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Relationship Satisfaction: Emotional Commitment

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Encyclopedia of Sexual Psychology and Behavior

Synonyms

Affective commitment; Couple satisfaction; Relationship commitment; Relationship investment; Relationship happiness; Relationship quality

Definition

Relationship satisfaction can be defined as the subjective assessment that the individual makes of their relationship (Miranda & Ávila, 2008), associated with the experience of positive affections with the partner (Coulter & Malouff, 2013; Raposo et al., 2020; Vasquez et al., 2023), and which changes over time (Fernández, 2018). This is a multidimensional construct (Narciso & Ribeiro, 2009; Trudel, 2011) and should be analyzed together with other factors that influence it (Andrade et al., 2009; Bradbury et al., 2000), namely, quality (Borges & Pasquali, 2011), well-being (Diener & Seligman, 2002; Gable & Poore, 2008), and happiness (Narciso, 1994/1995).

Robert Sternberg (1988) suggested that romantic relationships characteristically have three main components: intimacy, passion, and commitment. Emotional commitment, also known as...

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Correspondence to Patrícia Galandim Costa .

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Costa, P.G., Mesquita, I. (2023). Relationship Satisfaction: Emotional Commitment. In: Shackelford, T.K. (eds) Encyclopedia of Sexual Psychology and Behavior. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-08956-5_2001-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-08956-5_2001-1

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-031-08956-5

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