Feeling loved as a strong link in relationship interactions

Partners who feel loved may buffer destructive behavior by actors who feel unloved

Bibliographic Data

ID10165652
AuthorsEri Sasaki (0000-0003-4848-1088, University of Auckland, corresponding author), Nickola C Overall (0000-0002-9703-4383, University of Auckland), H T Reis (0000-0002-3542-6074, University of Rochester), Francesca Righetti (0000-0002-5126-1388, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam), Valerie T Chang (0000-0002-4916-4677, University of Auckland), Rachel S T Low (0000-0001-9537-386X, Victoria University of Wellington), Annette M E Henderson (0000-0003-4384-4791, University of Auckland), Caitlin S Mcrae (0000-0002-2299-5227, University of Auckland), Emily J Cro (0000-0001-5840-7805, University of Essex), Shanuki D Jayamaha (0000-0002-4440-6710, University of Auckland), Michael R Maniaci (0000-0001-6796-8954, Florida Atlantic University), Camille J Reid (University of Auckland)
Year2023
Volume125
Issue2
Pages367-396
Publication date2023-02-27
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Personality and Social Psychology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0022-3514 • E-ISSN: 1939-1315
PublisherAmerican Psychological Association (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1037/pspi0000419
PMID36848105
OpenAlexW4322493624
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited79

Feeling loved (loved, cared for, accepted, valued, understood) is inherently dyadic, yet most prior theoretical perspectives and investigations have focused on how actors feeling (un)loved shapes actors' outcomes. Adopting a dyadic perspective, the present research tested whether the established links between actors feeling unloved and destructive (critical, hostile) behavior depended on partners' feelings of being loved. Does feeling loved need to be mutual to reduce destructive behavior, or can partners feeling loved compensate for actors feeling unloved? In five dyadic observational studies, couples were recorded discussing conflicts, diverging preferences or relationship strengths, or interacting with their child (total N = 842 couples; 1,965 interactions). Participants reported how much they felt loved during each interaction and independent coders rated how much each person exhibited destructive behavior. Significant Actors' × Partners' Felt-Loved interactions revealed a strong-link/mutual felt-unloved pattern: partners' high felt-loved buffered the damaging effect of actors' low felt-loved on destructive behavior, resulting in actors' destructive behavior mostly occurring when both actors' and partners' felt-loved was low. This dyadic pattern also emerged in three supplemental daily sampling studies. Providing directional support for the strong-link/mutual felt-unloved pattern, in Studies 4 and 5 involving two or more sequential interactions, Actors' × Partners' Felt-Loved in one interaction predicted actors' destructive behavior within couples' subsequent conflict interactions. The results illustrate the dyadic nature of feeling loved: Partners feeling loved can protect against actors feeling unloved in challenging interactions. Assessing Actor × Partner effects should be equally valuable for advancing understanding of other fundamentally dyadic relationship processes. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Buffer (optical fiber · Computer network · Feeling · Link (geometry · Attachment and Relationship Dynamics · Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development · Computer Science · Family Dynamics and Relationships · Psychology · Social Psychology

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