundamentally dynamic in nature in the sense of varying across time, but they are also fundamentally social, originating in and shaping our interpersonal processes.Interpersonal emotion dynamics refer to the ways in which emotions and emotional selfregulation are dynamically influenced by interactional partners, given the interdependence that exists between them. We begin this chapter by describing the premise for interpersonal emotion dynamics in intimate relationships, what interpersonal emotion dynamics constitute, and the state of the art in the fields of emotion science, relationship science, and interpersonal emotion dynamics. Next, we discuss two key themes that we believe promote theoretical integration among seemingly disparate strands of research (in emotion and relationship research), emphasizing the importance of interdependence and perceived partner responsiveness in the interpersonal emotion dynamics that characterize intimate relationships.The chapter concludes with our recommendations for future research in this promising area.

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“…It has three key elements (Reis, 2014; Reis & Gable, 2015): (a) understanding , which is truly knowing a partner's core aspects (e.g., traits, feelings, or values); (b) validating , which is appreciating a partner's true self as it is; and (c) caring , which is giving close attention to a partner's immediate needs and well‐being. The term can be applied to all close social bonds, including parenting, romantic relationships, and friendships (Selcuk et al, 2018). Perceived friend responsiveness can be re‐conceptualized as a relational characteristic that combines the help, intimacy, self‐validation, and emotional security functions suggested by Mendelson and Aboud (1999).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In this regard, the friendship functions of intimacy, support, reliable alliance, self‐validation, emotional security, or responsiveness in a broader sense appear to make people more open to learning about their flaws (Kumashiro & Sedikides, 2005), which might facilitate progress toward their ideal self through increased self‐expansion and self‐pruning and decreased self‐adulteration. High‐quality friendships may also prevent people from self‐contraction, because a friend's confirmation of one's preferred qualities can help people keep their brightest sides and live up to their potential (Anderson & Fowers, 2020; Selcuk et al, 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Transformative power of friendships: Examining the relationships among friendship quality, self‐change, and well‐being

Yücel,

Dincer

2024

Personal Relationships

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Friendships are beneficial to a person's growth and well‐being. People in close relationships may experience four types of self‐change: self‐expansion, self‐pruning, self‐contraction, and self‐adulteration. The current cross‐sectional research sought to investigate whether these relational self‐change processes explain the links between friendship quality and well‐being in same‐sex best friendships. Study 1A (N = 187) adapted the Turkish Relational Self‐Change Scale to the friendship context and confirmed its psychometric adequacy in addressing friendship‐based self‐changes in Türkiye. Study 1B (N = 306) examined the links between different friendship functions and relational self‐changes, as well as whether relational self‐changes explain the link between friendship quality and ontological well‐being. Among the specific friendship functions, stimulating companionship and self‐validation were related to self‐expansion and self‐pruning, whereas reliable alliance was related to self‐contraction and self‐adulteration. Self‐adulteration also indirectly explained the relationship between friendship quality and ontological well‐being. Study 2 (N = 204) revealed that only self‐pruning explained the link between perceived friend responsiveness and overall well‐being. The contributions of friendships to self‐change and personal well‐being were discussed in light of the findings.

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Responsiveness as a Key Predictor of Happiness: Mechanisms and Unanswered Questions

Cited by 7 publications

References 78 publications

Patterns of perceived partner responsiveness and well-being in Japan and the United States.

Patterns of perceived partner responsiveness and well-being in Japan and the United States.

Emotion Dynamics in Intimate Relationships: The Roles of Interdependence and Perceived Partner Responsiveness

The Transformative power of friendships: Examining the relationships among friendship quality, self‐change, and well‐being

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