Perceived Partner Responsiveness as an Organizing Construct in the Study of Intimacy and Closeness
Reis, Clark & Holmes (2004) · In Mashek & Aron (eds), Handbook of Closeness and Intimacy
Relied on in 6 places across the academy · 2 stated limits
What it found
Perceived partner responsiveness — the sense that someone attends to and values the core of who you are — is the organising construct behind intimacy in close relationships.
Perceived partner responsiveness — feeling attended to, understood and valued — is the organising construct behind intimacy and is linked to both relational and personal well-being.
Responsiveness is defined by attending to and supporting what the other person actually is, which requires knowing things about yourself that they have not felt able to say.
Perceived partner responsiveness — feeling that someone attends to and values the core of who you are — is the organising construct behind intimacy and predicts relational well-being.
What it does not show
A theoretical chapter organising a literature rather than an experiment. It defines responsiveness and argues for its centrality; it does not test any particular way of showing it.
And where we carry it further
The construct comes from research on established relationships; we are applying it to a first conversation.
A framework drawn from many studies rather than one experiment.
Where we rely on it
6 places in the academy. If this paper turned out to be wrong, this is the list that would have to change. Some of the instructions below are part of Gold; none of the findings are.
In the curriculum · 5
In the films · 1
Cited alongside it
Papers that sit under the same topics and films. Not a claim that they agree with each other — only that the same exercises lean on both.
A Cognitive Model of Social Phobia
Clark & Wells (1995)It Doesn't Hurt to Ask: Question-Asking Increases Liking
Huang, Yeomans, Brooks, Minson & Gino (2017)The Experimental Generation of Interpersonal Closeness
Aron, Melinat, Aron, Vallone & Bator (1997)Couples' Shared Participation in Novel and Arousing Activities and Experienced Relationship Quality
Aron, Norman, Aron, McKenna & Heyman (2000)Beautiful Mess Effect: Self–Other Differences in Evaluation of Showing Vulnerability
Bruk, Scholl & Bless (2018)Daily Marital Interactions and Positive Affect During Marital Conflict Among Newlywed Couples
Driver & Gottman (2004)Research
A real study. We tell you what it found, how many people were in it, and what it can't prove.
Free to read, link to and quote. If we have carried this paper further than it goes, say so at contact@suaviq.com — corrections to this registry are the most useful mail we get.