11 我今天比昨天更爱你实验报告 7.docx

11 我今天比昨天更爱你实验报告 7.docx

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11我今天比昨天更爱你实验报告7

JournalofPersonalityandSocialPsychology©1999bytheAmericanPsychologicalAssociation

January1999Vol.76,No.1,46-53Forpersonaluseonly--notfordistribution.

"ILoveYouMoreTodayThanYesterday":

RomanticPartners'PerceptionsofChangesinLoveand

RelatedAffectOverTime

SusanSprecher

DepartmentofSociologyandAnthropology

IllinoisStateUniversity

ABSTRACT

Partnersinromanticrelationshipsprovidedreportsonperceivedchangesintheirlove,commitment,andsatisfactionandcompletedcontemporaneousscalesonthesamerelationshipphenomenamultipletimesoverseveralyears.Ateachwaveofthelongitudinalstudy,participantswhoserelationshipshadremainedintactperceivedthattheirloveandrelatedphenomenahadincreasedsincetheyhadlastparticipatedinthestudy.However,theirscoresoncontemporaneousscalesdidnotgenerallyincreaseovertime.Analysesindicatedthatparticipants'reportsofchangewererelatedtoactualchangeinlove,commitment,andsatisfactionscoresandwithfuturerelationshipstability.Furthermore,participantswhoexperiencedabreakupduringthelongitudinalstudyreportedanoveralldecreaseintheirpositiveaffectinthemonthspriortothebreakup.

Dointimatepartnersreallyloveeachothermorewithtime,assuggestedbythetitleofthisarticle?

Dotheyperceivethattheirloveisincreasing?

Becausecloserelationshipsareextendedinlength,partners'loveandotherfeelingsforeachotherarelikelytochangeovertimeandbeperceivedtochange.However,thetemporalcourseofloveandrelatedrelationshipphenomena（e.g.,satisfaction）hasrarelybeenstudied.Inthisinvestigation,asampleofromanticcouples（allweredatingatthebeginningofthestudy）weresurveyedfivetimesovera4-yearperiodabouttheirrelationship.Ateachwaveofthestudy,theparticipantscompletedcontemporaneousscalesoflove,commitment,andsatisfaction,andtheyalsoreportedhowthesamerelationshipphenomenahadchangedsincetheyhadlastparticipatedinthestudy.Asaresult,bothactualandperceivedchangesareexamined,aswellastheassociationbetweenthetwo.

Sometheoreticalperspectivessuggestthatlove,satisfaction,andrelatedphenomenashouldincreaseveryearlyintherelationshipbutthenlevelofforevendecreaseovertime.Forexample,accordingtoprinciplesoflearningtheory,thepartner'sbehaviorormerepresencebecomeslessrewardingovertimebecauseofhabituationeffects（e.g.,Huesmann,1980）.Furthermore,accordingtotheself-expansionmodel（Aron&Aron,1986）,satisfaction,love,andrelatedemotionsarelikelytodecreaseovertimeasrelationshippartnersoffereachotherfeweropportunitiesforfurtherself-expansion.Stageorfiltermodelsofrelationships（e.g.,Murstein,1987）wouldarguethatcertainaspectsofpremaritalrelationships（e.g.,intimacy,love）shouldincreaseastherelationshipmovesfromonephasetoanother,althoughrecentinterpersonalprocessmodels（Cate&Lloyd,1992;Surra,1990）allowforgrowth,decline,andstabilityinpropertiesoftherelationshipovertime.Overall,fewtheorieshavefocuseddirectlyonrelationshipchange,andthepredictionsabouthowloveandrelatedphenomenashouldchangeovertimeinthecourseofpremaritalrelationshipdevelopmentarenotconsistent.

Themostacceptedmethodforexaminingchangeovertimeinloveandrelatedphenomenaistohaverelationshippartnerscompletemeasuresofthesevariablesattwoormoretimesanddeterminewhetherthereisasignificantchange（e.g.,Metts,Sprecher,&Cupach,1991）.Mostlongitudinalstudiesondatingrelationshipshaveshownlittlechangeinloveovertime（e.g.,Lund,1985;Mathes&Wise,1983）,althoughlovehasbeenfoundtoincreaseforindividualswhoadvanceinrelationshipstage（e.g.,Sprecher&Felmlee,1993）andforthosewhoareinaveryearlydatingstageatthebeginningofthestudy（Berg&McQuinn,1986）.Somelongitudinalresearchhasalsodemonstratedincreasesinsatisfaction（Rusbult,1983）andcommitment（Lund,1985）indatingrelationships.However,amajorlimitationofpriorlongitudinalresearchforexaminingchangeinloveorrelatedphenomenaistheshorttimeperiodbetweenassessments（often3monthsorless）.

Regardlessofwhetherorhowloveandrelatedphenomenamayactuallychangeovertime（asreflectedinchangesincontemporaneousscores）,individualsarelikelytohavetheoriesabouthowtheirfeelingschangeovertime.Intheretrospectivedevelopmentaldesign（e.g.,Braiker&Kelley,1979;Cate,Huston,&Nesselroade,1986）,alsousedtostudychangeovertimeinrelationships,coupleswhohavereachedaparticularstageofcommitment（e.g.,earlymarriage）havebeenaskedtoreflectonearlierstagesandcompletescales（measuringqualitiessuchasloveandcommitment）forthesevariousstages.Thisresearchdocumentsmorepositivechange（i.e.,increasesinlove,commitment,andsatisfaction）thanisevidencedinthelongitudinalstudiesconductedwithdatingcouples.People'sbeliefsaboutchangeinrelationshipphenomenaarelikelytobeinfluencedbytheirgeneralimplicittheoriesaboutrelationshipdevelopment.Tothedegreethatpeoplearemotivatedtoviewthattheirrelationshipisimprovingorgrowingovertime（e.g.,Honeycutt,Cantrill,&Greene,1989;Knee,1998;McFarland&Ross,1987）,theyarelikelytorecallpossessingalowerlevelofloveatanearliertimethantheydoatthepresenttime.

OverviewandHypotheses

However,evenintheretrospectivedevelopmentaldesign（e.g.,Cateetal.,1986）,subjectiveperceptionsaboutchangearenotassessed.Inthis4-year（five-wave）longitudinalinvestigation,relationshippartnerswereaskedtoprovidedirectreportsabouthowtheirloveandrelatedfeelingschangedovertimeateachwaveofthestudy,beginningatthesecondreportingsession.Thisinvestigationalsoincludedastandardlongitudinaldesigntoassesschangeinrelationshipphenomena.Ateachwave,theparticipantswhowereinintactrelationshipscompletedcontemporaneousscalesabouttheirloveandotherfeelings.

Thefirstpurposeofthisstudywastoexaminehowindividualsinstablerelationshipsperceivepositivechangeintheirrelationshipovertime.Myfirsthypothesis（Hypothesis1）wasthatparticipantsinintactrelationshipsateachwaveofthelongitudinalstudywillperceivethattheirlove,commitment,andsatisfactionhaveincreasedovertime;furthermore,thereportedincreasewillbegreaterthanactualchange,asreflectedinchangesinscoresonthecontemporaneousself-reports.Aspeoplerecallhowtheirrelationshipschangeovertime,theyarelikelytobemotivatedtoperceiveincreases（ratherthannochangeordecreases）intheirloveandrelatedaffect（Honeycuttetal.,1989;Karney&Coombs,1998）.However,consistentwithpriorlongitudinalresearch（Lund,1985）,Iexpectedtofindverylittlechangeincontemporaneousscoresonloveandrelatedphenomena.Thus,perceivedchangeshouldbegreaterthanactualchange.

Thesecondpurposewastoexamineperceptionsofchangeinrelationshipphenomenaamongcoupleswhobreakupoverthecourseofthestudy,inparttoprovideacomparisonwiththechangeperceivedbycoupleswhileinintactrelationships.Mysecondhypothesis（Hypothesis2）wasthatcoupleswhobreakupwillperceiveandreportinassessmentsobtainedafterthebreakupthattheirlove,commitment,andsatisfactionhaddecreasedduringthetimepriortothebreakup.Becausetheircurrentstateisunstable（andpresumablyunhappy）,individualswhohaveexperiencedabreakuphaveprobablyexperiencedmorenegativechangesinthepreviousmonthsthancoupleswhoremaintogetherandareprobablyalsoinvokingdifferenttheoriesofrelationshipchange（abeliefthatrelationshipdissolutionisassociatedwithadecreaseinpositiveaspectsoftherelationship;see,e.g.,Honeycutt,1993;Honeycutt,Cantrill,&Allen,1992）.

Thethirdpurposewastoexaminerelationshipcorrelatesandconsequencesofbeliefsaboutrelationshipchange.Areindividualswhoperceivethattheirloveandrelatedphenomenawereincreasingovertimelikelytohavehigherlevelsofcurrentloveandotheraffectandmorelikelytoexperienceincreasesinsuchphenomenaatafuturetime?

Furthermore,arepositivebeliefsassociatedwithrelationshipstability?

Mythirdhypothesis（Hypothesis3）wasthatthemorethatrelationalpartnersperceivethattheirlove,commitment,andsatisfactionincreasedovertime,thegreatertheirexperienceoflove,commitment,andsatisfactionatafuturetimeandthemorelikelytheyaretoremaintogether.Arecenttheoreticalcontroversyexistsintheliteratureconcerningtherelationshipconsequencesofpositiveillusionsandbeliefsaboutapartnerandtherelationship（e.g.,Karney&Bradbury,1997;Murray,Holmes,&Griffin,1996）.Accordingtowhathasbeencalledadisillusionmenthypothesis（Karney&Bradbury,1997）oradisappointmentmodel（Murrayetal.,1996）,ifindividualshaveextremepositivebeliefsabouttheattributesoftheirpartneroroftherelationship,disappointmentordisillusionmentmayoccur,becausepartnersandrelationshipscanneverliveuptosuchexpectations.However,thereappearstobemoresupportforamaintenancehypothesis（Karney&Bradbury,1997）orawish-fulfillmentmodel（Murrayetal.,1996）,whichstatesthatpositivebeliefshavepositiveeffectsontherelationshipbecauseindividualswillbemotivatedtobehaveinwaysthatmaintaintheirrelationshipandtheirlove.Murrayetal.（1996）discusshowpositiveillusionsmaybufferacouplefromthenegativeeffectofanydifficultiesthatmayoccurintherelationship.Thus,beliefsthatone'slovei