Measurement Of Sense Of Giving In Intimate Relationships And Its Impact On Relationship Quality

Having a happy intimate relationship is beneficial to one’s physical and mental health.In intimate relationships,the sense of giving is the individual’s feeling of giving of their own accord,including the subjective feeling after the individual perceives the giving to the partner,the emotional investment in the partner and the actual giving action.The sense of giving may play an important role in intimate relationships and have an impact on the quality of the relationship.In ordinary interpersonal relationships,people always follow the principle of social exchange and give and take in a reasonable and fair way.However,in the special interpersonal relationship of intimacy,whether people still follow the principle of fairness and ask their partners to give as much or even more than they give,or whether they follow the principle of altruism and give unconditionally to their partners and intimate relationships,is also the question that this study will explore.In this study,we propose a new perspective on the hypothesis that giving affects relationship quality,i.e.,we hypothesize that two different types of giving can be distinguished based on different demands for partner’s reward,one is conditional givers and the other is unconditional givers.These two different types of givers may behave differently in intimate relationships and may have different effects on relationship quality.The unconditional giver does not give back in the relationship and has a better relationship quality;the conditional giver expects the other party to give back equally,which has a cumulative effect and affects the relationship quality.Five related studies around the topic were conducted by questionnaire,empirical sampling,and behavioral experiments to validate the relationship model between the sense of giving and intimate relationship quality and to explore possible moderating and mediating variables.In Study 1,we developed and tested the validity of the Sense of Giving Questionnaire for intimacy research,and selected adults with more than three months of relationship experience as subjects to conduct item analysis and exploratory factor analysis on some of the questionnaires(N1=349)and validation factor analysis and reliability test on some of the questionnaires(N2=378).The results found that the intimacy sense of giving questionnaire contains 3 dimensions of cognitive giving,emotional giving,and behavioral giving,with a total of 14 items,and has good reliability and validity,which is consistent with psychometric indicators and can be used to measure the sense of giving in intimate relationships.Study 2 used a questionnaire(N=378)to explore the relationship between sense of giving and relationship quality,and also to analyze the role of giving type in it.The results found that giving perceptions positively predicted relationship quality and that giving type moderated the relationship quality between giving perceptions and relationship quality.The relationship quality of conditional givers was more likely to be influenced by the sense of giving than that of unconditional givers.Using an empirical sampling method,Study 3 examined the relationship between giving sense,giving type,and relationship quality and the intra-individual dynamics over time through an 8-day longitudinal follow-up survey of 52 couples(N=104).Results found a significant positive effect of giving perceptions on both intra-and inter-individual daily relationship quality and positive emotions,with a significant main effect of giving type;the results of Study 2 were replicated in the longitudinal diary study,again validating the moderating role of giving type in giving perceptions and relationship quality.Study 4 used a point-probe task paradigm(N=60)to provide evidence of attentional bias in differentiating between givers and to provide further evidence of the effect of different giver types on relationship quality in intimate relationships.The results found that conditional givers had difficulty maintaining and disengaging attention for reward-related words,and unconditional givers had no significant attentional bias for reward-related words,and this study distinguished between giver types in terms of attentional bias patterns.Study 5 used a one-category implicit association test(N=62)to compare whether there were differences in implicit attitudes toward giving among individuals of different giving types and what role implicit attitudes toward giving played in the sense of giving and relationship quality.The results showed that unconditional givers had significantly higher implicit attitudes toward giving than conditional givers,and that implicit attitudes toward giving could mediate the relationship quality between feelings of giving and relationship quality.Conclusions:(1)The sense of giving in intimate relationships questionnaire includes three dimensions: cognitive giving,emotional giving,and behavioral giving,and the reliability of the questionnaire is good.(2)There is a positive predictive effect of the sense of giving on relationship quality,and higher sense of giving will promote relationship quality.(3)Giving type moderates the relationship quality between giving and relationship quality,with conditional givers having lower and more unstable relationship quality and unconditional givers having higher and less susceptible relationship quality.(4)Conditional givers are more sensitive to reward-related information and have difficulty maintaining and disengaging attention from reward stimuli;unconditional givers do not have an attentional bias toward reward information.(5)Unconditioned givers have more positive implicit attitudes toward giving and conditional givers have more negative implicit attitudes.(6)Implicit attitudes toward giving mediated between feelings of giving and relationship quality.In summary,this study is innovative in that it proposes an operational definition and dimensions of the sense of giving based on Chinese culture,and develops a psychometrically standardized sense of giving scale,which provides a new perspective for intimacy research.The current status of the sense of giving in intimate relationships is explored,and a more ecologically valid empirical sampling method is used to explore the impact of the sense of giving on the quality of intimate relationships.In terms of theory,this study originally proposed two types of giving and suggested that "conditional giving is an important factor affecting the quality of intimate relationships".Further,through attention bias experiments and implicit attitude mediation,we distinguish the differences between different types of giving and implicit attitudes toward giving,and to a certain extent,explain why different types of giving have different effects on relationship quality.In practice,this study provides a theoretical basis for improving people’s happiness index by focusing on give-and-take in intimate relationships.It helps to guide individuals in relationships to clarify their own types of giving,rationalize the relationship between giving and rewarding,respond positively to problems in relationships,and improve the quality of intimate relationships.