The rises and falls of romance: Considering redemption, contamination, and affective tone in the narrative construction of love lives

Abstract

We applied a narrative identity approach to the study of love lives. Participants were prompted to outline the ‘chapters’ of their love lives, describe a series of key scenes from this domain (high points, low points), and complete a measure of romantic attachment tendencies. Chapters and key scenes were coded for redemption, contamination, and affective tone. Life chapters became less contaminated and more emotionally positive over time. Furthermore, positive affective tone in participants’ chapters and scenes corresponded with secure attachment tendencies. Thus, there exists a tendency to perceive one’s love life as increasingly positive over time (or chapters), and the love life narrative identity of securely attached individuals is largely defined by positive tone.