Perceived and Actual Change in Stable Couples
Hypothesis 1 predicted that the romantic partners in stable relationships perceive that their love,
commitment, and satisfaction increase over time. This hypothesis was strongly supported. For the intact
samples at Times 2, 3, 4, and 5, men and women perceived that their positive feelings (e.g., love) for
their partner had increased since they had last participated in the study . Thus, with each passing year
participants believed that their love (and commitment and satisfaction) had grown. These results are
consistent with other findings in the literature indicating that people perceive thenrelationship and
partner in idealistic ways.
It is also possible that people’s definition of love and related affect changes over time so that compared
with the type of love (commitment or satisfaction) that they are currently experiencing, what they recall
experiencing at an earlier time may seem to have a different and lesser quality.
Although the participants in intact relationships at each wave perceived that their love, commitment,
and satisfaction were increasing over time, there was little evidence that these affects, as measured by
contemporaneous measures, were actually increasing between waves of the study, also in support of
Hypothesis 1.
