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Predicting dating relationship fate with insiders’ and outsiders’ perspectives: Who and what is asked matters
Author(s) -
LOVING TIMOTHY J.
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
personal relationships
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.81
H-Index - 83
eISSN - 1475-6811
pISSN - 1350-4126
DOI - 10.1111/j.1475-6811.2006.00122.x
Subject(s) - psychology , perception , romance , social psychology , psychoanalysis , neuroscience
Two recent studies (C. R. Agnew, T. J. Loving, & S. M. Drigotas, 2001; T. K. MacDonald & M. Ross, 1999) investigated the relative ability of outsiders’ (network members) and daters’ perceptions of the daters’ romance to predict relationship fate. Careful analysis of these studies suggests that the types of network members asked and what is asked significantly impact the prognostic ability of outsiders’ perceptions. The current research replicates and extends this literature and highlights the challenges posed when collecting outsiders’ perspectives of their friends’ relationships. Daters and 2 friends (1 female, 1 male) were asked to provide their perceptions of the dating relationship on 2 indexes: a direct prediction of the likelihood that the relationship would last 6 months and an overall qualitative assessment of the dater’s commitment. Results highlight the need for researchers to carefully attend to the instruments and samples employed when obtaining multiple perspectives of the same dating relationship.