scholarly journals Romantic Love and Attentional Biases Toward Attractive Alternatives and Rivals: Long-Term Relationship Maintenance Among Female Chinese College Students

2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 147470491989760
Author(s):  
Yidan Ma ◽  
Weifeng Xue ◽  
Guang Zhao ◽  
Shen Tu ◽  
Yong Zheng
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
Romantic Relationships ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Chinese Women ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
Romantic Love ◽  
Relationship Maintenance ◽  
Attentional Biases ◽  
Age Range

Studies about heterosexual individuals’ long-term relationship maintenance have indicated that committed individuals possess evolved psychological mechanisms that help protect their ongoing romantic relationships against threats from attractive others during early stage attentional processing when mating-related motivation is activated. In this study, two experiments tested the relationship maintenance mechanism among committed female college students in the Chinese cultural context under different love priming conditions. Committed Chinese women displayed inattention to attractive alternatives in positive love-scenario priming (Study 1: 114 female undergraduates, age range = 18–26 years), subliminal semantic love priming (Study 2: 110 female undergraduates, age range = 18–25 years), and baseline conditions (Studies 1 and 2). Those with high levels of chronic jealousy showed significantly increased attention to and difficulty disengaging attention from attractive rivals when subliminally primed with love. This provides further evidence, from an Eastern cultural context, for the existence of attentional biases toward attractive alternatives and rivals in early stage attentional processes for relationship maintenance. This research also illustrates the important role of romantic love in maintaining long-term romantic relationships.

scholarly journals Temperament and Attachment as a Predictor of Romantic Love among Adults

2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 91-105
Author(s):  
Wahida Anjum
Keyword(s):  
Sample Size ◽  
Adult Attachment ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Positive Relationship ◽  
Romantic Love ◽  
Significant Positive Relationship ◽  
Composite Scores ◽  
Age Range ◽  
The Relationship

Objectives of the present study were to find out the relationship among the composite scores of temperament, attachment and perception of romantic love among adults in Lahore, Pakistan. Urdu translated version of the Structure of Temperament Questionnaire-Compact (Trofimova, 2010), the Revised Adult Attachment Scale (Collins, 1996), and the Perception of Romantic Love Scale (Anjum & Batool) was administered on the N = 500 participants (was justified and calculated online through A-prior sample size (Soper, 2016) with the age range of 19 to 60 (M = 20.06, SD = 5.63). Results showed highly significant positive relationship among the composite scores of temperament, attachment and perception of romantic love. Findings also revealed that the temperament, attachment, education, and the experience of romantic love were the significant predictors of perception of romantic love. Implications of the study were discussed in the cultural context of Lahore, Pakistan.

scholarly journals Equality in theory: From a heteronormative to an inclusive psychology of romantic love

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 240-257 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sapphira R. Thorne ◽  
Peter Hegarty ◽  
Erica G. Hepper
Keyword(s):  
Critical Thinking ◽  
Romantic Relationships ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Romantic Love ◽  
Sexual Equality ◽  
The Past ◽  
Same Gender ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Heterosexual Bias ◽  
Opposite Gender

Since 1970, research on romantic relationships has burgeoned, but its theories and methods were shaped by a heteronormative cultural context. Heteronormativity is an ideology that implicitly holds that heterosexuality is, and should be, the only, dominant, or taken-for-granted sexuality for all. The movement towards sexual equality, particularly legal recognition of equal marriage, now allows psychologists to investigate romantic love in a more equal manner than ever before. To orient psychology towards less heteronormative theories of love, we make explicit how researchers in the past have (a) defined love and relationships as heterosexual, (b) presumed heterosexual patterns of love generalize to all, (c) used methodologies that introduce heterosexual bias, and (d) located differences in same-gender couples rather than between same-gender and opposite-gender couples. We conclude with recommendations on how critical thinking at all stages of research can make the difference between heteronormative and inclusive research on romantic love and relationships.

scholarly journals Love for a Lifetime: Exploring Long-term Intense Romantic Relationships Among Filipino Couples

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miguel Alejandro Silan
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Study ◽  
Romantic Relationships ◽  
Conflict Management ◽  
Romantic Love ◽  
Identity Change ◽  
Maintenance Strategies ◽  
Love Stories ◽  
Opposite Sex ◽  
Relational Maintenance Strategies

Despite the popular conception that romantic love follows the pattern of an early passionate stage and a later companionate one, there are reports of couples that do remain passionately in love even after a long-term relationship. This qualitative study is an initial foray into this phenomena, and describes the case of 5 opposite-sex couples including their love stories, shared activities, conflict and conflict management, relational maintenance strategies, identity change, sex as well as attitudes and evaluation of their relationship.

scholarly journals Realistic love: Contemporary college women’s negotiations of princess culture and the “reality” of romantic relationships

2017 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 535-555 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amanda Koontz ◽  
Lauren Norman ◽  
Sarah Okorie
Keyword(s):  
Romantic Relationships ◽  
Romantic Love ◽  
Cultural Scripts ◽  
Media Portrayals ◽  
Depth Interviews ◽  
Unrealistic Expectations

This manuscript examines the ways collegiate women perceive media portrayals of princess cultural scripts and how this impacts their constructions of romantic relationships. Drawing on 30 in-depth interviews with college-aged women, we explore how these women negotiated media portrayals of romantic love by (1) distancing from images they defined as unrealistic expectations and (2) selectively embracing media portrayals as revealing intimate relational ideals. We argue that their selective accounting for how they developed their definitions of “realities” of love exposes tensions in concurrently hegemonic conceptions of love: idealist (fantastical and emotional love) and realist (rational and practical love) needed to sustain long-term relationships. We suggest that these negotiations reveal an association of idealist love with youth and realist love with maturity, reflecting an ongoing privileging of realist love. We conclude by considering interconnections between late capitalistic ideologies and maturation.

Barriers to Physical Activity in Adolescents

2015 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 47-59 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nadine Langguth ◽  
Tanja Könen ◽  
Simone Matulis ◽  
Regina Steil ◽  
Caterina Gawrilow ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Physical Activity ◽  
Leisure Activities ◽  
Outcome Expectations ◽  
Multidimensional Approach ◽  
Factor Analyses ◽  
Physical And Mental Health ◽  
Tailored Interventions ◽  
Long Term Consequences ◽  
Age Range

During adolescence, physical activity (PA) decreases with potentially serious, long-term consequences for physical and mental health. Although barriers have been identified as an important PA correlate in adults, research on adolescents’ PA barriers is lacking. Thus reliable, valid scales to measure adolescents’ PA barriers are needed. We present two studies describing a broad range of PA barriers relevant to adolescents with a multidimensional approach. In Study 1, 124 adolescents (age range = 12 – 24 years) reported their most important PA barriers. Two independent coders categorized those barriers. The most frequent PA barriers were incorporated in a multidimensional questionnaire. In Study 2, 598 adolescents (age range = 13 – 21 years) completed this questionnaire and reported their current PA, intention, self-efficacy, and negative outcome expectations. Seven PA barrier dimensions (leisure activities, lack of motivation, screen-based sedentary behavior, depressed mood, physical health, school workload, and preconditions) were confirmed in factor analyses. A multidimensional approach to measuring PA barriers in adolescents is reliable and valid. The current studies provide the basis for developing individually tailored interventions to increase PA in adolescents.

Initiating, Maintaining, or Breaking Up?

2014 ◽  
Vol 45 (5) ◽  
pp. 408-420 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michela Menegatti ◽  
Monica Rubini
Keyword(s):  
Romantic Relationships ◽  
Romantic Relationship ◽  
Self Disclosure ◽  
Level Of Abstraction ◽  
Problematic Relationship ◽  
Abstract Language ◽  
Language Abstraction

Two studies examined whether individuals vary the level of abstraction of messages composed to achieve the relational goals of initiating, maintaining, and ending a romantic relationships when the goal of communication was self-disclosure or persuading one’s partner. Study 1 showed that abstract language was preferred to disclose thoughts and feelings about initiating a romantic relationship or to persuade the partner to consolidate a long-term one. Study 2 revealed that participants used abstract terms to persuade the partner to continue a problematic relationship and to disclose their thoughts on ending it. These results show that language abstraction is a flexible means to handle individuals’ goals and influence the course of romantic relationships.

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