A Study Of Factors Influencing Establishment And Maintenance Of Intimate Relationship

Intimate relationship, one of the most important relationships for human beings,which plays a critical role in our existence, development, and reproduction, has longbeen the focus of philosophers, anthropologists and psychologists. Psychologicalresearchers had found that commitment among intimate partners was of greatsignificance to develop and maintain intimate relationship. Commitment could notonly reflect relationship satisfaction, but also predict one’s evaluation towardspotential alternatives. This paper will study how commitment influence intimaterelationship from two aspects: before founding intimate relationships and whenrelationship already built. Firstly, how commitment affected one’s evaluation towardalternatives when she was about to set up relationship, and further studied relevantphenomenon of mate copying. Secondly, how commitment affected intimaterelationship satisfaction when the target was in or not in a relationship. Specially, wechoose the long distance dating relationship partners as subjects, which were rarelybeen studied in China in spite of a large number of studies among westernpsychologists.In study1, using the Commitment Scale, we measured98female collegestudents of their commitment level firstly, and then asked them to evaluate thetarget(being in intimate relationship or not). The result indicated that subjects that hadno relationships so far scored the target much higher than those who had, which wasconsistent with early studies: mate copying was utilized as a kind of mate selectionstrategy for female[1]. Furthermore, subjects with higher level of commitment tendedto evaluate target with intimate relationship lower, while target not in relationshiphigher. This can be explained by Social Comparison Theory, because those subjectswere more likely to be devoted to their relationships, when requiring to compare their intimate partners with other’s partner, they consciously devaluated the target’sattraction so that to indirectly improve their own partner’s charm, thus enhancedrelationship satisfaction. In contrast, target with no intimate relationship was notsufficient to threaten subjects’ commitment, so they felt safe to score objectively.In study2, we explored the influences of self-esteem, commitment, attachmentstyles and match of attachment styles on the relationship satisfaction of long distancedating relationships(LDDRs), and attempted to include these variables in a model.44couples completed a self-report questionnaire in our study. Findings indicated that thelevel of esteem and commitment were best predictors of the relationship satisfactionin LDDRs. While attachment styles were negatively associated with relationshipsatisfaction，a higher score on anxiety and avoidance subscale was related to a lowerscore on relationship satisfaction. There was a significant relationship betweenattachment styles and relationship satisfaction for men in LDDRs with a higher scoreon security attachment style associating with a higher score on relationshipsatisfaction. In addition, there was a positive relationship between self-esteem andrelationship satisfaction and it was fully mediated by the level of commitment.However, evidence of additional moderated mediation by attachment style and matchof attachment styles in couples was not very clear. Results of the current studyenlightened future systematic research on the psychological factors that influencerelationship satisfaction in LDDRs.In conclusion, the current results could guide individuals to better found andmaintain intimate relationships. Meanwhile, they might edify those who wereoccupied in intimate relationship counseling and treatment, and also providedprecious information for further studies related to intimate relationship.