Fights in romantic relationships can produce some of the most intense kinds of emotions. New research from Baylor University has investigated and classified these emotions.
Dr. Keith Sanford of Baylor and his research team studied 105 college students in romantic relationships over the period of eight weeks. They discovered links between different types of emotion, different types of underlying concern, and different types of perceived emotion of partners.
Sanford differentiated between two types of negative emotions – “hard” and “soft” emotions. Hard emotion is associated with asserting power and soft emotion is associated with expressing vulnerability.
Two types of underlying concerns were also identified – “perceived threat” concerns and “perceived neglect” concerns. Perceived threat involved perceptions of one’s partner being hostile, blaming, controlling, or critical. Perceived neglect involved perceptions of one’s partner failing to make desired contributions to the relationship or failing to demonstrate adequate levels of commitment or investment in the relationship.
Perceived threat and perceived neglect were associated with increases in one’s own hard or soft emotions. The effects of perceived neglect were also found to be stronger than those produced by perceived threat.
The study found that when people perceived threat, they observed increases in their partner’s hard emotion and when they perceived neglect, they observed decreases in soft emotion or increases in flat emotion.
Sanford said one of the most interesting findings related to the complexities of soft emotion. Perceived partner soft emotion was associated with a decrease in one’s own concerns of neglect. Soft emotion in oneself however, was associated with increased concerns of partner neglect.
Sanford said this finding is consistent with the notion that soft emotion is socially centered and attachment-related. The study appeared in the journal, “Personal Relationships.”
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