Fundamental Dimensions Of Social Cognition And Romantic Relationship Quality

Communion and agency are considered as two fundamental dimensions of social cognition and self cognition. Communion dimension refers to traits that develop warm and friendly relationship with others and those that are related with moral judgment, while agency is considered as traits related to express oneself and pursuit goals. Previous studies suggest that there is the primacy of communion than agency when individuals perceive others, while the effect of primacy of communion attenuates or even reverses when people judge themselves or important others. But few studies have been done in romantic relationship in respect of fundamental dimensions. To explore the fundamental dimensions in romantic relationship and the relationship between fundamental dimensions and romantic relationship quality and also explore how gender and perspective affect the relationship between them, three studies have been done.In study1, words method was used and250participants were asked to write some characteristics of individuals in romantic relationship according to four different requirements. We sorted out the original words that participants had written in terms of some principals, then we calculated the frequency of each word. We chose the first20top words from each requirement. We divided those top words in three category: communion dimension words, agency dimension words and uncertain words cannot be classed into communion or agency dimension. Then we examine the population of communion and agency words in each requirement condition. Results showed that most of the20top words in each requirement condition were communion dimension words; the perceived words of males consisted of communion dimension words and agency dimension words, while the majority of perceived words of females were communion dimension words.Study2was aimed to explore the relationship between fundamental dimensions and relationship quality in observers’perspective.237participants used the fundamental dimension word list to assess the male and female in a romantic relationship who they were familiar with. Then participants were also asked to evaluate the romantic couple’s relationship quality by three questionnaires. Results indicated that regardless of the gender of observers the perceived communion of individual predicted the romantic couple’s relationship quality.Study3was aimed to explore the relationship between fundamental dimensions and romantic relationship quality in actor’s perspective.184participants were asked to use the fundamental dimension word list to evaluate themselves and their romantic partner, then they completed the Positive Feelings Questionnaire. Results showed that individuals’communion, partners’agency and individuals’agency predicted the relationship satisfaction; and there was gender difference of fundamental dimensions in predicting the relationship satisfaction, that is, the partners’communion predicted the males’relationship satisfaction, while the predictors of females’relationship satisfaction were individuals’agency and partners’agency.These three studies indicated that communion and agency are the two fundamental dimensions in social perception and the majority of perceived characteristics of individuals in romantic relationship is communion; there is gender difference of fundamental dimensions, that is, males are perceived significantly with more agency traits, while there is no gender difference in communion trait. And results supported the Double Perspective Model by showing the perceived agency predicted the relationship satisfaction in actors’perspective and communion predicted the relationship quality in observers’perspective. Gender difference was also confirmed by showing females take full consideration of their partners’ trait including both agency and communion, while males value their partners’communion most.