Empirical Study - Hill, Blakemore & Drumm (1997)

Lecture 10

Main Aim

how YAs experience unrequited love, being loved and not loving them back, mutual love.

focus on emotional reactions, cognitive patterns, social meaning.

Background

three common romantic experiences in early adulthood:

mutual love - feelings shared, stable experience, high pos. affect.

unrequited love (rejectee) - love someone who doesn’t love you. longing, idealisation, self-evaluation.

unrequited love (rejector) - loved by someone you do not love. discomfort, guilt, social awkwardness.

Relation to SCEs

romantic sits. activate reflective self-conscious processes. involve:

• self-evaluation

• social meaning - how others view us

• identity, self-worth - boosted, threatened or tested.

• norms and expectations - cultural scripts on romance

• complex emotions - sadness, guilt, embarrassment, pride - require reflection.

Study Design

cross-sectional questionnaire.

Ps young adults recalling experiences → retrospective reports of romantic experiences.

open-ended descriptions + emotional ratings.

Ps describe one of: - real mutual love, rejectee, and rejector.

Results - Descriptive Frequencies

men - mean unrequited love increases sig. from younger to older. 10-20 unrequited love outnumbered mutual love.

women - mean unrequited love increases sig. but moderate 10-15. remain same 16-20 (where mutual love outnumbered unrequited love).

Results - Emotional Themes

joy → rejectee = low, rejector = low, mutual = high

sadness → rejectee = high, rejector = low, mutual = low

longing → rejectee = high, rejector = low, mutual = moderate

guilt → rejectee = low, rejector = high, mutual = low

embarrassment → rejectee = moderate, rejector = high, mutual = low

idealisation → rejectee = high, rejector = low, mutual = low

rumination → rejectee = high, rejector = low, mutual = low

Results - Cognitive Themes

rejectee → idealisation, self-questioning, lower self-worth, rumination.

rejector → concern for hurting other, social awkwardness, avoidance, moral self-eval.

mutual → balanced realistic thinking, pos. self-eval, lower uncertainty.

Strengths

• real emotional experiences

• rich qualitative data

• clear patterns across love types

• developmentally relevant

Weaknesses

• self-report memory bias

• no causal design

• limited diversity - students

• cultural variation not examined