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Shared Activities and Marital Satisfaction: Causal Direction and Self-Expansion versus Boredom
Abstract
Fifty-three married couples were randomly assigned to engage in activities for 1.5 hours each week for 10 weeks that were self-defined as (a) exciting or (b) pleasant, or couples were in a (c) no-special-activity control group. Pretest and post-test data were obtained on a standard marital satisfaction measure (adjusted for scores on a social desirability index). A planned linear contrast comparing the two activities groups to the control group was not significant and had a small effect size; thus the theory that any kind of activity enhances marital satisfaction was not supported as an explanation for the well-established association of time together and satisfaction. However, the other planned orthogonal contrast found significantly higher satisfaction for the exciting than the pleasant group, a difference that had a moderate effect size. This finding is consistent with views emphasizing habituation as an obstacle to relationship maintenance - for example, Aron & Aron's (1986) prediction from their self-expansion model that sharing stimulating activities will enhance marital satisfaction.
... Hill (1988), in finding a strong overall link between shared activities and marital stability, reported the strongest effects for shared "recreational activities," all of which were somewhat active and arousing (such as "outdoor activities, active sports, card games, and travel," p. 447). However, to our knowledge, other than the preliminary study described below (Reissman, Aron, & Bergen, 1993), there have been no previous studies directly focusing on the proposed effect on relationship quality of shared participation in novel and arousing activities on marital quality. ...
... On the basis of the various arguments presented above for expecting such an effect, it seemed appropriate to conduct a preliminary study. Reissman et al. (1993) recruited 53 uppermiddle class, middle-aged married couples in Palo Alto, California, who agreed to take part in a 10-week study. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three conditions. ...
... Thus, although this study provided encouraging initial support for the proposed effect, it is hardly conclusive. Further, although the research paradigm used in the Reissman et al. (1993) study has great advantages in terms of external validity, it is not highly controlled and is not a very practical paradigm for future research focusing on mechanisms. (By contrast, the paradigm used in the experiments reported in this article is much more highly controlled-it is a laboratory procedure-and is considerably more practical as a model for future research on this topic.) ...
Using a newspaper questionnaire, a door-to-door survey, and 3 laboratory experiments, the authors examined a proposed effect of shared participation in novel and arousing activities on experienced relationship quality. The questionnaire and survey studies found predicted correlations of reported shared “exciting” activities and relationship satisfaction plus their predicted mediation by relationship boredom. In all 3 experiments, the authors found predicted greater increases in experienced relationship quality from before to after participating together in a 7-min novel and arousing (vs. a more mundane) task. Comparison with a no-activity control showed the effect was due to the novel–arousing task. The same effect was found on ratings of videotaped discussions before and after the experimental task. Finally, all results remained after controlling for relationship social desirability. Results bear on general issues of boredom and excitement in relationships and the role of such processes in understanding the typical early decline of relationship quality after the honeymoon period.
... In this study, participants could design any type of date, without any instructions about its qualities (e.g., about it being exciting). 1 This design differs from past studies that have provided guidelines about the types of exciting activities that couples engaged in outside of the lab (e.g., Coulter & Malouff, 2013;Reissman et al., 1993). Additionally, rather than an "exciting: yes or no" format that has been used in more naturalistic assessments (e.g., Harasymchuk et al., 2020), participants rated the extent of exciting elements in the date. ...
... To date, the self-expansion model has not been examined in the context of how shared activities are planned and initiated. Scholars suggest that it is best to engage in these activities as a preventative measure, rather than waiting until relationship decline sets in (e.g., boredom) to react and initiate these types of activities (i.e., Aron & Aron, 1996;Reissman et al., 1993). Indeed, there is supporting evidence that although people know what they should do when they are bored in their relationships (i.e., engage in exciting activities with their partner), they are not necessarily more likely to do so (Harasymchuk et al., 2017). ...
... Indeed, it was only when the data sets were combined and there was greater power to detect the effects that the association between approach goals and the excitement of the date (as rated by independent raters) reached statistical significance (see Footnote 5). The focus of past research and theorizing has been on whether the people in the relationship consider shared activities to be exciting, regardless of how the activities are objectively rated (Reissman et al., 1993). For instance, one couple's exciting activity, such as attending a play, might be another couple's version of a pleasant or even boring activity. ...
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 higher (vs. lower) in approach relationship goals would be more likely to plan dates that are more exciting and, in turn, experience more self-expansion from the date and increased closeness with the partner. In Study 1, people in intimate relationships planned a date to initiate with their partners and forecasted the expected level of self-expansion and closeness from engaging in the date. In Study 2, a similar design was employed, but we also followed up with participants 1 week later to ask about the experience of engaging in their planned dates (e.g., self-expansion, closeness from the date). Taken together, the results suggest that people with higher (vs. lower) approach relationship goals derive more closeness from their dates, in part, because of their greater aptitude for planning dates that are more exciting and promote self-expansion.
... Although opportunities for self-expansion generally decline over time in a relationship, it is possible for couples to sustain self-expansion by engaging in shared, exciting activities (see Aron et al., 2013 for a review). Exciting activities in longterm relationships have been associated with benefits for the relationship, including higher relationship satisfaction and sexual desire (e.g., Aron et al., 2000;Muise et al., 2019;Reissman et al., 1993). More specifically, couple activities that are novel, arousing, and exciting have been found to increase relationship satisfaction (Aron et al., 2000;Carson et al., 2007;Coulter & Malouff, 2013;Reissman et al., 1993). ...
... Exciting activities in longterm relationships have been associated with benefits for the relationship, including higher relationship satisfaction and sexual desire (e.g., Aron et al., 2000;Muise et al., 2019;Reissman et al., 1993). More specifically, couple activities that are novel, arousing, and exciting have been found to increase relationship satisfaction (Aron et al., 2000;Carson et al., 2007;Coulter & Malouff, 2013;Reissman et al., 1993). For instance, in a series of studies, participants who engaged in an obstacle course task together that was novel and arousing (i.e., partners were velcroed together and creatively moved a foam cylinder through an obstacle course) had higher levels of subsequent relationship satisfaction than those in a control group (who played a mundane activity involving a ball; Aron et al., 2000). ...
... For instance, in a series of studies, participants who engaged in an obstacle course task together that was novel and arousing (i.e., partners were velcroed together and creatively moved a foam cylinder through an obstacle course) had higher levels of subsequent relationship satisfaction than those in a control group (who played a mundane activity involving a ball; Aron et al., 2000). In another study, when couples engaged in exciting activities together each week over a 10-week period, they reported feeling more satisfied with their relationship than couples in a no-activity control group or even couples who engaged in pleasant activities together (Reissman et al., 1993). In addition, couples who participated in an online excitement intervention for their relationship (i.e., couple members jointly created a list of 10 shared activities that had qualities such as novelty, excitement, interest, and challenge) for 90 min a week (over 4 weeks) displayed increased positive affect, excitement, and relationship satisfaction 4 weeks later compared to those in a control group (Coulter & Malouff, 2013). ...
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 relationship on a daily basis. We hypothesized that when people report stronger daily approach relationship goals (i.e., goals focused on pursuing growth, intimacy, and rewards), they would report a greater likelihood of engaging in novel, exciting activities that enhance self-expansion and ultimately promote greater satisfaction in romantic relationships. To test our model, we recruited 122 couples for a 3-week daily diary study. In support of our hypotheses, on days when people (or their partners) reported higher than their usual approach relationship goals, they reported higher relational self-expansion, which was due, in part, to a greater likelihood of engaging in novel, exciting activities with the partner. In turn, higher relational self-expansion was associated with higher daily relationship satisfaction. Our findings have implications for understanding what promotes relationship growth on a day-to-day basis and the outcomes of daily approach-oriented relationship goals.
... New and exciting couple activities are important to intimate relationships because they help promote increased relationship satisfaction (e.g., Aron & Aron, 1986;1997;Aron, Norman, Aron, McKenna, & Heyman, 2000;Girme, Overall, & Faingataa, 2014;Graham, 2008;Harasymchuk & Fehr, 2010;Mattingly & Lewandowski, 2013;Muise, Harasymchuk, Day, Bacev-Giles, Gere, & Impett, 2019;Reissman, Aron, & Bergen, 1993). However, people's quest for seeking novelty within their relationship may not always be a positive experience because of perceived threats to their relationship. ...
... By nature, the self-expansion process is positive and rewarding for intimate relationships. Research has found that people who experience greater levels of relational self-expansion tend to reap rewards such as greater relationship quality (e.g., Aron et al., 2000;Carson, Carson, Gil, & Baucom, 2004;Coulter & Malouff, 2013;Muise et al., 2019;Reissman et al., 1993), and greater individual well-being Mattingly & Lewandowski, 2013). For instance, through two 21-day daily diary studies of couples, Muise and colleagues (2019) assessed relational self-expansion through a daily selfreport measure and found that people reported greater relationship satisfaction as well as increased sexual desire on days when their evaluations of relational self-expansion were greater than usual. ...
... Putting aside the ongoing debate about the essential features of exciting couple activities, there is mounting evidence that exciting couple activities have many positive benefits for intimate relationships (Aron et al., 2000;Girme et al., 2014;Harasymchuk et al., 2019;Kilbourne, Howell, & England, 1990;Muise et al., 2019;Reissman et al., 1993;Rollock, 2011). As opportunities for relational selfexpansion may decrease over time (Aron & Aron, 1986;1997;, exciting couple activities bode well for relationship maintenance by providing intimate couples with a means to occasionally break away from routine behaviours which may lead to relational boredom (e.g., Harasymchuk & Fehr, 2010;2012; and instead engage in new activities in order to "spice up" the relationship. ...
Incorporating growth (i.e., broadening one’s perspective of the self, partner, and world) is an important feature for the maintenance of satisfying and long-lasting intimate relationships. However, as relationships progress and people increasingly gain familiarity with their intimate partner, the opportunities for growth decline. According to the self-expansion model, one way that people can add growth to their relationship is by engaging in exciting (i.e., novel and arousing) couple activities. Although exciting couple activities have been associated with many relational benefits, it is unclear whether certain threat-related conditions might be related to poorer relational self-expansion and relational self-expansion outcomes, such as engagement in exciting couple activities. Through a 21-day daily diary study of community couples (N = 122), the present study investigated the effects of relationship threats on the occurrence of exciting couple activities and ratings of relational self-expansion. It was hypothesized that insecure attachment styles (i.e., trait-based) and daily relationship threats (i.e., state-based) would negatively predict people’s overall exciting activity experiences and ratings of relational self-expansion. Data analyses were guided by the Actor-Partner Independence Model (APIM). Contrary to my hypotheses, there was inconsistent support for the association between attachment avoidance and attachment anxiety and relational self-expansion. Consistent with my hypotheses, people (and their partners) reported lower relational self-expansion, and also were significantly less likely to engage in exciting couple activities on days when relationship threats (e.g., rejection, disappointment, feeling misunderstood) were greater than usual. Furthermore, on days when people engaged in exciting couple activities and felt greater relationship threats, they reported a less successful exciting couple activity experience. Although there was evidence that relationship threats negatively predicted people’s daily activity experiences on the same day, relationship threats were not related to the occurrence of exciting couple activities on the following day. In conclusion, this study offers evidence suggesting that state-based threat concerns might be one obstacle that couples face in promoting growth within intimate relationships.
... As depicted in Fig. 1, we first hypothesized that higher relationship satisfaction would be associated with more joint health behaviors (H1). Given the cross-sectional nature of our data and the likely bidirectional association between relationship satisfaction and joint health behaviors [28,29], we evaluated this link with a correlational test. Next, associations with relationship satisfaction and joint health behaviors were tested in a sequential fashion. ...
... This conceptual model details the theorized associations of relationship satisfaction and joint health behaviors with more favorable health outcomes and stronger health concordance between partners. According to prior work, relationship satisfaction and joint health behaviors are likely to bolster each other: more satisfied couples are more likely to choose to engage in shared routines [28], which then can feedback to reinforce their bond [29]. Given the cross-sectional nature of our data, we tested this association with a correlation. ...
Extensive evidence shows that satisfying marriages boost physical health and longevity. A separate literature reveals strong concordance in couples’ health, but the relationship processes that contribute to health concordance remain poorly understood.
The current study examined whether relationship satisfaction and joint health behaviors—the extent to which couples eat, sleep, and exercise together—are associated simultaneously with better health and greater health similarity between partners.
Heterogeneous variance multilevel models were applied to data from 234 married couples (Mage = 46, Range = 20–84) reporting on their relationship satisfaction, joint health behaviors, and four health indicators—health satisfaction, depressive symptoms, comorbidities, and medication use.
More satisfied couples engaged in more joint health behaviors than less satisfied counterparts. When joint health behaviors and relationship satisfaction were examined as separate fixed effects, both predicted greater health satisfaction and fewer depressive symptoms. More joint health behaviors were also associated with less medication use. When both were modeled together, only relationship satisfaction predicted depressive symptoms. By contrast, in random effects, joint health behaviors predicted greater similarity in health satisfaction, depressive symptoms, and comorbidities. Relationship satisfaction only predicted more similar depressive symptoms.
Although more satisfied couples engaged in more joint health behaviors. relationship satisfaction and joint health behaviors uniquely predicted couples’ health quality and concordance, suggesting that distinct mechanisms may drive better health and stronger health resemblance.
... For instance, it has been suggested that the time spent together as a couple has a direct influence on the perceived quality of the romantic relationship [18,20]. Joint or collaborative engagement in daily activities, especially those that involve new experiences, have been shown to contribute to the well-being of respective partners [17,19,21] as well as feelings of mutuality as a couple [13,22,23]. Some researchers have suggested couples should spend more time on joint activities [17,19], particularly those activities that are more social or leisure in nature [13,17,19]. ...
... While it is thought that a couple's mutuality can be strengthened when a partner shares a similar perception in terms of these activities, we do not in fact know the impact of perceptual congruence with respect to time use on their relationship. Hence, examining and understanding similarities and differences in perceived time-use patterns between partners with regard to activities is important given what is known about the impact of time use on relationship quality [13,19,22]. Many studies of time-use patterns [24][25][26] have considered individuals as singular entities in terms of analyzing their everyday activities when in fact, daily life, for those in partnered (coupled) relationships, requires a complex interplay between individuals and their respective patterns of engagement. ...
Background: Perceptual congruence has been defined as the level of agreement between partners on various aspects of their shared lives, including perceived engagement in individual and jointly performed activities. While the level of adjustment made by partners to such activities is thought to contribute to a couple’s sense of mutuality, perceptions of time use concerning activity engagement has yet to be considered. As such, this study will determine the level of perceptual congruence between partners with respect to perceived time use in their respective and shared activities.
Objective: The primary objective of the IP-COUPLES study is to determine the similarities and differences between partners in terms of their perceptual congruence with respect to independent and jointly performed activities. This study will also examine the association between independent and joint activities in terms of perceptual congruence of time use and the strength of this association.
Methods: This descriptive observational study includes 100 couples from Western Switzerland who are recruited using snowball sampling methods. The Life Balance Inventory (LBI), a self-report questionnaire that captures activity configuration congruence, will measure independent and joint perceptions of both time use allocated to daily activities and corresponding satisfaction. Due to COVID-19, the protocol can be administered virtually by the primary investigator. The mean scores of perceptual congruence variables will be used for analysis, namely perceived congruence of time use in terms of independent and jointly performed activities. For the first objective, an independent t test will be used for each variable to compare the mean score between activities on the LBI. For the second objective, the correlations between the mean scores for these activities will be calculated for each variable using the Pearson correlation.
Results: The IP-COUPLES study protocol was developed in 2019 and 2020. Enrollment began in June 2020. Data collection will continue until October 2021 to account for time needed for recruitment due to the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. Analysis and presentation of results are expected in 2022.
Conclusions: This study is exploratory, as it is the first to our knowledge to investigate how perceived time-use patterns with respect to independent or jointly performed activities are similar or different among romantic couples. By investigating the interpersonal perception of time-use patterns among couples, the IP-COUPLES study is an important first step to understanding how romantic partners’ daily activities are contributing to the level of satisfaction as a partner and as a couple and to the sense of mutuality between partners in a romantic relationship.
... Individuals seek such growth to improve their efficacy and develop new self-concepts. That is, they search to develop new parts of their identity through challenging, arousing, and novel activity (e.g., Reissman et al., 1993). Self-expansion theory claims that relationships shape our identity and help us to gain access to new types of resources (e.g., new friends through our partner's social network; new materials when partners cohabit together; more money) or new types of activities (e.g., one partner helping the other to discover new interests, such as classical music, bricolage skills, or eco-friendly everyday behaviours). ...
... This line of research might partly explain why excitement, fun, or surprise often buffer against the diminution of a partner's perception of the positive quality of their relationship, and foster satisfaction in romantic relationships (Aron et al., 1998(Aron et al., , 2013Harasymchuk & Fehr, 2013;Reissman et al., 1993;Strong & Aron, 2006). It is possible that the sharing of some dyadic activities in the romantic relationship may promote flourishing as these activities can be perceived as surprising and exciting, and may thus be identified as a potential source of expansion by the dyad (Damasio, 2018;Malouff et al., 2015). ...
Everyday creative behaviours seem to be associated with high levels of wellbeing. Yet, the effects of creativity on wellbeing remain largely unknown, notably at a dyadic level, and particularly in the context of romantic relationships. Previous research has studied the effects of creativity on romantic relationships but has been limited by the two main epistemological assumptions that we present in this article. Consequently, very little is known about the effect of a form of creativity that may occur at a dyadic level in a romantic relationship, and that may have implications in the science of human flourishing. In other words, the research field lacks a theoretical framework for studying the effect of creativity in romantic relationships on wellbeing. The present theoretical framework aims to fill this gap by proposing a dyadic dimension of creativity embedded within wellbeing: romantic creativity. Romantic creativity is conceptualised as an observable, quantifiable, yet non-product-hierarchic phenomenon. It is defined as a dyadic process which favours new and meaningful directions in a romantic relationship through dynamics of discovery and self-expansion in one or both members of the dyad. This article describes the epistemological foundations of this theoretical framework and draws on existing research on self-expansion and the neuroscience of wellbeing to hypothesise the processes that might account for the effect of romantic creativity on human flourishing. We also identify two possible ontological perspectives for research on romantic creativity. The present article proposes that romantic creativity might help dyads to flourish through the processes implied in homeodynamics and dyadic self-expansion.
... One subtle but pervasive challenge couples are likely to encounter is relational boredom, the tendency for partners to feel "tired of" and unstimulated in their relationship (Harasymchuk & Fehr, 2010;. Relational boredom is characterized by a variety of negative emotions (e.g., lack of excitement, frustration) which can lead to declines in relationship quality (e.g., Reissman et al., 1993). In fact, one clinician concluded that "boredom is perhaps the most common denominator of all marital problems" (Venditti, 1980, p. 65). ...
Relational boredom is an important cognitive-emotional experience that is understudied in the relationship maintenance literature. In three dyadic studies, we investigated accuracy and bias in partners’ perceptions of each other’s relational boredom, and how accurate and biased boredom perceptions were associated with relationship quality. Results revealed that, overall, partners tended to overestimate—but accurately track—each other’s relational boredom across the features that comprise relational boredom and across time. Additionally, when people accurately perceived their partner experiencing high levels of boredom, they reported lower relationship quality; in all other cases, one’s own relationship quality was preserved. Furthermore, when people accurately perceived their partner experiencing high levels of boredom, their partner also reported lower relationship quality, while the partner’s relationship quality was consistently preserved when the perceiver was accurate at low levels of boredom or overestimated. These findings have important implications for how couples navigate boredom and maintain long-term relationships.
... In-person shared activities (e.g., collaboration, entertainment, or helping each other) are essential factors to enrich individuals' social lives [31,91]. Engaging in these activities can foster the exchange of stories and experiences between grandparents and grandchildren, which benefits the self-development of grandchildren and increases the social connection of grandparents [74,110]. ...
When living apart, grandparents and grandchildren often use audio-visual communication approaches to stay connected. However, these approaches seldom provide sufficient companionship and intimacy due to a lack of co-presence and spatial interaction, which can be fulfilled by immersive virtual reality (VR). To understand how grandparents and grandchildren might leverage VR to facilitate their remote communication and better inform future design, we conducted a user-centered participatory design study with twelve pairs of grandparents and grandchildren. Results show that VR affords casual and equal communication by reducing the generational gap, and promotes conversation by offering shared activities as bridges for connection. Participants preferred resemblant appearances on avatars for conveying well-being but created ideal selves for gaining playfulness. Based on the results, we contribute eight design implications that inform future VR-based grandparent-grandchild communications.
... According to Baldwin et al. (1999), spending joint activities that both partners enjoy increases marital satisfaction more significantly compared to spending time on joint activities that both partners dislike. Similarly, Riessman et al. (1993) also found that couples need to spend joint leisure time together engaging in exciting activities to increase marital satisfaction. One possible explanation is that although taxi drivers do not usually have a lot of time for themselves, they may enjoy joint leisure time spent together on activities enjoyable for both of them. ...
This study aims to examine the relationship between joint leisure time, as well as communication, and marital satisfaction among taxi drivers. The subjects included in this study were 87 taxi drivers (100% male) in company X Surabaya. Quantitative method in this research is used with correlational design. Incidental sampling was used as the sampling technique. Instruments used in this study were joint leisure time scale (Kurniawan & Setiawan, 2016), communication scale (Olson & Larson, 2008), and marital satisfaction scale (Grable & Britt, 2006). The result of multiple correlation test shows that there is a positive relationship between joint leisure time and communication altogether with marital satisfaction (R=0.673; ρ<0.05). The result of partial correlation test shows that there is a relationship between joint leisure time and marital satisfaction by controlling communication (r=0.497; ρ<0.05). The results also shows that there is a relationship between communication and marital satisfaction by controlling joint leisure time (r=0.441; ρ<0.05). Based on the results above it can be concluded that joint leisure time and communication altogether (R2=45.2%) gives higher contribution to marital satisfaction compared to joint leisure time and communication being separated. In addition, joint leisure time (r2=32%) contributed better with marital satisfaction compared to communication (r2=13.2%).Keywords: Communication, joint leisure time, marital satisfaction, taxi driver
... Así, por ejemplo, ignorar las manifestaciones de afecto conlleva el riesgo de que dicha conducta se extinga o disminuya en frecuencia, lo que genera pérdida de interés y desmotivación. Por último, cuando hablamos de reforzadores debemos considerar el fenómeno de la habituación, que puede resultar un obstáculo para el mantenimiento de la relación (Reissman, Aron y Bergen, 1993). Por ello, es importante que la pareja varíe la frecuencia y el tipo de las actividades de refuerzo. ...
The research focuses on the adult couple relationship from the theoretical framework of attachment theory. Our objective has been, firstly, to study the influence of attachment style, loving attitudes and interaction dynamics, on the quality and
satisfaction of the couple relationship. Secondly, we wanted to deepen the
effect that the characteristic mental model of each attachment style has on the type of
cognitive, emotional and behavioral response that a person displays in their
intimate interactions, and consequently, in their quality. Thus, we combine the world of the clinic (specifically, cognitive-behavioral therapy) with the attachment theory, in an integrating model that enriches both theories and we consider that represents an advance in the practical application of affective bonds.
... Tying one's identity to another person is an intangible investment, but also provides a buffer against infidelity via new opportunities for self-expansion within the relationship. Sharing novel activities and experiences is one way to gain self-expansion and avoid boredom in a relationship, and is positively correlated with relationship quality (Reissman et al., 1993). If the process of self-expansion declines or stops, partners become less satisfied. ...
Infidelity is often defined as perceived as a violation of relationship exclusivity rules, and many view infidelities as immoral. Thus, one can imagine the importance of understanding why up to a fifth of research samples report cheating in their current relationships. There is considerable literature regarding what factors predict infidelity. Although individual characteristics associated with infidelity do exist, relationship-based variables tend to be the most consistent and robust factors. This chapter will discuss various theories and research findings that suggested different relationship-based factors and frameworks with which to consider and predict why some people engage in infidelity. This chapter reviews some major ideas and research through the lens of the investment model of commitment (i.e., satisfaction, investment, quality of alternatives, commitment), as well as other relationship-based variables (e.g., opportunities and boredom, relationship type and length) that have received empirical support. Finally, the chapter ends with a nod to future directions in this area, and a notion of what researchers should expect from the literature in the future.
... Tying one's identity to another person is an intangible investment, but also provides a buffer against infidelity via new opportunities for self-expansion within the relationship. Sharing novel activities and experiences is one way to gain self-expansion and avoid boredom in a relationship, and is positively correlated with relationship quality (Reissman et al., 1993). If the process of self-expansion declines or stops, partners become less satisfied. ...
Psychological research has produced a rich body of empirical data documenting humanity’s propensity to commit infidelity in the context of long-term relationships, but comparatively little work has been dedicated to synthesizing these data into an integrated framework that encompasses the full range of its processes, from why it occurs in the first place to how it affects the long-term relationship thereafter. This edited handbook integrates a broad range of topics such as characteristics related to the propensity to commit infidelity, sex differences in reactions to infidelity, our inclination to dissolve relationships after infidelity, and other responses to infidelity. It showcases contributions from experts in social psychology, evolutionary psychology, and others who specialize in research on romantic relationships. The handbook discusses the processes of infidelity alongside sources of variation, such as sexual orientation, developmental life history, individual differences, and culture. This volume captures the interdisciplinary quality of research on the predictors, nature, and consequences of infidelity for the broader social scientific community interested in trust in romantic relationships.
... However, the literature supports our contention that activities in relationships have meaningful causal effects on relationship outcomes. For instance, engaging in exciting (Reissman et al., 1993) and self-expanding (Muise et al., 2019) activities increases romantic desire and satisfaction in marriages. Indeed, musical activities are often included in inventories of "relationship maintenance activities" that predict relationship quality (Girme et al., 2014), but their unique predictive power has not been examined. ...
Sharing music with another person involves the potential for profound emotional connection, rhythmic synchronization and coordination, and the expression of shared social and political values (among other things). We explore whether experiences of shared musical activity are associated with perceptions of communication and positive outcomes in friendships and romantic relationships, using reports from one member of the dyad. Reports of musical activities in the relationship were associated with higher levels of commitment to the relationship, with those effects mediated by perceptions of interpersonal coordination and positive communication. Surprisingly, structured musical activities (e.g., actively playing music together) were associated with lower levels of commitment, both directly and via interpersonal coordination, positive communication, and shared social values. All findings persist when controlling for other forms of shared relationship activities, thus demonstrating effects that are unique to shared musical engagement. The findings are discussed in a framework of music’s potential relational power—the Shared Musical Activities in Relationships (SMAR) model.
... It will be important in future research to investigate whether couples are in social organizations together and the extent to which they participate in social activities together or separately. Couples who engage in exciting activities together also report high marital satisfaction, and this is attributed to self-expansion theory (Reissman et al., 1993). Encouraging a spouse to participate in social organizations may also be an important way to help one another thrive (Feeney & Collins, 2015), and measuring encouragement for participating in activities may also help elucidate these findings . ...
Objectives
Research shows that social participation is beneficial for overall health and well-being. Yet, no research to our knowledge has examined whether social participation is associated with greater marital satisfaction in middle-aged and older couples. We hypothesized that middle-aged and older adults would have greater marital satisfaction when their spouse engaged in social groups because there would be greater opportunity for self-expansion and for social support from ties outside the marriage.
Methods
We used background self-report data from a multi-method study of 98 middle-aged and older adult married couples ( N = 196) with chronic conditions. As part of the study, spouses completed questionnaires that measured the frequency and intensity of involvement in social groups (e.g., church, business groups). Marital satisfaction was measured with the Locke Wallace Marital Adjustment Test.
Results
Contrary to our hypotheses, results from actor–partner interdependence models provided no evidence that one’s own social participation was associated with one’s own marital satisfaction (actor effects). However, in line with our hypotheses regarding partner effects, one spouse’s (a) report of any social participation with church organizations, business groups, or social groups, (b) greater number of affiliations with different organizations, (c) greater frequency of participation, and (d) being an active officer in a social organization were significantly associated with the other spouse’s greater marital satisfaction.
Discussion
Findings of this study suggest that having a spouse who participates in social groups is good for relationship satisfaction in mid to late life marriage.
... The results of these analyses also support the inferences we make here. that link the experience of shared novel and exciting activities with relationship functioning (Aron et al., 1992(Aron et al., , 2000Reissman et al., 1993). Further experimental research in this vein should consider whether the introduction of (or increase in) shared pornography use can improve relationship and sexual satisfaction within couples to determine if causal claims are warranted. ...
It is commonly assumed that exposure to pornography harms relationships because pornography changes the way that individuals think, feel, and behave in problematic ways. In the current research, we contribute to a small but growing body of work that challenges this assumption by carefully scrutinizing the relational context of pornography use. In contrast to dominant theoretical explanations in this field, we argue that at least some of the apparent negative “impacts” of pornography use on relationship quality may reflect partner dissimilarity in pornography use behavior rather than the consequences of exposure to such materials. Moreover, we further examine a particular type of pornography use – shared use with a partner – which previous evidence suggests may be positively associated with relationship quality. To this end, we sought to test whether dyadic patterns of pornography use, and related attributes, were associated with sexual and relationship satisfaction in two cross-sectional (N1 = 200; N3 = 207) and two longitudinal (N2 = 77; N4 = 277) samples of heterosexual couples. Across these samples, we found consistent evidence that partners who watch pornography together report higher relationship and sexual satisfaction than partners who do not, and notably, this association was not moderated by gender. Independent of this association, we also found evidence of a similarity-dissimilarity effect, such that the solitary pornography use of one partner was negatively associated with their own relationship and sexual satisfaction, but only in cases where their romantic partners used little or no pornography alone. Further consideration of several correlates of pornography use established comparable patterns of results for dissimilarity in attitudes toward pornography, erotophobia-erotophilia, sexual preferences, and sex drive. Importantly, only dissimilarity in sex drive statistically accounted for dissimilarity in solitary pornography use, suggesting that differences in sex drive may be implicated in the associations between pornography use and relationship quality. These findings demonstrate that links between pornography use and relationship health are partially a function of different dyadic patterns of pornography use within couples and do not always suggest relational harm.
... In contrast, the idea put forth in the Self-Expansion Model that novel, exciting activities are a possible means for improving romantic passion has received empirical support (Aron et al., 2000;Coulter & Malouf, 2013;Muise et al., 2019a;Reissman et al., 1993). For instance, couples randomly assigned to engage in novel and exciting activities, compared with couples randomly assigned to engage in familiar and comfortable activities or a control condition in which couples were not instructed to engage in any activities, reported greater sexual desire for their partner (Muise et al., 2019a). ...
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—Limerence Theory, the Rate of Change in Intimacy Model, the Self‐Expansion Model, and the Triangular Theory of Love—propose four different potential sources of romantic passion and review empirical support in favor and against each. For each of these perspectives, we additionally outline the predicted trajectory of passion that follows from each theorized source of passion, as well as each perspective's view on the ability for passion to be controlled and up‐regulated. In identifying ways in which these theories and models offer conflicting predictions about the source of romantic passion, this review points to ways in which a more comprehensive model may be developed that integrates across these four perspectives.
... The results of these analyses also support the inferences we make here. that link the experience of shared novel and exciting activities with relationship functioning (Aron et al., 1992(Aron et al., , 2000Reissman et al., 1993). Further experimental research in this vein should consider whether the introduction of (or increase in) shared pornography use can improve relationship and sexual satisfaction within couples to determine if causal claims are warranted. ...
It is commonly assumed that pornography use harms relationships. In the current research, we contribute to a small but growing body of work that challenges this assumption by examining an alternative explanatory mechanism for the associations between pornography use and relationship dysfunction. In contrast to dominant exposure-based explanations in this field, we argue instead that the apparent negative “impact” of pornography use on relationship quality may be the product of partner similarity or differences in pornography use behavior. Independent of any direct causal effect of sexual media, we would expect that negative relationship functioning should be more prominent among couples who are dissimilar in their pornography use, because dissimilarity in this behavior suggests broader dissimilarity in sexual interests, preferences, and values. To this end, we sought to test whether dyadic patterns of pornography use, and related attributes, were associated with sexual and relationship satisfaction in two cross-sectional (N = 407; n1 = 200; n3 = 207) and two longitudinal (N2 = 77; N4 = 529) samples of heterosexual couples. Across studies, results indicated that shared pornography use and partner similarity in solitary pornography use relative to dissimilarity in solitary pornography use were both associated with better sexual satisfaction and to a lesser extent, relationship satisfaction. Further consideration of potential explanatory mechanisms for these associations established comparable patterns of results for similarity-dissimilarity in attitudes towards pornography, erotophobia-erotophilia, sexual preferences, and sex drive. Importantly, only similarity-dissimilarity in sex drive statistically accounted for the effects of similarity-dissimilarity in solitary pornography use. These findings demonstrate that links between pornography use and relationship health are partially a function of different dyadic patterns of pornography use within couples, a pattern of results that is difficult to account for with traditional exposure-based theories of the impact of pornography.
... Koval et al. (2015) found that partners with high self-control experienced a greater burden from the partner relying on them, which could undermine their relationship satisfaction. Moreover, individuals with low self-control are viewed as more spontaneous and interesting (Zabelina et al., 2007), are less predictable (van Steenbergen et al., 2014), and display more non-normative behaviors (DeBono et al., 2011), making the relationship potentially more exciting and therefore satisfying (Reissman et al., 1993). Such processes may partly compensate for the general positive relationship outcomes of high self-control. ...
Previous research has demonstrated that trait self-control is related to a range of positive romantic relationship processes, suggesting that trait self-control should be positively and robustly linked to relationship satisfaction in both partners in a romantic relationship. However, the existing empirical evidence is limited and mixed, especially regarding partner effects (i.e., the effect of one’s self-control on the partner’s relationship satisfaction). With three datasets of heterosexual couples (S1: N = 195 newlyweds, longitudinal; S2: N = 249 couples who transition into first parenthood, longitudinal; S3: N = 929 couples, cross-sectional), the present pre-registered studies examined: (1) the dyadic associations between trait self-control and relationship satisfaction both cross-sectionally and longitudinally, and (2) whether these effects hold when controlling for both partners’ relationship commitment. The results indicated a cross-sectional positive actor effect, some support for a positive cross-sectional partner effect, and only little support for a longitudinal actor (but not partner) effect. After controlling for relationship commitment, all effects of trait self-control on satisfaction diminished except for a longitudinal actor effect among women in Study 2. Potential explanations for the current results, and implications for theory and practice, are discussed.
... Again, by expressing the subject of study, each interview with the patients and their families was begun, then participants were asked about what they need to know about sexuality (in patients) and patients' sexuality (in their families). After initial responses, probes and reflective statements were used to encourage experiential specificity (Reissman et al., 1993). Approval for the study license was obtained from the Research Ethics Committee of … . ...
Objective
This paper has attempted to explore factors which should be considered in designing a sexuality education package for severe mental illness. Method: Twenty-one in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted in one of the psychiatric hospitals in Tehran. All participants were selected by purposive sampling. Interviews continued until data were saturated. Using conventional qualitative content analysis, data reduction was done by MAXQDA 10 software. Findings: Qualitative interview analysis revealed 222 codes which are summarized in 15 subcategories and 3 categories including “key competences must be created”, “Educational package features” and “Educational Organization”. Conclusion: Sexual package should provide necessary information, improve risk perception and motivate learning of sexual issues in these patients. Also, providing an appropriate educational package should be concise, ordered and comprehensive.
... In other words, time-use patterns can be seen as the time allocation to one's daily activities [29]. Published works on couples have suggested that the amount of time spent together has an influence on a romantic relationship [29][30][31][32][33]. Joint or collaborative engagement in daily activities, especially social activities and leisure, has been shown to contribute to the well-being of each respective partner [30,34], as well as to the good relationship of the couple [28,30]. ...
BACKGROUND
Interpersonal perception (IP) is defined as the reciprocal perceptions between two individuals and the degree of congruence between these perceptions. People in coupled relationships should develop accurate and prescient beliefs and perceptions about the other. So, understanding how each partner respectively perceives their level of integration in their couple is fundamental when addressing couples. But it is also important to consider how they view themselves as a coupled entity. Among other variables that are part of a couple relationship, each partner’s time-use patterns, namely the time allocation to one’s daily activities, have an influence on romantic relationships, considering the necessity of time allocation for shared activities between spouses, especially leisure and social activities. But the association between IP and its influence on couples has not yet been fully examined, especially when considering the couple as an entity alongside the independent perspective of each respective partner.
OBJECTIVE
IP-COUPLES study protocol aims to investigate the extent to which interpersonal perceptions of time-use patterns between partners is related to the interpersonal perception of time-use patterns of each individual as well as the coupled entity. Secondary objectives are threefold : 1) to determine the association between an individual’s self-assessment of his/her own time-use patterns, and their perception of this variable from the point of view of their respective partner, 2) to determine the association between one’s self-assessment of time-use patterns and their joint perception of this variable as a couple, 3) to determine the association between an individual’s perception of time-use patterns from the point of view of their respective partner and perception of time-use patterns from the perspective of the couple as a joint entity.
METHODS
This protocol is designed for a cross-sectional study. Using a set of questionnaires, the investigator will administrate a set of questionnaires to couples from a convenient sample. Questionnaires including a measure of time-use patterns, the Life-Balance Inventory, and socio-demographic questions, will be administered face-to-face, firstly individually with each partner. Partners will then collaborate to answer to the questionnaires as a couple. Using the scores, a model described in literature will be applied to measure IP of time-use patterns between partners and between each partner and the couple as a joint entity. Statistics calculations will be supported by SPSS Software
RESULTS
The IP-COUPLES study protocol was designed and built between 2019 and 2020. The enrollment will begin in June 2020 and will continue until March 2021. Analysis and presentation of results will be available at the end of 2021.
CONCLUSIONS
Findings could demonstrate differences in perceptions of time-use patterns between partners, and between each partner and the couple as a joint entity. Therefore, considerations for interventions on these differences will be explored.
... By engaging in self-expanding activities together, romantic partners can reap many benefits. One such benefit is that engaging in self-expanding activities together, in both longitudinal studies (Reissman, Aron, & Bergen, 1993) and laboratory studies (Aron, Norman, Aron, McKenna, & Heyman, 2000), results in increased relationship satisfaction, passion, and love. Romantic partners who engage in self-expanding activities express greater feelings of sexual desire, which in turn predicts greater relationship satisfaction (Muise et al., 2019). ...
People’s selves are created, altered, and maintained both by their personal experiences in the world, but also through their experiences in close relationships. Thus, the way that people see and define who they are can be shaped and changed due to the relationships in which they find themselves. Although many different types of relationships can impact people’s identities, romantic relationships, as one of the closest relational bonds that adults experience, appear to be especially powerful in shaping the self. This relationship-induced self-change can occur in the initial attraction phase of a relationship, during ongoing relationships, and when relationships end. The goal of the current chapter is to detail various impacts that close relationships, particularly romantic relationships, have on people’s identities during the early and ongoing phases of romantic relationships. The current chapter also seeks to highlight motivating antecedents and moderating factors of these impacts and to discuss remaining questions and directions for future research.
... However, this is not to discount the effect that planned activities could also have in building relatedness. A study by Reissman, Aron, and Bergen (1993) found that in married couples, only spending time together was not enough to increase marital satisfaction, but it was the act of doing "exciting" and novel activities together that built the most marital satisfaction. This suggests that doing novel activities with other people, like engaging in planned activities on field trips, could enhance relatedness and relationship satisfaction. ...
Field-based learning in higher education is lacking both in practice at colleges and in research within the academic literature. This study aims to address these deficits by exploring the benefits of, and suggesting strategies for, executing field study in higher education across a variety of courses. We report the results of a qualitative research design that included the observation of five courses within the natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities. Approximately eight students per observed course were interviewed three times during their course to assess perceptions of the class, their peers and instructor, the field experiences, and their motivation throughout the course. In total, 130 individual interviews were conducted with 45 students. Results revealed that field-based learning enhances the degree of relatedness students feel with their classmates and instructors, they have a greater degree of intrinsic motivation in the course, and these experiences facilitate learning in ways that may not be replicated in the traditional classroom. In addition, we created a typology of field-based learning, which includes eight different trips that could be employed in higher education courses. We also identified general strategies to improve the execution of these trips.
... In this way, leisure time can serve as an important contributor to relationship adjustment by providing opportunities for partners to enjoy one another and build closer bonds that help to maintain the relationship. Reissman, Aron, and Bergen (1993) demonstrated, however, that purely asking couples to spend more time together is not an effective intervention for improving relationship satisfaction, suggesting that more time together does not guarantee satisfactory time together. What, then, can improve partners' satisfaction with their time together, in hopes of improving relationship functioning? ...
Bowen Family Systems Theory predicts that the ability to balance emotional intimacy with one’s partner with one's own sense of autonomy, called differentiation of self, results in stronger relationships. We tested whether this balance manifests in how individuals manage their time spent with and without their partner. Analyses utilized differentiation of self, leisure time balance with and without one's partner, and couple leisure satisfaction to predict dyadic adjustment. Although leisure time balance did not mediate the relationship between differentiation of self and relationship functioning, couple leisure satisfaction was found to partially mediate this relationship. The moderating effect of differentiation was also examined, which demonstrated that differentiation of self buffered the relationship between low couple leisure time satisfaction and relationship adjustment.
... It is assumed that the exhilaration associated with romantic love would be related to the experience of such self-expansion through the inclusion of partner's characteristics into one's self content (Aron, Norman, Aron, McKenna, & Heyman, 2000). Consistent with this view, self-expansion has been linked to positive outcomes in romantic relationships, such as admiration for the romantic partner, greater levels of satisfaction, commitment, and passion (Aron et al., 2000;Fivecoat, Tomlinson, Aron, & Caprariello, 2015;Mattingly, Lewandowski, & McIntyre, 2014;Reissman, Aron, & Bergen, 1993;Schindler, Paech, & Löwenbrück, 2015). Moreover, to the extent romantic partner's perspectives and identities are experienced as one's own, these partner's characteristics thus turn out to be cognitively linked to one's sense of self, leading to an overlap of representations of self and other (Aron & Aron, 1986). ...
Romantic love has long intrigued scientists in various disciplines. Social-cognitive research has provided ample evidence for overlapping mental representations of self and romantic partner. This overlap between self and romantic partner would contribute to the experience of love and has been found to be a predictor of relationship quality. Self-partner overlap has been mainly documented at the level of conceptual or narrative self, with studies showing confusion between one’s own and partner’s identity aspects, perspectives, and outcomes. But the self is not restricted to abstract, conceptual representations but also involves body-related representations, which, research has revealed, are linked to social-cognitive processes. In this article, we review the emerging evidence that romantic love involves not only a blurring of conceptual selves but also a reduction of the distinction between self and romantic partner at a bodily level. We discuss the potential function(s) of self-other overlap in romantic relationship at the level of body-related representations and consider possible mechanisms. We conclude with possible future directions to further investigate how romantic love engages embodied self-other representations involved in social interactions.
... In the analysis examining the nine specific emotions, happiness and excitement are the positive emotions that independently account for significant variance (with excitement having the larger coefficient). This finding relates conceptually to Aron's model of "self-expansion" (Aron & Aron, 1997), the idea that encountering or forming a relationship with another generates positive feelings-specifically of excitement-due to inclusion of the other in the self (Reissman et al., 1993). The applicability of the self-expansion model to HRI-where excitement might be enhanced by the novelty of the experience-has not yet been examined, but represents an interesting direction for future research. ...
Like early work on human intergroup interaction, previous research on people’s willingness to interact with robots has focused mainly on effects of anxiety. However, existing findings suggest that other negative emotions as well as some positive emotions also have effects. This article systematically examines the roles of positive and negative emotions in predicting willingness to interact with robots, using an integrative analysis of data across five studies that use diverse interaction conditions and several types of robots. We hypothesize and find that positive emotions account for more variance than negative emotions. Practically, the findings suggest new strategies for interventions, aimed at increasing positive emotions to increase willingness to engage in intergroup interaction. No existing work has examined whether positive emotions are stronger predictors than negative emotions for willingness for human intergroup interaction, an important topic for future research.
... Moreover, several studies suggest that, in the context of ongoing relationships, there may be strong benefits to be gained from participating in novel and arousing activities that lead to self-expansion or excitement and are associated with rapid self-expansion. Conversely, participation in pleasant but mundane activities that are neither self-expanding nor exciting may provide little or no benefit (Aron et al., 2000;Lewandowski & Aron, 2003;Reissman, Aron, & Bergen, 1993). In the context of ongoing relationships with brands, self-expansion is tied to the brand's ability to keep on expanding. ...
Although brands offer different kinds of rewards through their loyalty programs, little is known about how they can impact consumer–brand relationships and brand attitude. How do loyalty program rewards influence the consumer–brand relationship? And which kinds of rewards establish or maintain closer relationships between consumers and brands than others? To answer these questions, the present research makes use of self‐expansion theory (Aron & Aron, 1986) and two experiments that manipulate the extraordinary character of rewards offered to consumers. Our findings show that special rewards produce higher self‐expansion than mundane rewards. Moreover, the positive effect of the rewards’ extraordinary character on brand evaluation, recommendation, and identification is sequentially and fully mediated by self‐brand inclusion and self‐expansion. Finally, we show that consumer satisfaction moderates the impact of special and mundane rewards on self‐brand inclusion.
This paper is a small scale feminist enquiry into the experiences of seven queer Kenyan women using Instagram to assert and navigate queer agency. The ways the existence of queer women in Kenya is subject to erasure, epistemically, symbolically and materially, is explored and highlighted how this can render queer women ‘unimagined’ in the now ‘democratic’ Kenyan regime. Queer women in Kenya are now reconfiguring social media spaces such as Instagram to push back on erasure and assert their existence. Drawing upon postcolonial feminism, this study shows that spaces like Instagram are locations where these women are making themselves ‘visible’ and ‘reimagined’.
Why do people fall in love? Does passion fade with time? What makes for a happy, healthy relationship? This introduction to relationship science follows the lifecycle of a relationship – from attraction and initiation, to the hard work of relationship maintenance, to dissolution and ways to strengthen a relationship. Designed for advanced undergraduates studying psychology, communication or family studies, this textbook presents a fresh, diversity-infused approach to relationship science. It includes real-world examples and critical-thinking questions, callout boxes that challenge students to make connections, and researcher interviews that showcase the many career paths of relationship scientists. Article Spotlights reveal cutting-edge methods, while Diversity and Inclusion boxes celebrate the variety found in human love and connection. Throughout the book, students see the application of theory and come to recognize universal themes in relationships as well as the nuances of many findings. Instructors can access lecture slides, an instructor manual, and test banks.
Background and Objectives
Marital satisfaction has been established as an essential factor for promoting health and well-being in older adults. However, it is unclear whether marital satisfaction is also associated with cognitive health in this population. This study aimed to investigate the longitudinal association between marital satisfaction and cognitive function, while also exploring variations in this relationship by gender and across the cognitive function distribution.
Research Design and Methods
This study used six waves of the Korean Longitudinal Study of Ageing (KLoSA) and employed gender-stratified unconditional quantile regression (UQR) models with fixed effects (FE) to estimate the association between marital satisfaction and cognitive function across different quantiles of the cognitive function distribution. FE models controlled for unobserved individual-level confounders such as genetics, cognitive and non-cognitive skills, and early childhood social and cultural background.
Results
The results of this study revealed that marital satisfaction was positively associated with cognitive function (b = 0.305), and this association was stronger in older men than in older women (b = 0.392 for older men vs. b = 0.181 for older women). The UQR-FE models suggested that the stronger association between marital satisfaction and cognitive function was observed among older men with lower cognitive function (b = 0.817 for 10th percentile vs. b = 0.118 for 90th percentile). Among older women, no clear patterns of heterogeneity were found across the cognitive function distribution.
Discussion and Implications
The findings of this study highlight a significant degree of heterogeneity in the relationship between marital satisfaction and cognitive function among older men, with the stronger associations observed in the lower percentiles of the cognitive function distribution. Interventions aimed at improving marital quality could be an effective strategy for promoting cognitive health in older adults, with an approach tailored to the individual’s characteristics.
Companionship is related to better affect and relationship satisfaction, but few studies have examined both partners' perspectives over time and the link between companionship and health. In three intensive longitudinal studies (Study 1: 57 community couples; Study 2: 99 smoker-nonsmoker couples; Study 3: 83 dual-smoker couples), both partners reported daily companionship, affect, relationship satisfaction, and a health behavior (smoking in Studies 2 and 3). We proposed a dyadic score model that focuses on the couple level for companionship as a dyadic predictor with considerable shared variance. On days with higher companionship, couples reported better affect and relationship satisfaction. When partners differed in companionship, they also differed in affect and relationship satisfaction. For smoking, a different picture emerged: Whereas smokers with nonsmoking partners smoked less on average with higher companionship, smokers with smoking partners smoked more on days with higher companionship. Findings show companionship as a consequential relationship construct deserving further study. Using the dyadic score model acknowledged both partners' perspectives on companionship. It demonstrated higher precision for detecting effects of partner averages in a dyadic predictor compared with traditional approaches, tests for effects of partner differences in a dyadic predictor and in outcome while maintaining the focus on the dyad.
The growth of the self-concept through increasing perspectives, identities, resources, and efficacy is known as self-expansion and typically involves novelty, challenge, interest, and/or excitement. Self-expansion is positively associated with health factors including self-reported physical activity (PA). This study is the first to investigate self-expansion and daily PA, and with a PA monitor. Fifty community participants completed baseline questionnaires, wore a Fitbit One and completed daily self-report questionnaires for 28 days, and completed follow-up questionnaires. Daily surveys included questions about both general and PA-specific self-expansion. Across the 4 weeks, steps taken was positively correlated with both general (all maximum likelihood r = 0.17) and PA-specific self-expansion (maximum likelihood rs of 0.15 and 0.16), and PA-specific self-expansion was positively correlated (maximum likelihood rs of 0.38 and 0.50) with aerobic activity. Future research should investigate this relationship in a larger more diverse sample and test whether PA-specific self-expansion can be utilized as an acceptable, feasible, and effective intervention to increase daily steps and other forms of PA.
How can we get the most out of our close relationships? Research in the area of personal relationships continues to grow, but most prior work has emphasized how to overcome negative aspects. This volume demonstrates that a good relationship is more than simply the absence of a bad relationship, and that establishing and maintaining optimal relationships entails enacting a set of processes that are distinct from merely avoiding negative or harmful behaviors. Drawing on recent relationship science to explore issues such as intimacy, attachment, passion, sacrifice, and compassionate goals, the essays in this volume emphasize the positive features that allow relationships to flourish. In doing so, they integrate several theoretical perspectives, concepts, and mechanisms that produce optimal relationships. The volume also includes a section on intensive and abbreviated interventions that have been empirically validated to be effective in promoting the positive features of close relationships.
How can we get the most out of our close relationships? Research in the area of personal relationships continues to grow, but most prior work has emphasized how to overcome negative aspects. This volume demonstrates that a good relationship is more than simply the absence of a bad relationship, and that establishing and maintaining optimal relationships entails enacting a set of processes that are distinct from merely avoiding negative or harmful behaviors. Drawing on recent relationship science to explore issues such as intimacy, attachment, passion, sacrifice, and compassionate goals, the essays in this volume emphasize the positive features that allow relationships to flourish. In doing so, they integrate several theoretical perspectives, concepts, and mechanisms that produce optimal relationships. The volume also includes a section on intensive and abbreviated interventions that have been empirically validated to be effective in promoting the positive features of close relationships.
In this paper we review the self-expansion model in the context of close relationships, focusing primarily on work in the last 20 years, considering throughout variation in our samples across cultures and other demographics—both in existing studies and in potential implications for future research. The self-expansion model has two key principles. The first half of the paper focuses on the motivational principle: The model theorizes that people have a fundamental desire to expand the self—that is, to increase their self-efficacy, perspectives, competence, and resources, and this often occurs through relationships in general. The second half of the paper focuses on the inclusion-of-other-in-the-self principle, in that a major means of self-expansion is through close relationships, when one’s partner’s identities, perspectives, skills, and resources become to some extent “included in the self” as also one’s own. For each principle we briefly describe its foundational research support and then explore the extensive, significant work of the last 20 years substantially expanding and deepening the implications of the model. The majority (although with some interesting exceptions) of studies have fallen short of testing the universal breadth of the model. As we review the research, we consider where the studies were conducted and with what kinds of populations. Where there are data from diverse populations, the overall pattern of results are generally similar. However, there were individual differences found within the populations studied, such as in attachment style, that affected the operation of both principles. Since there are well known differences in the distribution of such individual differences across populations of many types, it is quite likely that while the basic patterns may not differ, future research will show different degrees of operation in different populations.
In this chapter, we develop a theoretical framework that explains how blogs can be categorized based on audiences’ perceptions and how bloggers use different strategies to shape or shift their audiences’ perceptions and increase the persuasiveness of their messages. We posit that bloggers use two distinguishable communication strategies: (a) developing and sustaining an illusion of relationship between the blogger and the reader in order to individualize the communication, and (b) maintaining a level of ambiguity in their commercial interests in order to conceal the commercial nature of some blogs. We describe the tactics underlying the use of these strategies as well as the efficacy and ethics of these practices.
This edited volume draws together a wide range of exciting developments in the study of marital interaction. A significant feature of the book is its focus, not only on conflict and negative interactions but also on the processes by which couples maintain happy and constructive relationships. The chapters review and integrate the extensive literature in this area, as well as presenting important research findings. The contributors come from the disciplines of communication, social psychology and clinical psychology, and have national and international reputations for their work in this area. The findings reflect developments in theory and methodology, and have important implications for those working to strengthen and repair marital relationships.
Interdependence, Interaction, and Close Relationships - edited by Laura V. Machia June 2020
Cambridge Core - Social Psychology - Interdependence, Interaction, and Close Relationships - edited by Laura V. Machia
Spouses share common risks for cardiometabolic diseases: a person’s diabetes or hypertension raises the partner’s odds of developing the same condition. The mechanisms responsible for this disease concordance remain poorly understood. To examine three factors that may modulate partners’ cardiometabolic similarity—closeness, hostile marital behavior, and age—and to explore whether health behavior concordance plays a role, on two separate occasions 43 healthy couples ages 24 to 61 provided fasting glucose, metabolic data (fat and carbohydrate oxidation), and resting blood pressure before discussing one of their most severe marital disagreements. Accounting for the fixed effects of sex, age, study visit, and abdominal fat on cardiometabolic levels, we found that aspects of health behavior concordance were associated with greater similarity in glucose, diastolic blood pressure (DBP), and carbohydrate and fat metabolism. Independent of health behavior concordance, partners who felt closer and behaved in a less hostile way had more similar rates of fat oxidation; less hostile partners also shared greater overlap in carbohydrate oxidation. Likewise, fasting glucose and DBP were more similar within older couples compared to younger pairs, beyond the effects of health behavior concordance. In sum, our data captured preclinical similarities in cardiometabolic health among disease-free couples, which may form the basis for their long-term overlapping disease risks. Closer, less hostile, and older couples shared more similar fasting glucose, metabolic data, and blood pressure; importantly, health behavior concordance did not explain all associations. These novel data suggest that multiple paths may lead to couples’ shared disease risks.
The formation and functioning of close relationships can alter individuals’ self-concepts in such a manner that the self-concepts are cognitively linked with the partner; however, relationship dissolution directly threatens the loss of this intertwined self-concept. In this chapter, we first discuss the degree to which prior relationship-induced self-concept change predicts, and in some cases inoculates against, dissolution. Second, we discuss the extent to which relationship dissolution leads to subsequent self-concept changes within individuals (e.g., loss of self-concept content, increased self-concept confusion), as well as the mechanisms underlying whether these post-dissolution self-concept changes are deemed harmful versus beneficial. Third, we explain how individuals may recover from post-dissolution self-concept changes by seeking to repair or restore the damaged self-concept. Finally, we briefly identify avenues for future research that scholars may consider pursuing.
When individuals enter into close relationships, they can experience a variety of changes to the self-concept; these changes are directly linked to and affected by their relational partners. This chapter first explores the theoretical underpinnings of relationship-induced self-concept change by describing three key complementary perspectives: cognitive interdependence, self-expansion, and the two-dimensional model of relational self-change. These perspectives identify how close relationships can alter the size, structure, and diversity of individuals’ self-concepts (e.g., through self-other integration). Second, we review the consequences of relationship-induced self-concept change (e.g., relationship quality, maintenance behaviors). Finally, the chapter explores the empirical measurement of relationship-induced self-concept change by overviewing various operational definitions and methodologies, ranging from self-report to open-ended responses to response latencies to symbolic representations of the self-concept.
Past research has established the relational benefits of engaging in novel tasks with a romantic partner. However, little empirical evidence exists for the mechanisms responsible. The current research examined growth experiences—the proposed and tested mechanism in past work—as well as security experiences, a previously unexplored mechanism. Using a recall paradigm, Study 1 found that people reported high feelings of security (e.g., reliance, trust), in addition to growth (e.g., fun, excitement), when pursuing novel activities with a romantic partner. In Study 2, romantic couples engaged in a novel or control task. We assessed feelings of growth and security, and examined couples' post-task relationship satisfaction. Results revealed that while growth feelings mediated the link between task condition and relationship satisfaction, consistent with past work, so too did feelings of security. When growth and security were included as simultaneous mediators in the model, feelings of security emerged as a stronger mediator.
Having delineated the planning phase and implementing phase in the prior chapters, this chapter is committed to the last phase, namely the reflecting phase. Specifically, it delves into how the Chinese doctoral students (CDS) reflect on their overseas doctoral experience from a self-growth perspective.
Introduction:
With the emergence of rapidly expanding access to sexually explicit materials, research concerning pornography prevalence, pornography content, pornography users, and pornography effects has increased steadily among scientists and clinicians. Findings in this research area are often inconsistent and controversial.
Aim:
The current discussion aims to assist scientists and clinicians to "read pornography-that is, pornography research-" from an appropriately rigorous scientific perspective, so that we may approach work in this area with a clearer understanding of the often contested evidence base and a clearer understanding of what science can, and cannot, tell us, at present, about pornography prevalence, content, users, and effects.
Methods:
Discussion focuses on the critical implications, for scientific validity and clinical application, of variations in research design, participant sampling, conceptual and operational definitions of "pornography" and "use," measurement of sexually violent content, and measurement of pornography use effects.
Results:
Failure to acknowledge the implications of research design limitations and heterogeneity of conceptual and operational definitions of pornography have resulted in an inconsistent and contested evidence base in this area.
Clinical implications:
Clinicians must rigorously evaluate the published literature concerning pornography, according to classical principles of scientific research, before clinical application of diverse and inconsistent research claims.
Strength & limitations:
This analysis brings to bear classic scientific considerations in attempting to strengthen critical reading and research contributions in the area of pornography prevalence, content, users, correlates, and effects. Many of the assertions and suggestions contained in this discussion await empirical verification.
Conclusion:
Rigorous application of basic scientific research principles should guide the evaluation and conduct of research concerning pornography prevalence, content, users, covariates, and effects. Fisher WA, Kohut T. Reading Pornography: Methodological Considerations in Evaluating Pornography Research. J Sex Med 2019;XX:XXX-XXX.
Relationship maintenance encompasses a wide range of activities that partners use to preserve their relationships. Despite the importance of these efforts, considerably more empirical focus has been devoted to starting (i.e. initiation) and ending (i.e. dissolution) relationships than on maintaining them. In this volume, internationally renowned scholars from a variety of disciplines describe diverse sets of relationship maintenance efforts in order to show why some relationships endure, whereas others falter. By focusing on 'what to do' rather than 'what not to do' in relationships, this book paints a more comprehensive picture of the forms, functions, and contexts of relationship maintenance. It is essential reading for scholars and students in psychology, communication, human development and family science, sociology, and couple/marriage and family therapy.
The cognitive significance of being in a close relationship is described in terms of including other in the self (in K. Lewin's [1948] sense of overlapping regions of the life space and in W. James [1890/1948] sense of the self as resources, perspectives, and characteristics). Exp 1 (with 24 college students), adapting W. B. Liebrand's (see record
1985-20117-001) decomposed-game procedures, found less self/other difference in allocations of money to a friend than to a stranger, regardless of whether Ss expected other to know their allocations. Exp 2 (with 20 female undergraduates), adapting C. G. Lord's (see record
1988-00331-001) procedures, found that Ss recalled fewer nouns previously imaged with self or mother than nouns imaged with a nonclose other, suggesting that mother was processed more like self than a stranger. Exp 3 (with 17 married graduate students), adapting self-schema, reaction-time (RT) procedures (e.g., H. Markus; see record
1977-27587-001) found longer latencies when making "me/not me" decisions for traits that were different between self and spouse versus traits that were similar for both, suggesting a self/other confusion with spouse. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
In 2 studies, the Inclusion of Other in the Self (IOS) Scale, a single-item, pictorial measure of closeness, demonstrated alternate-form and test–retest reliability; convergent validity with the Relationship Closeness Inventory (E. Berscheid et al, 1989), the R. J. Sternberg (1988) Intimacy Scale, and other measures; discriminant validity; minimal social desirability correlations; and predictive validity for whether romantic relationships were intact 3 mo later. Also identified and cross-validated were (1) a 2-factor closeness model (Feeling Close and Behaving Close) and (2) longevity–closeness correlations that were small for women vs moderately positive for men. Five supplementary studies showed convergent and construct validity with marital satisfaction and commitment and with a reaction-time (RT)-based cognitive measure of closeness in married couples; and with intimacy and attraction measures in stranger dyads following laboratory closeness-generating tasks. In 3 final studies most Ss interpreted IOS Scale diagrams as depicting interconnectedness. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
The Pleasant Events Schedule is a behavioral self-report inventory of potentially reinforcing events. The test–retest method, involving 181 Ss of various ages and social classes, demonstrated good to excellent stability for the 8 most used scales of the schedule across periods of 1, 2, and 3 mo. Concurrent validity was assessed by comparison with peer and observer ratings. Predictive validity of the test's frequency ratings was studied in relation to subsequent self-monitoring data, while predictive validity of test enjoyability ratings was determined by comparison with subsequent choice behavior. Construct validity was inferred from the results of other research. Adequate validity of all types was found. Scale intercorrelations are also reported, and the question of response bias is addressed. (29 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
This paper investigates the relationship between the proportion of time husbands and wives spend in individual, joint, and parallel leisure activities and marital satisfaction over five marital career periods. A probability sample of upper-middle-class families in a moderate-sized Southeastern city yielded 216 husbands and 226 wives for the study. The results suggest that the three leisure activity patterns are differentially related to marital satisfaction, that husbands and wives are not influenced alike by leisure, and that the marital career period is a most critical variable in determining the influence of leisure.
This paper examines factors associated with marital interaction, particularly work roles, marital structure, and marital happiness. Evidence from a nationwide probability sample of 2034 men and women suggests that heavy work involvement of husbands as well as wives, number of children, and a traditional division of household labor all reduce the proportion of time couples spend in joint activity. The determinants of interaction are found to differ significantly by racial/ethnic group. A major finding of this paper is the importance of marital happiness as a determinant of interaction. Using two-stage least-squares analysis, the paper examines the nonrecursive relationship between interaction and happiness and concludes that previous research has overestimated the effect of interaction on marital happiness.
This article is a report of a preliminary study in the definition and measurement of marital conventionalization. Marital conventionalization is defined as the extent to which a person distorts the appraisal of his marriage in the direction of social desirability. Since the measurement of the variable is direct, the major focus is upon establishing content validity for a short scale of marital conventionalization. Since the results indicate that marital conventionalization is both extensive and intensive, it is necessary to control for its effect in any study of highly ego-involved areas, particularly the area of marital adjustment.
The purpose of the present study was to examine marital partners' perceptions of the underlying similarities among the marital maintenance strategies initially reported by Dindia & Baxter (1987). The perceptual judgment sorts of ninety-one married persons were analyzed using individual differences multidimensional scaling, hierarchical cluster analysis and content analysis. Results indicated that husbands and wives sorted the maintenance strategies similarly. Three underlying dimensions organized the perceptual space: constructive/destructive communication styles, ambivalence-based versus satiation-based conditional use and proactivity/passivity. Six cluster neighborhoods were situated in the three-dimensional space: Last Resort Strategies, Satiation Strategies, Inward Withdrawal Strategies, Problem Avoidance Strategies, Destructive Strategies and Constructive Strategies. The findings differ substantially from the a priori classification typology employed by Dindia & Baxter (1987).
Although relationship research has concentrated on relational formation and termination processes, most of the time spent in long-term relationships is devoted to relational maintenance and/or repair. The present study examines the maintenance/repair strategies reported by fifty couples (n= 100 spouses). It attempts to discover the strategies and the ways in which their number and choice are related to marital satisfaction, participation in a marital enrichment programme, length of marriage and respondent gender. Forty-nine strategies were identified and clustered into twelve superordinate strategy types. Respondents most frequently reported use of prosocial, ceremonial, communication and togetherness strategy types. More strategies were reported in accomplishing maintenance than repair of the relationship. However, the same types of strategies were reported for both maintenance and repair with the exceptions of metacommunication and anti-ritual/spontaneity strategies. The number of strategies correlated negatively with length of marriage. Implications for future research include the need for comparative work among premarital, marital and divorced couples. In addition, the need to develop understanding of such strategies for use in marital enrichment programmes is discussed.
This study examines the amount of time dual-earner couples spend together by analyzing time diaries (N = 177) from the 1981 Study of Time Use. We find that time together is substantially reduced by the number of hours couples work (combined) and how they schedule these hours. Sociocultural and life-cycle factors appear to have very limited net effects on time spent together. There is a theoretically predictable relationship between marital quality and time couples spend together: the more time together in certain activities, the more satisfactory the marriage. As the number of dual-earner families increases, more spouses may be less able to sustain each other emotionally.
This study reports on the development of the Dyadic Adjustment Scale, a new measure for assessing the quality of marriage and other similar dyads. The 32 item scale is designed for use with either married or unmarried cohabiting couples. Despite widespread criticisms of the concept of adjustment, the study proceeds from the pragmatic position that a new measure, which is theoretically grounded, relevant, valid, and highly reliable, is necessary since marital and dyadic adjustment continue to be researched. This factor analytic study tests a conceptual definition set forth in earlier work and suggests the existence of four empirically verified components of dyadic adjustment which can be used as subscales [dyadic satisfaction, dyadic cohesion, dyadic consensus and affectional expression]. Evidence is presented suggesting content, criterion related, and construct validity. High scale reliability is reported. The possibility of item weighting is considered and endorsed as a potential measurement technique, but it is not adopted for the present Dyadic Adjustment Scale. It is concluded that the Dyadic Adjustment Scale represents a significant improvement over other measures of marital adjustment, but a number of troublesome methodological issues remain for future research.
This paper examines the relationship between the extent of shared participation of husbands and wives in leisure activities and the extent of communication and task sharing in the marriage. Because marriage is an interactional system and leisure activities vary in their interactional requirements, a theory is proposed linking leisure activity patterns to marital interaction. The hypotheses generated by the theory were tested on a random sample of 223 husbands and 228 wives. The results indicate that interaction in leisure activities is related to interaction in marriage but that this relationship varies over the marital career. Also, it was found that the hypothesized relationship was greater when openness of communication was used as the marital interaction indicator compared to household task sharing. The theory is then reformulated in light of the data analysis.
We use LISREL to assess the measurement properties of a unidimensional indicator of subjective marital solidarity based on four questionnaire items. A rigorously assessed measure containing more than one, yet relatively few items, is solely needed for research on marriage; such a measure can combine high reliability with low cost. Using 1971 and 1978 waves of the Quality of American Life data, we evaluate a measure based on four items: how well the respondent thinks his or her spouse understands him or her, how well the respondent understands his or her spouse, the amount of time spouses spend together in companionate activities, and reported marital satisfaction. With one correlated error term, these items are found to be a unidimensional indicator and to show substantial invariance across gender, survey year, and life cycle stage. We rejected inclusion of an item on how much the couple agrees on finances because this item created invariance by gender and survey year. This item apparently changed its meaning during the 1970s when many women became wage earners.
This paper is concerned with the development of a theoretical model of the structure of marriage happiness that may be useful for diagnosis, analysis, and prediction. An over-all model, composed of a dimension of satisfactions and a dimension of tensions which function independently to produce happiness in marriage, is suggested. The independent dimensions correlate in the expected directions with an individual's own assessment of his marriage, but do not correlate with each other. These characteristics suggest that the difference between an individual's scores on the satisfactions and tensions indexes, called the "Marriage Adjustment Balance Scale" (MABS), is a good over-all indicator of an individual's happiness in marriage. Marriage happiness self-ratings and the MABS were found to be positively related to over-all happiness ratings. Each of the marriage happiness indexes is also related to over-all happiness in the expected direction. Finally, marriage happiness is related to over-all happiness through both positive and negative affect, so that there appears to be a perfect meshing between the two-dimensional structure of marriage happiness and the two-dimensional structure of psychological well-being.