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It's my partner, deal with it: Rejection sensitivity, normative beliefs, and commitment
Author(s) -
BESIKCI EZGI,
AGNEW CHRISTOPHER R.,
YILDIRIM ASIYE
Publication year - 2016
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.12131
Subject(s) - normative , moderation , psychology , social psychology , romance , perception , association (psychology) , sensitivity (control systems) , developmental psychology , philosophy , epistemology , neuroscience , psychoanalysis , psychotherapist , electronic engineering , engineering
Past research has shown that normative beliefs, or perceptions of (dis)approval from social network members regarding one's romance, significantly predict relationship commitment. We investigated sensitivity to rejection as a moderator of the normative beliefs–commitment association. We tested and found support for the moderating effect of rejection sensitivity (RS; Study 1) and sensitivity specific to rejection of one's current romantic partner (Study 2) on the normative beliefs–commitment link. The link was significantly stronger for people with lower levels of RS: People who were less sensitive to rejection indicated lower levels of commitment when they perceived less network approval for their relationship. In contrast, people with higher levels of RS indicated higher levels of commitment in the face of less perceived network approval.