Abstract
Drawing on the Ideal Standards Model, the current study investigated whether the relationship events and experiences that occur on a given day in romantic relationships were associated with partner evaluations. Individuals in a current romantic relationship (N = 104) completed daily measures of positive and negative relationship events and experiences and partner evaluations for seven consecutive days. As hypothesized, findings demonstrated that on a given day negative relationship events and experiences were associated with evaluating partners as falling short of mate ideals, while positive relationship events and experiences were associated with evaluating partners as more closely meeting ideals. The findings demonstrate the importance of the relational context in evaluations of a partner against ideal standards.
Highlights
Over the last two decades, many studies have investigated the effects of relationship events and experiences on people’s evaluations of their romantic relationships (e.g., Neff and Karney, 2009)
The current paper reports on a daily diary study that draws on the Ideal Standards Model (ISM; Fletcher et al, 1999) of mate preferences to investigate how positive and negative relationship events and experiences are associated with romantic partner evaluations on a given day
The findings extend understanding as to how relationship events/experiences are associated with the components that comprise ideal-partner discrepancies; we found that events were associated with partner perceptions rather than the ideal standards themselves
Summary
Over the last two decades, many studies have investigated the effects of relationship events and experiences on people’s evaluations of their romantic relationships (e.g., Neff and Karney, 2009). This is especially surprising given that partner evaluations have an important diagnostic function in predicting relationship satisfaction (Fletcher et al, 2000; Campbell et al, 2001; Karantzas et al, 2019), longevity (Fletcher et al, 1999), and the extent to which people try to change (i.e., regulate) a partner’s relationship behavior (Overall et al, 2006) To address this gap, the current paper reports on a daily diary study that draws on the Ideal Standards Model (ISM; Fletcher et al, 1999) of mate preferences to investigate how positive and negative relationship events and experiences (from this point on referred to as relationship events/experiences) are associated with romantic partner evaluations on a given day. The current study provides novel insights by being the first to investigate how positive and negative events affect partner evaluations on a daily basis
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