Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 29, 2025
08:09
Psychophysiological Assessment of the Effectiveness of Emotion Regulation Strategies in Childhood
Published on: February 11, 2017
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Regulating relationship risk: Partner responsiveness as a safety signal.
1University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, Buffalo, NY, 14260-4110, USA.
Current Opinion in Psychology
|May 20, 2023
Summary
People seek safe, supportive relationships. Five relationship cues help partners assess trust and safety, influencing connection or self-protection. Chronic distrust can lead to unnecessary self-protection, hindering intimacy.
Area of Science:
- Psychology
- Social Psychology
- Relationship Science
Background:
- Humans are inherently motivated to form secure relationships characterized by care and protection.
- The risk-regulation model posits that individuals assess relational safety to guide their behavior.
Purpose of the Study:
- To identify specific cues romantic partners use to evaluate their relational value and safety.
- To explain how perceived safety influences motivation for connection versus self-protection.
- To examine the impact of chronic distrust on interpreting these relational cues.
Main Methods:
- The study outlines five key interpersonal cues: affectionate touch, gratitude, acceptance, investments, and power dynamics.
- It describes how partners' perceptions of these cues contingently shape their motivation.
- The research discusses the cognitive biases associated with chronic distrust in relationships.
Main Results:
- Five cues (affectionate touch, gratitude, acceptance, investments, power) serve as indicators of relational value and safety.
- Increased feelings of safety promote connection, while decreased safety triggers self-protective behaviors.
- Chronically distrustful individuals exhibit a pessimistic bias, misinterpreting cues and unnecessarily protecting themselves, which compromises connection.
Conclusions:
- Relational safety is dynamically assessed through specific interpersonal cues.
- The balance between connection and self-protection is contingent on perceived safety.
- Chronic distrust can maladaptively impair relationship functioning by fostering unnecessary self-protection.
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