Who are "We"? Couple Identity Clarity and Romantic Relationship Commitment

On Creating Deeper Relationship Bonds: Felt Understanding Enhances Relationship Identification

Relational experiences play a critical role in shaping how individuals see themselves. In four studies (N=945) using person-perception, longitudinal, and experimental designs, we demonstrate that feeling understood changes individuals' self-concept by increasing the centrality of a specific relationship (relationship identification). Study 1 showed that participants perceived an individual to be more identified with their relationship when their partner was high (vs. low) in understanding. Study 2 extended these results by examining individuals in romantic relationships longitudinally. The results of Studies 1 and 2 were distinct for understanding compared to acceptance and caring. Studies 3 and 4 manipulated felt understanding. Recalling many versus few understanding instances (Study 3) and imagining a close other being low versus high in understanding (Study 4) led individuals to feel less understood, which reduced identification in their friendships and romantic relationships. Furthermore, Study 4 suggests that coherence may be one mechanism through which felt understanding increases relationship identification.

Growing Together Through Our Cultural Differences: Self-Expansion in Intercultural Romantic Relationships

Intercultural romantic relationships are increasingly common and although the obstacles such couples face are well documented, the factors that facilitate their success are less studied. Although cultural differences may present challenges, they also offer opportunities for self-expansion-personal growth via new perspectives, knowledge, and identities. In three studies using cross-sectional, dyadic, longitudinal, and experimental methods (NTotal = 896), self-expansion was associated with relationship quality and identity outcomes (i.e., identity integration, cultural self-awareness). Self-expanding through a partner's culture (i.e., cultural self-expansion) was uniquely related to identity outcomes, beyond self-expanding more generally (relational self-expansion). Furthermore, actively sharing cultures and discussing their differences were linked to greater cultural and relational self-expansion, which in turn differentially predicted partners' relationship quality and cultural identities. These studies provide a first look at the role of self-expansion in intercultural relationships, demonstrating that the way couples negotiate their cultures is linked to both relational and personal outcomes.

Measuring "we-ness" in couple relationships: A social identity approach

Research on couple relationships has increasingly focused on the concept of "we-ness", the subjective closeness of the couple bond, as crucial to predicting relationship outcomes including satisfaction and dissolution. However, diverging perspectives on the definition, terminology, and measurement of this concept persist. We drew upon social identity theorizing to clarify the nature of we-ness and investigate its predictive utility. Participants were 375 members of the general community in long-term intimate relationships. The sample were aged 18-74 (M = 37.22; SD = 12.00) and 69% were women. Participants completed seven measures of we-ness drawn from both the couple literature and the social identity literature. We used exploratory factor analyses to establish the latent structure of we-ness, and regression analyses to examine the utility of each we-ness factor in predicting relationship satisfaction and likelihood of dissolution. A four-factor solution was extracted and the factors were labeled couple identity, partner liking, relationship orientation, and partner similarity. Each of the four factors explained unique variance in relationship quality, with couple identity being most strongly associated with positive outcomes. We conclude that couple research can fruitfully draw upon social identity theorizing in conceptualizing we-ness. This has implications both for more effectively measuring key concepts and for more precisely targeting interventions in couple therapy.

Stability and change in newlyweds' social networks over the first years of marriage

Marriage sanctifies the relationship between two spouses, but what happens to their relationships with family, friends, and others who comprise their social networks? Scholarly accounts disagree about whether couples' networks strengthen, weaken, or remain stable in the years after marriage. To reconcile competing perspectives, marriage licenses from lower income communities were used to recruit 462 spouses (231 couples) in their first marriages. Each spouse independently provided data on 24 network members with whom they interact regularly (over 11,000 network members). These data were used to calculate 14 dimensions of each spouse's social network, and networks were assessed in this way three times over the first 18 months of marriage. Over time, spouses' networks grew to include more of each other's family members, more married and financially secure individuals and more members with whom they reported good relationships. For husbands, proportions of their own friends and their wives' friends declined. Proportions of own family and members providing support did not change. With rare exceptions, these changes were not moderated by premarital parenthood, cohabitation, or relationship duration. Thus, regardless of a couples' premarital history, getting married itself appears to be associated with specific changes in spouses' social networks. Yet whether those changes broaden or narrow their networks depends on where in the network one looks. Illuminating how relationships between spouses are shaped by relationships outside the marriage therefore requires multifaceted assessments that are capable of distinguishing among discrete elements of couples' social networks. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).