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. 2019;159(4):398-416.
doi: 10.1080/00224545.2018.1498826. Epub 2018 Jul 30.

Relationship social comparisons in dating and marital relationships: Adding relationship social comparison interpretations

Marian M Morry  1 , Tamara A Sucharyna  1
Affiliations

Relationship social comparisons in dating and marital relationships: Adding relationship social comparison interpretations

Marian M Morry et al. J Soc Psychol. 2019.

Erratum in

  • Correction.
    [No authors listed] [No authors listed] J Soc Psychol. 2020;160(2):264-266. doi: 10.1080/00224545.2019.1599547. Epub 2019 May 14. J Soc Psychol. 2020. PMID: 32037987 Free PMC article. No abstract available.

Abstract

How an individual interprets a relationship social comparison may have important implications for the self and one's relationship. We asked whether these interpretations significantly mediated the relation between the manipulated social comparison direction and relationship satisfaction, relationship commitment, satisfaction with life, and happiness for both dating (Studies 1 and 2) and married (Study 2) individuals. Participants were randomly assigned to make an upward or downward comparison to a friend's romantic relationship and completed measures of their interpretations, relationship quality, satisfaction with life, and happiness. For both dating and married individuals, there were indirect effects of manipulated social comparison direction through the interpretations for all dependent variables. Although there were some differences in mediation for married and dating individuals, the effect sizes were not significantly different.

Keywords: Cognitions; relationship quality; relationship type; social comparisons.

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