“Why am I still with you?”: The Role of Implicit Theories of Relationships in Predicting Commitment to an Unfulfilling Relationship
Date
2023
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Haverford College. Department of Psychology
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Thesis
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Award
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eng
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Tri-College users only
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Abstract
Why do people remain committed to unfulfilling romantic relationships? This study investigated how growth and destiny theories of relationships interact with perceptions of need fulfillment and partner fit to predict commitment in an online sample of individuals in exclusive, non-marital relationships (N = 302). Perceived need fulfillment was positively related to commitment, and both growth belief and the interaction between destiny belief and partner fit moderated this association. Specifically, there was a stronger association between need fulfillment and commitment for individuals low in growth belief compared to those high in growth belief. Further, there was a weaker association between need fulfillment and commitment for individuals high in destiny belief and partner fit compared to individuals high in destiny belief and low in partner fit. This study contributes to the evidence that individual differences in growth and destiny beliefs guide people’s understanding of negative relationship circumstances.