Exploring congruency in dyadic affection accounts

Abstract

Affection is a fundamental need, however, humans vary in their expression and interpretation of affectionate behavior which may affect the degree to which this need is met. This study examines dyadic written accounts of affection within romantic relationships. Results indicate a high level of variance between partners’ accounts of recent affection expressions. Furthermore, these accounts contain multiple affection behaviors per episode, multiple types of affection behaviors, and reflect sex differences regarding recall of recent affectionate expressions. Implications for individual and relational health are discussed. Further, study results are compared to existing affection measures and suggest a need to modify existing indexes to account for the role of context in affectionate communication revealed from qualitative affection accounts.