Strivings for Romantic Intimacy Following Partner Complaint or Partner Criticism: A Terror Management Perspective

The current study examines the effects of partner complaint and partner criticism on strivings for romantic intimacy from the perspective of terror management theory. One hundred and seventy-four Israeli undergraduate students were randomly assigned to either a mortality salience or control condition and were then asked to read a vignette in which they imagined themselves either receiving praise from their romantic partner, receiving a specific complaint from their partner, or being criticized by their partner. Following this procedure, all participants completed a scale assessing their strivings for intimacy with their romantic partner. The results indicated that under mortality nonsalient conditions strivings for intimacy were highest under conditions of praise, followed by conditions of complaint and were lowest under conditions of criticism. However, when mortality was made salient strivings of intimacy were equally high under all three feedback conditions. The results are discussed in light of the growing body of literature on the terror management functions of close relationships.