Abstract
Past research has established that people choose from a variety of different strategies to end relationships. In Study 1, 47 disengagement strategies were rated on degree of compassion toward the partner. In Study 2, we examined people's choice of breakup strategies (in a hypothetical breakup) at varying levels of compassion as a function of compassionate love for their partner and the manipulated reason for the breakup. Compassionate strategies were chosen more frequently when the reason for the breakup was external or dyadic, as compared to partner betrayal. Higher scores on the Compassionate Love Scale (Sprecher & Fehr, 2005) were associated with the greater likelihood of choosing compassionate strategies. An interaction between gender, compassionate love score, and reason for the breakup was also found. © 2010 Hogrefe Publishing.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 66-75 |
Number of pages | 10 |
Journal | Social Psychology |
Volume | 41 |
Issue number | 2 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2010 |
Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- Breakup strategies
- Close relationships
- Compassionate love
- Relationship dissolution