Garth J O Fletcher

Victoria University of Wellington · School of Psychology

Intimate relationships are a principal source of emotional support, which fosters recipients' health and well-being. Yet, being in a position to provide support can be stressful, particularly if people are burdened with their own emotional difficulties, and such stress may interfere with people's ability to behave in emotionally supportive ways. Th...

This chapter explains gender differences in intimate violence, from pushing a partner to homicide. It then discusses many factors explaining the massive variability of violence in intimate relationships, both within and across cultures, in the context of different theoretical approaches. The three dominant theories that deal with relationship viole...

This chapter reviews evidence for the evolutionary thesis that romantic love is a commitment device to keep parents together long enough to help infants survive to reproductive age. The power and sweetness of romantic love, and its centrality in human affairs, lend it an air of mystery that people suspect is behind the common view that it is hard t...

This chapter discusses the way in which humans rear children (often in the context of pair‐bonding and broader family networks), which was probably a major factor in the evolution of the special qualities of Homo sapiens. It explains that intimate relationships can really be understood only within the context of human nature itself. Because intimat...

This chapter examines the central role of the family – including moms, dads, and grandparents – on the selection of romantic partners and functioning of romantic relationships. There is a lot of similarity between love in close platonic friendships with family members or friends and romantic relationships. Both kinds of love are rooted in trust, ca...

This chapter focuses on how romantic relationships can impact physical health at different stages of life (and vice‐versa), and touches on mental health outcomes at times. It begins by discussing the ways in which certain interpersonal experiences early in life (such as parental divorce) increase the likelihood of developing health problems later i...

This chapter first introduces attachment theory, which is an evolutionary theory of human social behavior “from the cradle to the grave”. It discusses how and why attachment theory originated and some of its basic principles. Attachment theory applies to everybody throughout life from birth to death. The theory has two main components: a normative...

This chapter examines the research that has investigated the kind of mind‐reading exemplified in the example from Annie Hall, along with the personality and many other judgments people make of their partners at every stage of the relationship. The “love is blind” thesis, taken to extremes, undercuts a key assumption in evolutionary psychology. More...

Suppressing the expression of negative emotions tends to undermine individuals' and their partners' wellbeing. However, sometimes expressive suppression may be relatively innocuous given that individuals commonly withhold negative emotions in order to maintain close relationships, and this may be especially the case when expressive suppression is e...

Eastwick, Finkel, and Simpson (2018) advanced recommendations for "best practices" in testing the predictive validity of individual differences in the extent to which perceptions of partners match ideal standards (ideal-partner matching). We respond to their article evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of different tests, presenting new analyses...

Partners' negative emotions communicate social information necessary for individuals to respond appropriately to important relational events. Yet, there is inconsistent evidence regarding whether partners' emotional expression enhances accurate perceptions of partners' emotions. The current studies make methodological and theoretical extensions to...

This chapter examines the predictors of relationship dissolution and divorce primarily within Western cultures, for the simple reason that most of the relevant research has been carried out in such countries. On the other side of the coin, it also discusses what pulls couples together and helps maintain long‐term relationships. The chapter then tur...

This chapter explores the nature of interpersonal attraction and mate selection. The topics concern what men and women around the world look for in a mate and the thorny question of why humans adopt the standards they do. The chapter then discusses both the nature of within‐gender differences and across‐gender differences in mating strategies, and...

This chapter reveals some key gender differences in sexuality, which are remarkably consistent with what is known about mate selection and mating strategies and the sex hormones. Men have stronger sex drives than women and are prone to keeping the sexual component (of love) separated from commitment and intimacy to a greater extent than are women....

This chapter reviews and integrates five themes that tie together different parts of the relationship elephant. It deals with two interconnected general themes initially that embody two key threads running through the book – the power of culture and evolution and their linkages, and the way that pair‐bonding and romantic love help explain the evolu...

This chapter explores the nature of the intimate relationship mind, the origins and causes of relationship cognition, and the role of emotions and feelings. It shows that the human (intimate) relationship mind is a remarkable instrument, honed by evolution and culture to meet pre‐ordained goals. The intimate relationship mind can be usefully split...

One stream of research, supporting a materialist approach, is concerned with what is termed embodied cognition. The central axiom of this research domain posits that bodily and perceptual processes and cognition work to influence one another within an integrated biological system. If a materialist approach is worth its salt, then scientific work on...

George and Mary's styles of communication seem like oil and water when put together. Their different approaches to conflict reflect two competing theoretical explanations postulated by scientists as the best way of communicating when experiencing relationship problems: the honest communication model versus the good management model. This chapter ev...

A recent article by Eastwick, Finkel, and Simpson (2018) advanced recommendations on what constitutes “best practices” for testing the predictive validity of ideal partner preference-matching. We critique their article, suggesting flaws in some of the central recommendations and setting out our conclusions that substantively differ from those offer...

Prototypes of personality traits derived from the Five-Factor Model of personality were developed using Latent Profile Analysis. Trait configurations and predictive outcomes suggested the appropriateness of a four-profile solution over the commonly identified three-profile solution. However, comparisons of model fit and predictive ability with prev...

The study investigated threat versus challenge appraisals of acculturative stressors and their impact on the changes in psychological symptoms. It also examined information processing styles (informational, normative, and diffuse-avoidant) as moderators of these relationships. A 6-month longitudinal study with two measuring points was conducted wit...

Hostile sexism encompasses aggressive attitudes toward women who contest men’s power and suspicions that women will manipulate men by exploiting their relational dependence. Prior research has shown that these attitudes predict greater aggression toward female relationship partners, but has overlooked the contexts in which such aggression should oc...

We used Latent Profile and Latent Profile Transition Analysis to empirically develop and compare competing models of personality profiles (three- and four-profile models). We do so using data from the New Zealand Attitudes and Values Study, a large longitudinal national probability sample of New Zealanders. Both three- and four-profile solutions de...

Drawing from previous work on identity styles by Berzonsky, the current article introduces a new version of the Identity Style Inventory assessing social-cognitive information processing strategies during cultural transition (ISI-CT). The ISI-CT incorporates five distinct identity styles (analytical informational, exploratory informational, normati...

In this article, I discuss recent research dealing with bias and accuracy of judgments in romantic relationships. First, two components of overall accuracy—directional bias and tracking accuracy—are outlined. Second, a model is described dealing with the causes and consequences of bias and accuracy in partner and relationship judgments, and researc...

In the current research, we tested the extent to which attachment insecurity produces inaccurate and biased perceptions of intimate partners' emotions and whether more negative perceptions of partners' emotions elicit the damaging behavior often associated with attachment insecurity. Perceptions of partners' emotions as well as partners' actual emo...

People high in attachment avoidance typically respond more negatively to partner support, but some research suggests they can be calmed by high levels of practical support. In the present research, we attempted to reconcile these inconsistencies by modeling curvilinear associations between romantic partners' support and support recipients' outcomes...

This article evaluates a thesis containing three interconnected propositions. First, romantic love is a "commitment device" for motivating pair-bonding in humans. Second, pair-bonding facilitated the idiosyncratic life history of hominins, helping to provide the massive investment required to rear children. Third, managing long-term pair bonds (alo...

Eighty-one participants were recruited to test the sensitivity of the mating sociometer to mate-value feedback in the context of ongoing intimate relationships. Experiences of social rejection/acceptance by attractive opposite-sex confederates were manipulated. The effects of this manipulation on self-esteem, relationship satisfaction and commitmen...

In the current study, opposite-sex strangers had 10-min conversations with a possible further date in mind. Based on judgments from partners and observers, three main findings were produced. First, judgments of attractiveness/vitality perceptions (compared with warmth/trustworthiness and status/resources) were the most accurate and were predominant...

Although mate preference research has firmly established that men value physical attractiveness more than women do and women value social status more than men do, recent speed-dating studies have indicated mixed evidence (at best) for whether people's sex-differentiated mate preferences predict actual mate choices. According to an evolutionary, mat...

The Science of Intimate Relationships represents the first interdisciplinary approach to the latest scientific findings relating to human sexual relationships.

Heterosexual couples (N = 57) discussed features about each other they wanted to change. During a review of their recorded discussions, for each 30 s of interaction, perceivers provided judgments of their partner's regard, and partners reported their actual regard for the perceiver. The authors simultaneously assessed the extent to which perceivers...

This research tested whether and how partners' support of self-improvement efforts influences recipients' relationship evaluations and self-improvement success. Study 1 provided an initial test of predictions using self-reports (N = 150). Study 2 assessed support behavior exhibited in couples' (N = 47) discussions of self-improvement desires, and t...

An experiment investigated the independent and combined effects of receiving feedback from romantic partners that varied in both accuracy (i.e., profile agreement) and positive bias, as compared with one's self-perceptions. Both members of 55 romantically involved couples were randomly assigned to receive either high or low levels of accurate or po...

Cross-sectional (N = 202) and longitudinal analyses over a 6-month period (N = 155) assessed the consequences of perceiving regulation attempts from romantic partners. Greater perceived regulation from the partner was associated with more negative inferences regarding how closely individuals matched their partner's ideal standards in the targeted d...

This article reviews the research literature and theory concerned with accuracy of judgments in romantic relationships. We initially propose a model of cognition in (romantic) relationships that distinguishes between 2 forms of accuracy: mean-level bias and tracking accuracy. We then report the results of meta-analyses of research on heterosexual,...

This study tested the success of communication strategies used by relationship partners (N = 61 romantic couples) who were videotaped while trying to produce desired changes in each other. Strategies varying in valence (positive vs. negative) and directness (direct vs. indirect) were differentially associated with postdiscussion perceptions of succ...

This commentary discusses the major claims and arguments presented by Field and Hineline (2008) against the general use of dispositional causal explanations in science and psychology and in favor of an alternative account that applies to cases in which causes and behavioral effects are separated over time. We conclude that their central claims and...

This study examined the association between self-reports of family rituals and relationship attachment, relationship quality, and closeness in 150 married couples in Portugal. Using structural equation modeling to examine both within-individual and across-partner effects, the results were generally as predicted. First, lower levels of avoidant atta...

Half TitleTitleCopyrightContentspreface

The New Science of Intimate RelationshipsConclusion

The influence of family and peers on dieting and body image is well known, but, despite the centrality of romantic partnerships in the lives of adults, little research has investigated dieting and body image in the context of intimate relationships. This study investigated unhealthy dieting (e.g., skipping meals, vomiting), healthy dieting (e.g., r...

Four studies employing a prototype approach tested the convergent and discriminant validity of a lay forgiveness representation. In Study 1, participants nominated a wide range of forgiveness features. In Study 2, participants rated the centrality of forgiveness features, which created a reliable graded structure from central to peripheral features...

Meta-awareness of bias in intimate partner judgments was investigated in 3 studies. In Study 1, participants rated fictional partners in happier relationships as more positively biased in their partner perceptions. In Study 2, participants thought their judgments of their own current partners were positively biased and that they were judged by thei...

The current research tested the domain specificity sociometer model proposed by Kirkpatrick and Ellis (2001). Study 1 examined the association between relationship quality and the mediating role of state self-esteem (

This research investigated the consistency between partner perceptions and ideal standards (ideal-perception consistency) and the partner regulation attempts of 200 individuals involved in relationships (Study 1) and 62 heterosexual couples (Study 2). As predicted, greater regulation attempts were associated with lower ideal-perception consistency,...

The main purpose of this study was to analyze the structure and content of real-life attributions, using these data to examine some important theoretical and empirical issues in attribution theory. The causal attributions examined came from free-response verbal protocols of explanations for marital separation of 29 males and 33 females living in Ne...

We introduce the chapter by describing a central paradox of love and intimacy: namely, love seems at once blind and also firmly rooted in reality. Love sometimes seems to motivate people to be overly optimistic in their judgments and decisions, occasionally to the point of irrationality. On the other hand, love (and associated high levels of intima...

This research examined the relations among various distal variables and interactive behavior and on-line cognition in a complete longitudinal design over 1 year. Fifty-seven married couples had problem-solving discussions that were videotaped. Interactive behavior was coded by observers, and on-line cognitions were assessed using a tape-review proc...

This study investigated forgiveness by examining couples’ recollections and perceptions of specific incidents of transgressions in their relationships. The results replicated previous research but also produced some novel findings. Results showed that more positive attributions and relationship quality independently predicted higher internal forgiv...

Prior research and theory suggest that people use three main sets of criteria in mate selection: warmth/trustworthiness, attractiveness/vitality, and status/resources. In two studies, men and women made mating choices between pairs of hypothetical potential partners and were forced to make trade-offs among these three criteria (e.g., warm and homel...

This study compared three models of how attachment working models might be cognitively represented. Model 1 posits that attachment representations consist of a single global working model summarizing attachment across specific relationships and domains. Model 2 proposes three independent working models for the relationship domains of family, platon...

Using a video-review procedure, multiple perceivers carried out mind-reading tasks of multiple targets at different levels of acquaintanceship (50 dating couples, friends of the dating partners, and strangers). As predicted, the authors found that mind-reading accuracy was (a). higher as a function of increased acquaintanceship, (b). relatively una...

Using a matched sampling method, this research examined the process of sex-based differentiation in sentencing outcomes for 194 men and 194 women, sentenced over a seven-year period in Christchurch, New Zealand. Consistent with past research, our results showed that judicial processing treated women more leniently than men. Path analyses revealed t...

Explaining Variability in the Accuracy of Social Judgments in Intimate RelationshipsReading Minds in Intimate RelationshipsThe Connection between Mind-reading Accuracy and Relationship EvaluationsConclusion

standards;relationships;psychodynamic approaches;idealization processes;interdependence theory

Two studies tested how romantic ideal standards and their flexibility are associated with relationship quality. In Study 1, individuals rated themselves and their ideal romantic partners on three dimensions: warmth/trustworthiness, vitality/attractiveness, and status/resources. They then reported how flexible their ideals were on each dimension and...

This research examined partner and relationship perceptions and ideal standards in 100 individuals over time, from the 1st to the 12th month of their dating relationships. As expected, the results revealed that (a) individuals evaluated their relationships on both distinct evaluative components and global evaluative dimensions, (b) higher ideal-per...

This article describes the Ideals Standards Model, which deals with the content and functions of partner and relationship ideals in intimate relationships. This model proposes that there are three distinct categories of partner ideals (warmth-loyalty, vitality-attractiveness, and status-resources), and that ideals have three distinct functions (eva...

This research tested three models of how the relationship evaluation components of satisfaction, commitment, intimacy, trust, passion, and love a structured and cognitively represented. Participants in Study 1 rated their intimate relationships on six previously developed scales that measured each construct and on a new inventory-the Perceived Rela...

This research examined the role of cognitive and behavioral accommodation in two studies. In study 1, participants responded to hypothetical negative behaviors from their partners. Study 2 involved the re-coding and reanalysis (using structural equation modeling) of data from a prior study in which married couples had problem-solving discussions an...

This research examined lay relationship and partner ideals in romantic relationships from both a social-cognitive and an evolutionary perspective. Studies 1 and 2 revealed that the qualities of an ideal partner were represented by 3 factors (partner warmth-trustworthiness, vitality-attractiveness, and status-resources), whereas the qualities of an...

This commentary is in agreement with the thrust of Koehler's target article. The issue I deal with is whether a Bayesian framework represents an adequate general normative framework for deciding the rationality of lay judgments, even when it can be unambiguously applied.

Seventy-four married couples reviewed videotapes of their problem-solving discussions and described self and partner on-line thoughts and feelings. Scores were derived measuring empathic accuracy, assumed similarity, and shared cognitive focus. As expected, the results showed that more highly educated partners and those married for shorter time per...

This article analyzes the central weaknesses of both relativism and traditional empiricism as overarching accounts of science appropriate for psychology. A third approach, a variant of scientific realism, is described and discussed, and it is argued that this approach avoids the most pernicious features of both relativism and empiricism. This versi...

Presents a social psychological perspective of close relationships and the role of knowledge structures in individual/couple differences, emotions, and relationship development. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

This article describes two uses of folk psychology in scientific psychology. Use1 deals with the way in which folk theories and beliefs are imported into social psychological models on the basis that they exert causal influences on cognition or behavior (regardless of their validity or scientific usefulness). Use2 describes the practice of mining e...

This research examined whether strongly held beliefs in the importance of either intimacy or passion in producing success in close relationships would facilitate the automatic processing of information in specific close relationships. As predicted, when deciding whether belief-relevant relationship adjectives described their intimate relationships,...

The aim of this research was to make a prototype and cognitive appraisal analysis of 4 emotions within marriage. In Study 1, 160 Ss recalled and wrote about a partner-related love, hate, anger, or jealousy incident. Distinct prototypes and appraisal patterns were obtained. In Study 2, 80 Ss wrote accounts of hypothetical love, hate, anger, and jeal...

Our mission for this book, therefore, was to provide a forum that would present an up-to-date account of the theoretical and empirical work concerned with the cognitive structures and processes within close relationships. Accordingly, we have included chapters that deal with established areas of inquiry as well as chapters that cover topics at the...

Analyzes the theory of the inner senses, a theory of cognition and neuropsychology that had wide acceptance in Europe from the 4th to the 16th centuries. The theory proposed that incoming sensory information was processed successively in 3 linearly arranged ventricles of the brain. It was based on the psychology of Aristotle and the anatomical disc...

By the early 1980s, the idea that ordinary human social cognition is rational or scientific in character was under serious attack in personality and social psychology. Personality psychology was in the throes of the debate concerning whether behavior was consistent across situations and, although the jury was still out on the issue, powerful voices...

This article details the development of a scale that measures the beliefs concerning what makes close relationships successful: The Relationship Beliefs Scale. After determining the 18 belief categories to be used in the scale, it was administered to 981 subjects. A factor analysis produced four belief factors we labeled Intimacy, External Factors,...

This study examined the complexity of attributional schemata in relation to the accuracy and speed of producing causal attributions for social behaviors. Subjects attempted 30 causal problems derived from Kelley's model of causal attribution, presented in a format that made them either difficult or easy. As predicted, (a) attributionally complex su...

Examined the relations among 3 attachment styles (Avoidance, Anxious/ambivalence, and Security), relationship satisfaction, and the kind of relationship accounts 51 long-term unmarried heterosexual couples generated. In addition, the relations between the attachment styles and relationship satisfaction were examined across a 4-mo period. The cross-...

This study extends Hewstone and Ward's (1985) work on ethnocentrism and examines intergroup stereotypes and attributions in Maori and Pakeha adolescents in New Zealand. A group of 175 secondary school students participated in the two part study. In' the first session subjects evaluated Maori or Pakeha stimulus persons on a series of 16 descriptor t...

provide a brief overview of the relevant work, from the behavioral literature, that has dealt with the behavioral interaction of couples / discuss the research that has directly examined cognitive or affective processes in the course of interactive behavior, including more recent research that has adopted a social-psychological perspective / descri...

Examined relations among social cognition (CG), interactive behavior, and distal variables of depression and relationship quality. 38 couples in long-term unmarried relationships each discussed problems in their relationship. Ss reviewed videotapes of these discussions and provided verbal descriptions of their thoughts and feelings as experienced d...

Originally published in Contemporary Psychology: APA Review of Books , 1990, Vol 35(8), 774-775. Reviews the book, Adultery: An Analysis of Love and Betrayal by Annette Lawson (1988). The study of close relationships, especially marital relationships, is becoming a hot topic, with a flood of books appearing in the psychological marketplace over the...

This study examined the relation between Attributional Complexity and the correspondence bias: the tendency to assign dispositions that are congruent with behavior that is performed under powerful external constraints. Subjects read essays that were written by a separate group of subjects who had been randomly assigned to write essays that either s...

This study examines whether depression and attributional style mediate the link between causal attributions and relationship happiness in close relationships. Seventy-one subjects (35 men and 36 women) in long-term premarital relationships were asked to imagine 20 hypothetical interactive behaviors within relationships that varied in terms of valen...

Two studies examined the role that observers' expectations play in producing correspondence bias in the attitude attribution paradigm. In the first study, subjects participated in groups of five. In each session, four subject observers witnessed a fifth subject (the writer) being assigned an essay topic and recorded their expectations about the lik...

This study examined the relation between causal attributions and happiness in dating relationships. Forty subjects (20 men and 20 women) in long-term relationships were asked to imagine 20 hypothetical relationship behaviours that varied in terms of valency and self or partner initiation. Subjects then completed a spontaneous attribution probe by s...