Who Breaks Up?
Prof. Ben Le with Miriam Korn ('07) and Amelia Mutso ('08).
Psychology students Miriam Korn ('07) and Amelia Mutso ('08) presented a poster at the 2007 meeting of the Eastern Psychological Association on their research on predictors of romantic relationship termination in dating relationships.
What romantic relationships are likely to break-up? And who stays together? Psychology majors Miriam Korn ('07) and Amelia Mutso ('08) presented their research on predictors of relationship termination in dating relationships at the 2007 meeting of the Eastern Psychological Association. Their work, in collaboration with Prof. Benjamin Le, used meta-analytic techniques to examine a wide range of characteristics of relationships, and showed that relationship commitment was among the best predictors of relationship termination in dating relationships. Other factors, such as specific personality dimensions, were not associated with break-up. Surprisingly, approval from social networks (e.g., friends and family) predicted break-up nearly as well as partners' own reports of relationship satisfaction-- it seems that the amount of approval you get from your friends and family is just as diagnostic as your own satisfaction in predicting the continuance of your dating relationship!