SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

At the University of Texas

Close Relationships

Close relationships are both fascinating and frustrating -- fascinating because of their richness and complexity; frustrating because they have defied systematic analysis. Indeed, despite repeated attempts to uncover the source of the "chemistry" that emerges in some couples, that chemistry has remained largely ineffable. Until recently at least.

· Several studies by Bill Swann and his students with married couples have revealed the people with negative self-views are more inclined to remain in relationships with spouses who think poorly of them. They are attempting to understand the nature and consequences of this effect.

· Swann and his students have recently encountered an exception to the idea that people prefer and seek evaluations that validate their self-views: if the dimension is critical to the survival of the relationship, people want positive feedback, no matter how negative their self-views. Interestingly, people are able to reconcile this inclination with their desire for self-verification because they strive to "be" meritorious of exceptionally positive evaluations on these critical dimensions. Thus, people find ways of reconciling their desire for self-verifying evaluations with their desire to be loved.

· Jamie Pennebaker and his students are exploring how people talk to one another in positive versus negative interactions and relationships. Can we predict the quality and longevity of a relationship based on some of the subtle words that people are using with one another?

· David Buss and his students are attempting to understand the nature of mating, friendship, and even murder within close relationships. Drawing on his evolutionary psychology perspective, features of love and hate are intimately tied to the biological connections that people have with each other.