Fantastic and Forgiven: Do Long-Term Relationship Motives Promote Positive Illusions and Forgiveness Toward a Romantic Partner?

• Other Authors: Leo, Jennifer (authoraut)
• Format: Others
• Language: English; English
• Published: Florida State University
• Subjects: Psychology; Neurosciences
• Online Access: http://purl.flvc.org/fsu/fd/FSU_migr_etd-9028

Every romantic partner possesses faults and will at some point act poorly during the course of a relationship. Such negativity can lead to conflict and even relationship dissolution. In order to protect their relationship, romantically involved individuals often engage in positive illusions and forgiveness--two maintenance strategies that can promote healthy relationship functioning and relationship longevity. However, few studies have examined the specific relationship motives that lead people to engage in these processes. If positive illusions and forgiveness serve as relationship maintenance strategies, then people should engage in them particularly when they are motivated to maintain their relationship into the long-term. Across two studies, I used priming procedures to manipulate relationship motives (long-term motives, short-term motives, and a neutral control) to examine their effect on positive illusions (Study 1) and forgiveness (Study 2). I predicted that the long-term motive prime (compared to controls) would promote positive illusions and forgiveness of the partner. I also tested interactions between condition and sex to examine whether a long-term relationship orientation would encourage men and women to display greater levels of positive illusions/forgiveness on those characteristics/transgressions that should be particularly important to their sex. My hypotheses were not supported; no effects of experimental priming were found. However, across studies I replicated previous work, finding that greater positive illusions and forgiveness were associated with greater levels of relationship satisfaction. Furthermore, in Study 1, I found an unpredicted sex by condition interaction, such that a short-term motive prime led men (relative to women) to display marginally stronger positive illusions, whereas a long-term motive prime led women (relative to men) to display marginally stronger positive illusions. Possible interpretations of this unpredicted finding, along with limitations of the current studies and possible future directions, are discussed. === A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Psychology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Science. === Summer Semester, 2014. === July 16, 2014. === Forgiveness, Positive illusions, Relationship maintenance, Romantic relationships, Sex differences === Includes bibliographical references. === Jon K. Maner, Professor Directing Dissertation; Keith Roberson, University Representative; E. Ashby Plant, Committee Member; Jim McNulty, Committee Member; Colleen Ganley, Committee Member.