''I love you more today than yesterday'': Romantic partners' perceptions of changes in love and related affect over time

Journal/Book: J Personal Soc Psychol. 1999; 76: 750 First St NE, Washington, DC 20002-4242, USA. Amer Psychological Assoc. 46-53.

Abstract: Partners in romantic relationships provided reports on perceived changes in their love. Commitment, and satisfaction and completed contemporaneous scales on the same relationship phenomena multiple times over several yeats. At each wave of the longitudinal study, participants whose relationships had remained intact perceived that their love and related phenomena had increased since they had last participated in the study. However, their scores on contemporaneous scales did not generally increase over time. Analyses indicated that participants' reports of change were related to actual change in love, commitment, and satisfaction scores and with future relationship stability. Furthermore, participants: who experienced a breakup during the longitudinal study reported an overall decrease in their positive affect in the months prior to the breakup.

Note: Article Sprecher S, Illinois State Univ, Dept Sociol & Anthropol, Campus Box 4660, Normal,IL 61790 USA

Keyword(s): CLOSE RELATIONSHIPS; PREMARITAL RELATIONSHIPS; DATING RELATIONSHIPS; MEMORY STRUCTURES; INVESTMENT MODEL; COGNITIVE TEST; SATISFACTION; CONSTRUCTION; DISSOLUTION; COMMITMENT

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