The good and bad of relationships: How social hindrance and social support affect relationship feelings in daily life

Eshkol Rafaeli, James A. Cranford, Amie S. Green, Patrick E. Shrout, Niall Bolger

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

54 Scopus citations

Abstract

The authors examined the effects of social hindrance and support on negative and positive relationship-specific feelings in three daily diary studies. Study 1 showed that hindrance and support independently predicted positive relationship feelings, but only hindrance predicted negative feelings. Study 2 used new measures of hindrance and support and showed that hindrance and support independently predicted same-day relationship feelings but that the effects of hindrance were stronger in magnitude. Study 3 yielded similar findings using the new measures of hindrance and support and controlling for morning feeling. These asymmetrical crossover effects suggest that bad is only stronger than good when it comes to bad outcomes; they also support the distinction between aversive and appetitive relational processes.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1703-1718
Number of pages16
JournalPersonality and Social Psychology Bulletin
Volume34
Issue number12
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 2008
Externally publishedYes

Funding

FundersFunder number
National Institute of Mental HealthT32MH019890

    Keywords

    • Daily process designs
    • Relationship feelings
    • Social hindrance
    • Social support

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