The Mismeasure of Love: How Self-Doubt Contaminates Relationship Beliefs

The authors argue that individuals with more negative models of self are involved in less satisfying relationships because they have difficulty believing that they are loved by good partners. Dating and married couples completed measures of self-models, perceptions of the partner’s love, perceptions...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Personality & social psychology bulletin 2001-04, Vol.27 (4), p.423-436
Main Authors: Murray, Sandra L., Holmes, John G., Griffin, Dale W., Bellavia, Gina, Rose, Paul
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Insecurity
Interpersonal Relations
Interpersonal Relationship Satisfaction
Love
Mate Selection
Optimism
Perceptions
Personal relationships
Romantic relationships
Satisfaction
Self Concept
Self Esteem
Selfesteem
Social psychology
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Summary:The authors argue that individuals with more negative models of self are involved in less satisfying relationships because they have difficulty believing that they are loved by good partners. Dating and married couples completed measures of self-models, perceptions of the partner’s love, perceptions of the partner, and relationship well-being. The results revealed that individuals troubled by self-doubt underestimated the strength of their partners’ love. Such unwarranted insecurities predicted less positive perceptions of their partners. In conjunction, feeling less loved by a less-valuable partner predicted less satisfaction and less optimism for the future than the partner’s feelings of love and commitment warranted. A dependency regulation model is described, where feeling loved by a good, responsive partner is thought to represent a sense of felt security that diminishes the risks of interdependence and promotes closeness.
ISSN:0146-1672
1552-7433
DOI:10.1177/0146167201274004