Emily A Impett

Sexual need fulfillment is central to well-being in romantic relationships. Self-determination theory suggests that perceiving a romantic partner as autonomously supportive is linked with greater well-being through supporting the fulfillment of basic psychological needs. The current research examines whether there are unique associations with need...

Parent couples often struggle to maintain satisfying sex lives perhaps because partners have different priorities to balance including the self, their relationship with each other, and their relationships with their children. Given that parents are increasingly involved in supporting adult children, it is important to examine how prioritization of...

Sexuality is integral to most romantic relationships. Through stress spillover, however, factors such as individually experienced stress outside of the relationship (i.e., extradyadic stress) can negatively impact sexuality. In this study, we explored how a possible (mis)matching of both partners' levels of extradyadic stress is related to sexual a...

Romantic partners often attempt to improve their relationship by changing each other’s traits and behaviors, but such partner regulation is often unsuccessful. We examined whether gratitude expressed by agents (i.e., partners requesting change) facilitates greater regulation success from targets (i.e., partners making change) by encouraging targets...

Much of psychological science relies on collaboration—from generating new theories and study ideas, to collecting and analyzing data, to writing and sharing results with the broader community. Learning how to collaborate with others is an important skill, yet this process is not often explicitly discussed in academia. Here, five researchers from di...

The public has something of an obsession with love languages, believing that the key to lasting love is for partners to express love in each other’s preferred language. Despite the popularity of Chapman’s book The 5 Love Languages, there is a paucity of empirical work on love languages, and collectively, it does not provide strong empirical support...

Four distinct partner responses to sexual rejection - sexual advances that are declined by a partner - have been identified. This study assessed the frequency of these responses between and within North American couples coping with Sexual Interest/Arousal Disorder (SIAD) and community couples and - in line with the Interpersonal Emotion Regulation...

Intercultural romantic relationships are increasingly common. While past work has focused on how satisfied intercultural couples are compared to monocultural couples, we focus on factors within intercultural relationships that predict partners’ relationship quality. We propose that diversity ideologies—people’s beliefs about cultural diversity—are...

Considerable research demonstrates a positive association between sexual satisfaction and relationship satisfaction, but longitudinal evidence on the direction of this link remains inconclusive. To address this research gap, the present research provided a stringent test of the within-person associations between sexual and relationship satisfaction...

People with insecure attachment tend to experience more relationship-related issues, including lower sexual satisfaction. Although gratitude is a powerful emotion that can be used to boost and maintain relationship quality, it is unclear whether gratitude can help sustain sexual satisfaction in relationships. The current research tested whether exp...

Gender differences in appraisals of first intercourse are among the largest in sexuality research, with women indicating less satisfying “sexual debuts” than men. Dispositional or “actor-level” explanations for this gender gap are pervasive, yet research has largely examined heterosexual debuts in which actor gender and partner gender are confounde...

Gender differences in appraisals of first intercourse are among the largest in sexuality research, with women indicating less satisfying "sexual debuts" than men. Dispositional or "actor-level" explanations for this gender gap are pervasive, yet research has largely examined heterosexual debuts in which actor gender and partner gender are confounde...

Empathy is a multidimensional construct that includes changes in cognitive, affective, and physiological processes. However, the physiological processes that contribute to empathic responding have received far less empirical attention. Here, we investigated whether physiological synchrony emerged during an empathy-inducing activity in which individ...

Stress, den wir als Individuen im Alltag erleben (z. B. mit Kindern, im Beruf oder in der Freizeit) geht mit negativen Auswirkungen in verschiedenen Aspekten der Partnerschaft, wie beispielsweise der Sexualität, einher (auch «Spill-Over-Prozess» genannt). Obwohl bei partnerschaftlichen und sexuellen Problemen im (paar-)therapeutischen Setting oft z...

The Fear of Being Single (FOBS) Scale (Spielmann et al., 2013) assesses insecurity about singlehood, but its items are phrased for those who are currently single. The present research validated the FOBS in Relationships Scale for individuals currently in relationships. Results suggested that both single and partnered individuals experience FOBS, an...

Major stressors can influence religiosity, making some people more religious, while making others less religious. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we conducted a mixed-method study with a nationally representative sample of religiously affiliated American adults (N = 685) to assess group differences between those who decreased, stayed the same...

Unlabelled: Sleep is an important predictor of social functioning. However, questions remain about how impaired sleep-which is common and detrimental to affective and cognitive functions necessary for providing high quality support-is linked to both the provision and perception of support, especially at the daily level. We tested links between imp...

Gratitude promotes high quality relationships, but what happens when partners differ in their levels of gratitude? We examined the dyadic nature of gratitude in relationships using six longitudinal datasets (562 couples). Approaching the dyadic effect from the perspective of a “weak-link” hypothesis, we tested if the link between one partner’s grat...

The potential link between orgasm consistency (i.e., the percentage of time an individual experiences orgasm during sexual interactions with a partner) and sexual satisfaction in mixed-gender sexual relationships remains underexamined in the literature. We combined two dyadic samples (N = 725 couples) and utilized Dyadic Response Surface Analysis (...

Despite the worldwide increase in unpartnered individuals (i.e., singles), little research exists to provide a comprehensive understanding of the heterogeneity within this population. In the present research (N = 3,195), we drew on the fundamental social motives framework to provide a theory-based description and understanding of different "types"...

Perceiving a partner’s gratitude has several benefits for romantic relationships. We aimed to better understand these associations by decomposing perceptions into accuracy and bias. Specifically, we examined whether accuracy and bias in perceiving a partner’s experience (Study 1: N dyads = 205) and expression (Study 2: N dyads = 309) of gratitude w...

New parents' sexual frequency and desire fluctuate throughout the transition to parenthood (i.e., the first year after childbirth). Poorer infant sleep and parental sleep are each associated with lower sexual frequency and desire in cross-sectional research. According to the theory, infant sleep might shape new parents' sexual frequency and desire...

Romantic first impressions seem to linger, but why? Few studies have investigated how romantic desire during initial interactions predicts later relational outcomes (e.g., later romantic interest, contact attempts) using a design that can tease apart different possible mechanisms (e.g., mate value, selectivity, compatibility). Across three speed-da...

Objective: Individual differences in attachment insecurity can have important implications for experiences of positive emotions. However, existing research on the link between attachment insecurity and positive emotional experiences has typically used a composite measure of positive emotions, overlooking the potential importance of differentiating...

Expectations play a key role in shaping sexual and relationship well-being. Across the transition to parenthood, couples navigate many changes to their sexual relationships, yet little is known about their expectations related to sex. This longitudinal study investigated how unmet and exceeded expectations for postpartum sexual concerns - assessed...

Prosocial motivation is an important ingredient for satisfying relationships. However, individuals high in attachment avoidance-those who fear closeness and prefer independence-often display reduced prosocial motivation for their romantic partner. In two daily experience studies (Ntotal = 324), we examined whether feeling appreciated by a romantic...

There is a longstanding belief in relationship science and popular opinion that women are the barometers in mixed-gender relationships such that their perceptions about the partnership carry more weight than men’s in predicting future relationship satisfaction, but this idea has yet to be rigorously tested. We analyze data from two studies to test...

Does entering a romantic relationship enhance or detract from employees’ work–life balance (WLB)? While different theoretical predictions can be made about how being in a relationship contributes to employees’ satisfaction with WLB, the literature lacks a robust investigation into this question. Using longitudinal data from Germany (n = 609; k = 2,...

Background Postpartum sexual concerns are associated with depressive symptoms, distress, and lower relationship satisfaction, and are commonly reported by both mothers and their partners. Previous studies have examined changes in postpartum sexual concern using aggregate scores and have not examined patterns of change for unique concerns, thus igno...

Background: A younger age at sexual intercourse has frequently been linked to adverse sexual health outcomes. Yet, little is known about its associations with healthy sexual function, and less still about the timing of pre-coital sexual debuts and adult sexual health. Aim: We examined associations between an earlier sexual debut and subsequent s...

Choosing who to pursue as a romantic partner can have wide-reaching consequences. Attachment anxiety (i.e., need for reassurance) and avoidance (i.e., comfort with closeness) are associated with relationship quality and maintenance, but do people accurately perceive a date’s attachment style and are these perceptions associated with dating interest...

*Update* Published July 15, 2022 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsxm.2022.06.004 Background. Postpartum sexual concerns are associated with depressive symptoms, distress, and lower relationship satisfaction, and are commonly reported by both mothers and their partners. Previous studies have examined changes in postpartum sexual concern using aggregat...

In a sample of 229 individuals who recently undertook a large-scale sacrifice by relocating for their romantic partner's job or schooling (i.e., accompanying partners), we tested preregistered predictions linking accompanying partners' attachment insecurities (i.e., attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance) and relationship functioning (i.e., re...

Although engaging in exciting, shared activities with a partner is one strategy for warding off relational boredom , people might be less likely to pursue these activities when they are bored, which could have implications for the maintenance of passion in romantic relationships. In the current study, we assessed couple members' (N = 122 couples) d...

Beliefs about sexuality tend to become more salient during sexual challenges and are associated with how individuals respond to these difficulties and, in turn, their sexual well-being. The transition to parenthood is marked by significant changes to couples’ sexuality. As such, this period of vulnerability may be an important context in which thes...

Receiving a request to change from a romantic partner can evoke intense emotional responses that hinder change progress and conflict resolution. As such, investigating how those being asked to change (i.e., change targets) regulate their emotions through key intrapersonal strategies (i.e., suppression and reappraisal) will lend crucial insight into...

Gender differences in experience of first intercourse are among the largest in sexuality research, with women recalling less pleasure and satisfaction than men. This "enjoyment gap" has not been considered in explanations of gender differences in sexual desire. Yet, reinforcement and incentive learning features prominently in recent models of women...

In the current research, we investigated perceptual accuracy in romantic partners’ detection of sexual rejection. In two daily diary studies of predominantly cisgender heterosexual couples, we examined patterns of accuracy and bias concerning both the degree of sexual disinterest (Study 1; N = 98 couples) and occurrence of sexual rejection (Study 2...

Romantic partners regularly sacrifice their own self-interest when partners' needs and preferences diverge. The present work examines the role of perceived partner responsiveness (PPR)-impressions that one's partner is understanding, caring, and validating-in positively shaping people's appraisals of their relational sacrifices. In Study 1, a prere...

Intimate partners engage in sex for a variety of reasons, and their perceptions of each other’s sexual goals play an important role in intimate relationships. How accurate are these perceptions of a partner’s sexual goals and is accuracy associated with relationship quality and sexual satisfaction for the couple? To answer these questions, we condu...

Romantic partners often regulate their emotions and affection to achieve certain goals, but research has yet to explore how partners regulate their expression of sexual desire during sex and its implications for couples’ well-being. In two multi-part dyadic diary studies of primarily mixed-gender couples in longer-term relationships residing in Nor...

While previous research has found that prosocial behavior increases personal and relationship well-being, a particularly costly type of prosocial behavior—sacrifice—can sometimes have aversive effects and is the focus of the current review. We consider effects for both the individual who enacts the sacrifice and the recipient. Sacrifice can take a...

Urgent societal problems, including climate change, require innovation, and can benefit from interdisciplinary solutions. A small body of research has demonstrated the potential of positive emotions (e.g., gratitude, awe) to promote creativity and prosocial behavior, which may help address these problems. This study integrates, for the first time,...

In an integrative review, we examine four theories and models of romantic passion to determine what causes feelings of romantic passion. Although a growing consensus has emerged for the definition of romantic passion, we suggest that this is largely not the case for the source of romantic passion. We outline how four different perspectives—Limerenc...

Objective To provide a more comprehensive understanding of couple relationship satisfaction, commitment, and the dynamic between the two over the transition to parenthood. Background The transition to parenthood is an ideal time to concurrently study relationship satisfaction and commitment, as this period is filled with familial transitions such...

Relationship science contends that the quality of couples’ communication predicts relationship satisfaction over time. Most studies testing these links have examined between-person associations, yet couple dynamics are also theorized at the within-person level: For a given couple, worsened communication is presumed to predict deteriorations in futu...

Spending time with a romantic partner by going on dates is important for promoting closeness in established relationships; however, not all date nights are created equally, and some people might be more adept at planning dates that promote closeness. Drawing from the self-expansion model and relationship goals literature, we predicted that people h...

Romantic passion represents one of the most fragile and elusive elements of relationship quality but one that is increasingly valued and tied to relationship and individual well-being. We provide the first examination of whether experiencing personal self-expansion-positive self-change and personal growth without a romantic partner-is a critical pr...

Background The transition to parenthood is associated with changes to new parents’ mood and sexual health. Sexual dysfunction—problems with sexual function accompanied by sexual distress (i.e., worries and concerns about one’s sex life)—is linked to poorer overall health, yet few studies have examined how sexual dysfunction unfolds for couples duri...

Affectionate touch is crucial for well-being. However, attachment avoidance is associated with negative attitudes toward touch. We tested two preregistered hypotheses about how attachment avoidance influences the association between touch in romantic couples and psychological well-being. We examined whether greater attachment avoidance is associate...

Sexual need fulfillment in a relationship is associated with both partners' sexual and relationship quality. In the current research, we explored what underlies two approaches to sexual need fulfillment-sexual communal norms (i.e., being motivated to meet a partner's sexual needs) and sexual exchange norms (i.e., tracking and trading sexual benefit...

Despite growing evidence that showing gratitude plays a powerful role in building social connections, little is known about how to best express gratitude to maximize its relational benefits. In this research, we examined how two key ways of expressing gratitude-conveying that the benefactor's kind action met one's needs (responsiveness-highlighting...

Research suggests that touch promotes relationship well-being but has failed to consider motives for touch. We assessed general (Study 1) and daily (Study 2) approach and avoidance motives for touch and tested their precursors and consequences. Controlling for relationship quality and the other motive, greater attachment avoidance predicted lower a...

Sexual well-being is an important contributor to romantic relationship quality, health, and quality of life, yet couples face significant disruptions to their sexuality during the transition to parenthood. While there is evidence of variability in the sexual well-being of new parents, distinct classes of dyadic trajectories have not been establishe...

Despite the worldwide increase in single-person households, little research has examined what factors contribute to a satisfying single life. We used three data sets ( N = 3,890) to examine how satisfaction with sexual and social aspects of life are linked with single people’s perceptions of marriage and singlehood. Our results suggest that higher...

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) identi...

Sex is a crucial factor that impacts the quality and stability of relationships, yet many couples report recurrent sexual issues – such as discrepancies in their desired sexual frequency or levels of sexual desire – that detract from their relationship quality. This article describes how applying the theory of communal motivation from relationship...

Prosocial behavior is often thought to bring benefits to individuals and relationships. Do such benefits exist when prosocial behavior is costly for the individual, such as when people are sacrificing for their partner or relationship? Although different theoretical accounts would predict that sacrifice is either positively or negatively associated...

While sexual frequency and satisfaction are strong contributors to the quality and longevity of romantic relationships and overall well-being, mismatches in sexual desire between partners are common and have been linked with poorer satisfaction. Previous findings linking mismatches in desire with poorer relationship and sexual outcomes have typical...

In this prospective longitudinal study, we examined whether and how lack of intimacy or meaningful connection to a romantic partner (i.e., low social reward) and concerns over negative evaluation by the partner (i.e., high social threat) each predict dissolution of a relationship as well as adjustment when a breakup occurs. Our results showed that...

With a growing body of relationship research relying on dyadic data (i.e., in which both members of a couple are participants), researchers have raised questions about whether such samples are representative of the population or unique in important ways. In this research, we used two large data sets (Study 1: n = 5,118; Study 2: n = 5,194) that inc...

When is accurately reading other people’s emotions costly and when is it beneficial? We aimed to identify whether the association between empathic accuracy and both relationship quality and motivation to change varies depending on the type of emotion being detected: appeasement (e.g., embarrassment) or dominance (e.g., anger). Romantic partners (co...

Maintaining sexual satisfaction is a critical, yet challenging, aspect of most romantic relationships. Although prior research has established that sexual communal strength (SCS)—i.e., the extent to which people are motivated to be responsive to their partner’s sexual needs—benefits romantic relationships, research has yet to identify factors that...

When romantic partners sacrifice their own self-interest to benefit the relationship, the sacrificer or recipient may—for various reasons—be biased in how they perceive the costs that the sacrificer incurs. In Study 1, romantic couples ( N = 125) rated their own and their partner’s costs after a conversation about a sacrifice in the laboratory, fol...

Self-expansion in intimate relationships (i.e., broadening one’s perspective through engaging in novel, exciting activities with a partner) has been associated with relationship benefits. The goal of this study was to propose a motivational model of self-expansion to understand what prompts people to engage in self-expanding activities in their rel...

Research on adult attachment in romantic relationships has focused on the negative outcomes that avoidantly attached individuals face. The present research uses observational research methods to determine if there are specific ways of communicating affection that might help avoidantly attached people reap similar levels of rewards from affectionate...

Romantic relationships help people meet needs for connection and emotional and sexual fulfillment. In the current research, we investigate an unexplored response to feeling sexually and relationally unfulfilled: reflecting on positive sexual experiences with past partners (or sexual nostalgia). Across three studies, people low in attachment avoidan...

In most long-term romantic relationships, partners experience sexual conflicts of interest in which one partner declines the other partner's sexual advances. We investigated the distinct ways people reject a partner's advances (i.e., with reassuring, hostile, assertive, and deflecting behaviors) in Studies 1 and 2. Using cross-sectional (Study 3) a...

People in close relationships often need to sacrifice their own preferences and goals for the partner or the relationship. But what are the consequences of such sacrifices for relationship partners? In this work we provide a systematic investigation of the consequences of sacrifice in romantic relationships, both for the person who gives up their g...

The present research tests how socioeconomic inequality (within romantic relationships) predicts relationship quality and observable expressions of emotion—examining longitudinal self-report and behavioral data from both partners of romantic couples. In Part 1 we examined the romantic partners' self-reports of relationship quality at baseline and a...

This study explored 2 key questions at the intersection of care, well-being, and development in romantic relationships. First, what are the links between unmitigated communion (i.e., being overinvolved with meeting a partner's needs to the exclusion of one's own needs) and both partners' relationship satisfaction over time? Second, are there gender...

In seven studies ( n cross-sectional = 1,699, n longitudinal = 118), we developed a measure of relationship norm strength defined as qualities that make the rules and expectations in romantic couples more or less likely to be followed. In our six cross-sectional samples, the resulting Relationship Norm Strength Questionnaire (RNSQ) yielded consiste...

There are many factors that may influence parenting, from societal norms and expectations, dispositional differences, experience and maturity, and availability of resources. In the current research, we examined how stable demographic characteristics associated with these different factors predict the goals parents pursue with their children. We exa...

Attachment anxiety is a form of attachment insecurity characterized by chronic worries about rejection and need for reassurance. Given the critical role a sense of security plays in maintaining healthy relationships, individuals high in attachment anxiety tend to struggle in romantic relationships, which carries serious implications for their broad...

Women coping with female sexual interest/arousal disorder (FSIAD) report lower sexual and relationship satisfaction compared to healthy controls. In community samples, high sexual communal strength (i.e., the motivation to meet a partner’s sexual needs) is associated with higher sexual desire and satisfaction, but high unmitigated sexual communion...

Fear of being single (FOBS) tends to predict settling for less when seeking a romantic partner. The present research sought to examine whether this is due, at least in part, to lower physical attractiveness among those who fear being single. In a photo-rating study (Study 1, N = 122) and a speed-dating study (Study 2, N = 171), participants complet...

We examined tracking accuracy and bias (mean-level and projection) in people's perceptions of their romantic partner's relationship approach and avoidance motives, similarity in partners' motives, and positive and negative emotions as potential cues used to make judgments about a partner's daily motives and motives during shared activities. Using d...

Sexual health reflects physical, emotional, mental, and social elements of sexual well-being. Researchers often position self-esteem (i.e., global or domain-specific evaluations of self) as a key correlate of sexual health. We present the first comprehensive meta-analysis of correlations between self-esteem and sexual health. Our synthesis includes...

The present exploratory research examined the possibility that commitment in close relationships among lower class individuals, despite greater strains on those relationships, buffers them from poorer subjective well-being (SWB). In two samples of close relationship dyads, we found that when partners reported high commitment to the relationship, th...

The present research used longitudinal methods to test whether pursuing sex with an ex-partner hinders breakup recovery. Participants completed a month-long daily diary immediately following a breakup, as well as a two-month follow-up (Study 1). Daily analyses revealed positive associations between trying to have sex with an ex-partner and emotiona...