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"in a recent study Dush and Amato (2005) showed that involvement in a committed romantic relationship and relationship were related to happiness across the life-span.
It was found that individuals consider romantic relationships as an essential source of happiness.
It has been argued that personality influences the quality of and satisfaction with romantic relationships.
Extroversion and agreeableness were positively correlated with romantic relationship quality, (extroversion was correlated with happiness)
Neuroticism and openness to experience negatively related to romantic relationship quality (neuroticism also negatively correlated with happiness).
IT'S IMPORTANT TO CONTROL FOR PERSONALITY. It could be that the relationship between social experiences and happiness might disappear once personality is taken into account.
Because extroverts are more sensitive to reward (and this is a purposed reason why they are happier), it may be that extroverts' closer romantic relationships with their partners might be attributed to their sensitivity to rewards and close relationships would not emerge as a predictor of happiness.
Second, Demir and Weitekamp (in press) found that best friendship quality
contributed to the happiness of emerging adults while controlling for personality
(dimensions of Big Five).
A six-item version of the Perceived
Relationship Quality Component (PRQC) (Fletcher et al., 2000) was used to measure global perceived romantic relationship quality. The PRQC measures six relationship quality components (relationship satisfaction, commitment, intimacy, trust,
passion and love) and participants were instructed to rate their current romantic
relationship.
Personality. The Big Five Inventory (BFI) (John, Donahue, & Kentle, 1991; John
& Srivastava, 1999) was used to assess personality. The BFI consists of 44 items and
assesses five personality dimensions (extroversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness,
neuroticism and openness).
Happiness. The Subjective Happiness Scale (SHS) (Lyubomirsky & Lepper, 1999)
was used to assess the global happiness of the participants.
The correlations between the study variables can be seen in Table 1. Supporting the
hypothesis (a), romantic relationship quality was positively related to happiness.
Moreover, in line with the hypothesis (b), extroversion and neuroticism were related
to happiness in the expected directions. Additionally, agreeableness and conscientiousness were found to be significant (positive) correlates of happiness. Finally, the
relationship between personality and relationship quality were mostly in line with
the hypothesis (c), with the exception of openness to experience not showing any
relationship with romantic relationship quality. These findings are consistent with
the literature
differences in romantic relationship quality (e.g., Winstead, Derlega, & Rose,
1997), with women reporting closer and more intimate relationships as compared to
men.
Findings suggest that the quality of romantic relationships contributed to the
happiness of emerging adults above and beyond the influence of one’s personality.
This finding is in line with
STUDY 2
This second study, conducted at the same school
Focused on global life satisfaction, presence of positive affect and absesnse of negative affect.
Considered differences of positive affect in different age groups. determined that life satisfaction was stable across life-span n (Diener & Suh, 1998; Medley, 1980; see Diener et al. (1999) for a review).
But not positive affect and negative. available literature suggests that young adults differ from older age groups in terms of reporting higher levels of negative affect.
Relationships quality relief on McGill friendship questionarre. to assess companionship, help affection and intimacy, sense of reliable alliance, emotional security, and self-validation.
This investigated the most important FEATURE of romantic relationship that predicted happiness. overall,
Overall, relationship quality might
be important for happiness but it could be that certain features of the relationship
make more important contributions than others in predicting happiness.
y 2 attempted to identify
the strongest feature of romantic relationship quality that predicted happiness
That is, those who are high in identity formation
might benefit more from the quality of their romantic relationships when compared to
those low in identity formation.
Personality was using BFI, happiness using Satisfaction with Life Scale SWLS and positive and negative affect schedule PANAS.
The SWLS assesses the global cognitive evaluations of one’s life.
The PANAS was used to assess general positive and negative affect.
aggregate happiness scores were created by combining the results from SWLS and PANAS.
Identity formation was used from Erikson Psycho-Social Index EPSI.
Once again, hypotheses were upheld and , identity formation was positively related to happiness and
romantic relationship quality.
The results from study 1 were validated by study 2.
Gender once again did not affect happiness.
emotional security and companionship emerged as strongest predictors.
high levels of romantic relationship quality was related to higher levels of
happiness at high levels of identity formation (t(183) = 3.74, p < .05) but not at low
levels of identity formation
The interaction suggest that
emerging adults who are successful in forming their identity benefit more from the
quality of their romantic relationships.
Most emerging adults, if not all, strive to establish and maintain a romantic relationship.
First, as
explained in the text, the romantic relationships experienced during emerging
adulthood are more serious and committed compared to the earlier age periods.
Most emerging adults, if not all, strive to establish and maintain a romantic relationship. Second, theory suggests that romantic relationships formed during
emerging adulthood become one’s primary attachment figure, replacing family
members (Prager, 1995), and feelings of security play an essential role during this
attachment process (Hazan & Shaver, 1994). Considering these points, it is safe to
argue that belief in the romantic partner’s availability when needed and experiencing feelings of security, which enhances the formation of an attachment bond, has
the potential to contribute to the happiness of emerging adults.
As for companionship, one point to highlight is that romantic partners do not
always engage in self-disclosure or provide support to each other but rather spend
considerable amount of time together in different activities (Argyle & Henderson,
1985; Hinde, 1997). Research, has established that companionship was the strongest
feature of close relationships predicting happiness (Baldassare, Rosenfield, & Rook,
1984; Demir & Weitekamp, in press). Moreover, it has been reported that companionship was more important than social support, especially during nonstressful
times, in predicting well-being (Rook, 1987). O
doing things together with romantic partners is an essential component of the
relationship that has implications for the happiness of emerging adults.
t might be surprising not to see intimacy, a construct that received considerable
theoretical and empirical attention (Prager, 1995; Reis & Shaver, 1988), as the
strongest feature of relationship quality predicting happiness. Two explanations
could be offered to account for this situation. First, the finding could be attributed to
the scale used to assess relationship quality.
In two studies, 3–6% of the variance was accounted for by the quality of romantic
relationships. We consider these findings important and suggest that one should not
equate the amount of variance explained as unimportant or disappointing. The
findings were obtained while controlling for one of the major predictor of happiness,
personality. T