TY - JOUR
T1 - Implicit negative evaluations about ex-partner predicts break-up adjustment
T2 - The brighter side of dark cognitions
AU - Fagundes, Christopher P.
N1 - Funding Information:
Correspondence should be addressed to: Christopher P. Fagundes, Department of Psychology, University of Utah, 380 South 1530 East, room 502, Salt Lake City, UT, 84112·0251, USA. E-mail: christopher.fagundes@psych.utah.edu This research study was supported by the Clayton Research Fellowship for Graduate Student Excellence at the University of Utah. Selected findings from the study were presented at the 2008 annual meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Albuquerque, New Mexico, the 2009 annual meeting for the Association for Psychological Science in San Francisco, CA, and the 2009 mini-conference for the International Association of Relationship Research in Lawrence, Kansas.
PY - 2011/1
Y1 - 2011/1
N2 - Using a subliminal priming lexical decision task, the present research investigated whether individuals who show negative implicit evaluations of an ex-partner immediately after a break-up show superior post-break-up emotional adjustment. As expected, individuals whose reaction times indicated negative implicit evaluations of their ex-partner showed reduced depressive affect immediately after the break-up. Individuals who did not initiate their break-up demonstrated less negative implicit evaluations of their ex-partners as well as more depressive affect. Finally, increased negative implicit evaluations of ex-partners over a one-month period were associated with corresponding improvements in adjustment. The findings demonstrate a critical role for implicit evaluations in post-break-up adjustment.
AB - Using a subliminal priming lexical decision task, the present research investigated whether individuals who show negative implicit evaluations of an ex-partner immediately after a break-up show superior post-break-up emotional adjustment. As expected, individuals whose reaction times indicated negative implicit evaluations of their ex-partner showed reduced depressive affect immediately after the break-up. Individuals who did not initiate their break-up demonstrated less negative implicit evaluations of their ex-partners as well as more depressive affect. Finally, increased negative implicit evaluations of ex-partners over a one-month period were associated with corresponding improvements in adjustment. The findings demonstrate a critical role for implicit evaluations in post-break-up adjustment.
KW - Emotions
KW - Implicit priming
KW - Relationship dissolution
KW - Stressful life events
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U2 - 10.1080/09602011003683976
DO - 10.1080/09602011003683976
M3 - Article
C2 - 21432664
AN - SCOPUS:78651231352
SN - 0269-9931
VL - 25
SP - 164
EP - 173
JO - Cognition and Emotion
JF - Cognition and Emotion
IS - 1
ER -