Periodic Reporting for period 1 - AutoRelationPun (Understanding the Role of Automatic Partner Attitudes in Relationship Functioning)
Período documentado: 2022-09-01 hasta 2024-08-31
Romantic relationships are essential for promoting health and reducing mortality risks. However, remaining satisfied with a long-term romantic partner is notoriously difficult, as illustrated by the fact that divorce rates hover around 30-50% in most industrialised societies. Although research shows that how partners respond to one another defines well-functioning relationships, the origins of such crucial behaviour remain largely unknown. How can we explain why partners behave the way they do? We argue that studying automatic partner attitudes (i.e. one's spontaneous evaluations toward the partner), as assessed by implicit measures, is key to better understand and promote the functioning and the well-being of relationships. Because they are less sensitive to the positive illusions and other motivated reasoning processes that are ubiquitous in relationships, we posit that automatic partner attitudes reflect the pattern of affective experiences that people encounter with their partner and, thus, are the primary source of behaviour toward that partner. The overarching goal of the present project is to tackle this issue and test the crucial role of automatic partner attitudes for relationship functioning in two lines of research, using a combination of fine-grained longitudinal, observational and experimental methods. In the first line of research, we aim to identify how these attitudes form and affect behaviour in dyadic interactions. Sampling real-life experiences from romantic couples over different time spans will allow us to understand the cyclical relationship between automatic partner attitudes and behaviour in daily life. In the second line of research, we aim to intervene on these attitudes to improve relationship functioning and well-being. Experimentally enhancing automatic partner attitudes and the ability to regulate them will allow us to identify causal paths and develop interventions. By taking an integrative approach, the proposed project will invigorate research in relationship science, social cognition and attitudes, but also offer applicable strategies that can efficiently help couples and reliably benefit society.
We have started an intensive 9-month longitudinal intervention study that will enable us to achieve the objectives of both research lines. This study examines how automatic partner attitudes relate to relationship experiences and affect relationship behaviors among more than 100 romantic couples through videotaped interactions, daily, weekly, and monthly reports, while also testing the effectiveness of two interventions that target such attitudes. Specifically, we developed: a relational-expansion procedure to examine whether engaging in new and exciting activities with the partner can enhance automatic partner attitudes and in turn improve relationship functioning and well-being; and a mindfulness training protocol to examine whether such training enables participants to become more aware of their automatic partner attitudes and better equipped to accept and regulate them and inturn promote relationship quality.
We also wrote and published a first manuscript, which is available in open access. This paper is a theoretical review that critically discusses evidence on the sources and antecedents of automatic partner attitudes in close relationships, identifies unanswered questions, and proposes a comprehensive agenda for future research.
We also wrote and published a first manuscript, which is available in open access. This paper is a theoretical review that critically discusses evidence on the sources and antecedents of automatic partner attitudes in close relationships, identifies unanswered questions, and proposes a comprehensive agenda for future research.
While data collection is still ongoing, this longitudinal intervention study will be the first to examine how automatic partner attitudes, as assessed by three distinct implicit measures, form and impact relationships in everyday life, while also intervening on such attitudes to test their caudal power in the real world. This is a significant innovation because most prior research on automatic partner attitudes has been correlational and fragmented, typically focusing on one type of relationship experience or behavior, and relying on only one implicit measure. The study combines both in-lab and at-home sessions to take advantage of the controlled laboratory environment while capturing participants' experiences in their natural settings, thus providing unique opportunities for a detailed understanding of how relationship processes fluctuate on a day-to-day basis while also tracking changes over longer periods.
Further, by using and comparing different interventions targeting automatic partner attitudes, this project will test whether ecologically valid interventions can enhance automatic partner attitudes, or help people realize, accept, and regulated such attitudes, and whether in turn such interventions can help couples.
The published theoretical review also makes a significant contribution to the field by offering an up-to-date overview of research on automatic partner attitudes. It critically discusses empirical evidence within the context of various theoretical frameworks from close relationships research (such as interdependence theory, attachment theory) and from social cognition research (cognitive dissonance theory, dual-process models), discusses limitations in existing work, outlines key unresolved questions, and provides both fundamental insights and practical recommendations that can pave the way for future research on this topic.
Further, by using and comparing different interventions targeting automatic partner attitudes, this project will test whether ecologically valid interventions can enhance automatic partner attitudes, or help people realize, accept, and regulated such attitudes, and whether in turn such interventions can help couples.
The published theoretical review also makes a significant contribution to the field by offering an up-to-date overview of research on automatic partner attitudes. It critically discusses empirical evidence within the context of various theoretical frameworks from close relationships research (such as interdependence theory, attachment theory) and from social cognition research (cognitive dissonance theory, dual-process models), discusses limitations in existing work, outlines key unresolved questions, and provides both fundamental insights and practical recommendations that can pave the way for future research on this topic.