Choosing compassionate strategies to end a relationship: Effects of compassionate love for partner and the reason for the breakup

Susan Sprecher, Corinne Zimmerman, Erin M. Abrahams

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal Articlepeer-review

46 Citations (Scopus)

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 languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)66-75
Number of pages10
JournalSocial Psychology
Volume41
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2010
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Breakup strategies
  • Close relationships
  • Compassionate love
  • Relationship dissolution

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