AFFECTIVE PROCESSING FOLLOWING RELATIONSHIP DISSOLUTION

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The unilateral or bilateral severing of a close romantic relationship is one of life's most distressing psychological experiences. The primary intention of this research is to develop a more complete understanding of the structure, variability, course, and correlates of affective processing that typically follow the dissolution of romantic pair-bonds and to elucidate better the process through which individuals become unattached. The Experience-Sampling Method will be used to collect daily diary data on affective states from 60 undergraduate and graduate students who have recently ended a dating relationship and 20 adult women in a residential shelter for domestic abuse over a 30-day period in order to examine the factor structure of post-relationship affect, to investigate intraindividual variation and change in affective processing over time, and to identify patterns of interindividual differences in intraindividual variation and change. Confirmatory factor analysis, dynamic factor modeling, latent growth curve analysis, and evaluation of the dampening oscillatory properties of affective states over time will be used to assess the extent to which individuals experience and cycle through love, anger, and sadness as they cope with the dissolution experience. The results will case a developmental light on how individuals grieve the end of romantic relationships, address the dynamic nature of variations and changes in affective states over time, and provide useful information related to the coping styles of individuals who maintain distressed psychological functioning following the loss of a romantic relationship.