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Romantic relationships vary in quality, and the purpose of the present investigation was to examine a wide scope of linguistic variables as possible markers of this variability. Ninety-six undergraduate students within committed romantic relationships were asked to write freely about their partnership, following which they reported on relationship qualities such as trust, love, and satisfaction. In addition, 87 partners reported on their perceptions of relationship closeness, and 88 participants completed at least 8 days of a daily diary protocol. The occurrence of positive emotion words predicted relationship satisfaction, and the use of first-person plural words predicted partner perceptions of closeness. Beyond such findings, relationship quality varied positively with linguistic certainty, inclusiveness, and expressiveness. Conversely, several findings point to linguistic variables, such as anxiety, that suggest inhibitory processes within the relationship. Altogether, the research extends our knowledge concerning the linguistic factors that differentiate high-quality relationships from less functional ones.

At least some forms of interpersonal violence could follow from a vision of the self as a fierce, dominant creature. This should be particularly true when psychopathic (more proactive, less reactive) tendencies are involved. Possible relations of this type were examined in two studies (total N = 278) in which college student samples were presented with a new, structured version of an old projective test typically used in psychotherapy contexts. Participants were presented with predator–prey animal pairs (e.g., lion–zebra) that were not explicitly labeled as such. For each pair, the person was asked to choose the animal that they would more prefer to be. Participants who desired to be predator animals more often, on this Revised Animal Preference Test (RAPT), tended toward psychopathy to a greater extent. In Study 1, such relations were manifest in terms of correlations with psychopathic traits and with an interpersonal style marked by hostile dominance. Further analyses, though, revealed that predator self-identifications were more strongly related to primary psychopathy than secondary psychopathy. Study 2 replicated the interpersonal style correlates of the RAPT. In addition, photographs were taken of the participants in the second study and these photographs were rated for apparent hostility and dominance. As hypothesized, participants who wanted to be predator animals to a greater extent also appeared more hostile and dominant in their nonverbal behaviors. These studies suggest that projective preferences can be assessed in a reliable manner through the use of standardizing procedures. Furthermore, the studies point to some of the motivational factors that may contribute to psychopathy and interpersonal violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Romantic relationships vary in quality, and the purpose of the present investigation was to examine a wide scope of linguistic variables as possible markers of this variability. Ninety-six undergraduate students within committed romantic relationships were asked to write freely about their partnership, following which they reported on relationship qualities such as trust, love, and satisfaction. In addition, 87 partners reported on their perceptions of relationship closeness, and 88 participants completed at least 8 days of a daily diary protocol. The occurrence of positive emotion words predicted relationship satisfaction, and the use of first-person plural words predicted partner perceptions of closeness. Beyond such findings, relationship quality varied positively with linguistic certainty, inclusiveness, and expressiveness. Conversely, several findings point to linguistic variables, such as anxiety, that suggest inhibitory processes within the relationship. Altogether, the research extends our knowledge concerning the linguistic factors that differentiate high-quality relationships from less functional ones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]