The Science of Predicting NonMarital Romantic Relationship SUCCESS
Greetings,
In 2010, the peer reviewed journal Personal Relationships published an article entitled Predicting nonmarital romantic relationship dissolution: A meta-analytic synthesis which revealed much information on concepts associated with non-marital romantic relationship breakups. The article included data collected from 37,761 participants and 137 studies over 33 years.
Much of it is rather depressing, but there was a good section on what was associated with a stable relationship (an excerpt follows):
Predictors of relationship stability
...Many of these variables, such as closeness (Berscheid, Snyder, & Omoto, 1989), commitment, satisfaction, alternatives, and investments (Rusbult, 1983) stem from interdependence theory (Thibaut & Kelley, 1959). Likewise, other affective, cognitive, and behavioral aspects of dyads include love (Rubin, 1970), overlap or closeness between partners (i.e., Inclusion of Other in the Self [IOS]; Aron, Aron, & Smollan, 1992), conflict (Surra & Longstreth, 1990), trust (Fletcher, Simpson, & Thomas, 2000), uncertainty (Braiker & Kelley, 1979), adjustment (Spanier, 1976), and positive illusions and perceived superiority regarding one’s relationship (Murray & Holmes, 1997; Rusbult, Van Lange, Wildschut, Yovetich, & Verette, 2000).
Finally, stemming from the growing literature on social networks (Sprecher, Felmlee, Schmeeckle, & Shu, 2006), dyadic stability may be influenced by external factors. Network members’ approval or support may
impact dyadic processes (Sprecher, Felmlee, Orbuch, & Willetts, 2001) and be associated
with relationship fate (Etcheverry & Agnew, 2004), and the extent to which partners’ networks
overlap (Agnew, Loving, & Drigotas, 2001) may promote stability.
For those of you that like lists, I have composed the following based on the above:
Concepts Related To NonMarital Relationship Stability
*Closeness
*Commitment
*Satisfaction
*Alternatives
*Investments
*Love
*Overlap or closeness between partners (i.e., Inclusion of Other in the Self [IOS])
*Conflict
*Trust
*Uncertainty
*Adjustment
*Positive illusions and perceived superiority regarding one’s relationship
*Stability may be influenced by external factors. Social network members’ approval or support may impact relationship processes and be associated with relationship fate, and the extent to which partners’ networks overlap may promote stability.
Until next time...
Sources, Additional Information, and External Links
Personal Relationships Predicting nonmarital romantic relationship dissolution: A meta-analytic synthesis
Interdependence theory on Wikipedia
Journal of Social and Personal Relationships Premarital Relationship Stability: A Review of Recent Research
A bit too much copy and paste results and you fail to mention how you feel about these results and where you stand in comparison?
I read this and thought about my situation with my kids mother and other friendships or relationships. Am i a statistic cause I consider myself single but too busy to develop something with someone.. is it even relevant or a factor considered in the study?
Is it copy and paste, or is it research? I see no one else bringing research and particularly this research to steem. It is not good science to state how one feels about the material, however it is good otherwise. I tend to focus on the science in my main blogs, but maybe I shouldn't and I appreciate your question (you ask a very good first question). I hope there are certain tags within steem that become emotionless bastions of scientific discussion, however I also understand the nature of this particular post is science including emotion which does confuse the matter.
As to your other question, I am not fluent enough in psychology research to know. I am not an expert. My opinion is that while this article does not apply to your singleness (or anyone else'), one cannot separate the study of singleness from the study of relationships. Mr Wang, you are not a statistic in this moment, and your relationships can all improve if you want them to more than you want to be too busy. I would say that some elements of the list near the end of my blog post still may help you improve any relationship you have, whether romantic or not.
Try and let us know, if you are willing.