Previous relationship research has largely ignored the importance of similarity in how people talk with one another. Using natural language samples, we investigated whether similarity in dyads' use of function words, called language style matching (LSM), predicts outcomes for romantic relationships. In Study 1, greater LSM in transcripts of 40 speed dates predicted increased likelihood of mutua...

Passionate love is associated with intense changes in emotion and attention which are thought to play an important role in the early stages of romantic relationship formation. Although passionate love usually involves enhanced, near-obsessive attention to the beloved, anecdotal evidence suggest that the lover’s concentration for daily tasks like study and work may actually be impaired, suggesti...

Romantic love has been the source for some of the greatest achievements of mankind throughout the ages. The recent localization of romantic love within subcortico-cortical reward, motivation and emotion systems in the human brain has suggested that love is a goal-directed drive with predictable facilitation effects on cognitive behavior, rather than a pure emotion. Here we show that the sublimi...

This prospective study used longitudinal, multi-reporter data to examine the influence of parents' marital relationship functioning on subsequent adolescent romantic relationships. Consistent with Bryant and Conger's (2002) model for the Development of Early Adult Romantic Relationships (DEARR), we found that interactional styles, more specifically paternal aggression and satisfaction, exhibite...

Many more people show classic symptoms of narcissism than merit a diagnosis of Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD). This has affected the whole of society, but potentially more importantly, it has invaded the realm of romantic interaction. This study seeks to fill gaps in the current research by exploring how narcissists interact within romantic relationships during problem solving discussi...

The present study examined the association between approach-avoidance commitment, emotional experiences in romantic relationships, and mental health. It was hypothesized that the association between avoidance commitment and emotional experiences was moderated by approach commitment. Two hundred and three undergraduates who were involved in romantic relationships participated in a questionnaire ...

This prospective study examined romantic partner selection and socialization among a sample of 78 young adolescents (6th-8th graders). Independent assessments of adolescent and romantic partner adjustment were collected before and after relationships initiated via peer nomination and self-report. Prior to their relationship, adolescents and partners were significantly alike on popularity, physi...

New research procedures that provided a direct test of lay concepts of romantic love supported the following conclusions: Laypersons use two different concepts when making judgments about love relationships: (a) an essentialist concept having to do with the basic question of whether person A loves person B, and (b) a prototypical concept having to do with what would optimally be present in a go...

We tested hypotheses concerning the developmental roots of becoming the "weak-link" (less committed) partner in adult romantic relationships and the associations between partners' absolute and relative levels of commitment and dyadic outcomes. We examined 78 target 20- to 21-year-olds who were involved in a romantic relationship and who had been studied since birth. As predicted, people who rec...

Romantic involvement and mental health are dynamically linked, but this interplay can vary across the life course in ways that speak to the social and psychological underpinnings of healthy development. To explore this variation, this study examined how romantic involvement was associated with trajectories of depressive symptomatology across the transition between adolescence and young adulthoo...