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Effects of self‐disclosure and responsiveness between couples on passionate love within couples
Author(s) -
WELKER KEITH M.,
BAKER LYNZEY,
PADILLA ALEXANDRA,
HOLMES HANNAH,
ARON ARTHUR,
SLATCHER RICHARD B.
Publication year - 2014
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/pere.12058
Subject(s) - closeness , feeling , self disclosure , romance , psychology , social psychology , task (project management) , developmental psychology , psychoanalysis , mathematical analysis , mathematics , management , economics
Previous work shows that high‐self‐disclosure interactions between couples can increase feelings of closeness within couples. We investigated whether couple friendships created in the lab through high‐self‐disclosure and closeness‐building activities would boost feelings of passionate love. In Study 1, couples randomly assigned to a high (vs. low) closeness induction task, either alone or with another couple, showed significantly greater increases in passionate love when they were highly self‐disclosing with other couples. Study 2 showed that the responsiveness of the other couple mediated the effects of self‐disclosure on increases in passionate love following high‐self‐disclosure interactions with other couples. The creation of couple friendships may be an additional way to reignite feelings of passionate love in romantic relationships.