Dating Is Related to Self-Fulfilling

Dating Is Related to Self-Fulfilling Prophercy Because a Partner's

Society today is based on inter-human relationships and on their well-being. In order to be successful both in the personal life and in the public one, people need to socialize and to try to be at peace with the community.

In a romantic relationship both people need to have a certain behavior and to make one another feel that they belong together in order for the couple to last over time. There is a self-fulfilling prophecy that states that, in a couple, one's behavior can influence the behavior of his or her partner. For example, if one were to be obsessed with the thought that his or her partner were to reject them, his or her partner would, in his or her turn, feel that he or she should act accordingly.

Throughout history, people have proved that their expectancy when concerning their relationships with someone has contributed in the evolution of their relationship. People generally pay much attention to the way that others see them. If a certain person is important to them, they would change their attitude in order for their partner to also change their opinion.

Appearance is one of the most important things when two persons meet for the first time and each of us is aware of that. However, during the time spent together, one of the two might favor the other. In such a case he or she would attempt to look good in the eyes of the other. but, in the same time, he or she would be afraid that the other would reject him or her. "In an example of what Merton (1948) termed the self-fulfilling prophecy, Sroufe (1990) suggested that rejection expectations can lead people to behave in ways that elicit rejection from others." (Geraldine Downey, Antonio L. Freitas, Benjamin Michaelis, and Hala Khouri pp. 1)

Rejection sensitivity (RS) is responsible for making people fear that their relationship with a certain someone would be influenced by the fact that the other might reject them. Having such a problem would mean that your life would constantly be affected by the respective fear.

Those that show clear signs of fearing refusal from their partners are considered to have high rejection sensitivity while those that are generally not afraid of a potential refusal from their partners are considered to have a low rejection sensibility.

Geraldine Downey, Antonio L. Freitas, Benjamin Michaelis, and Hala Khouri have studied people that have been rejected by several partners. The research showed that, after being rejected repeatedly, people developed HRS and began to believe that virtually anyone would reject them at one point. It had also been proved that HRS people had a different opinion from LRS people when concerning the meaning of rejection.

During a relationship, those that expect rejection from their partners are more likely to believe that their partners show signs of hurting them. If the HRS person is convinced that his or her partner are ultimately going to reject him or her, their partner might be drawn into acting correspondingly. Several tests have been performed in which people had been induced in expecting rejection and their partners acted just as it had been expected.

In the cases where couples had had a very close relationship HRS partners generally managed to overcome their fears. From this we can observe that HRS is not something that cannot be combated. When considering gender and HRS, women have proved that they are more are likely to display a rejecting behavior during a conflict between them and their spouses. However, conflicts can't normally confirm whether or not some people would be likely to reject their romantic partners. In most cases, women are more inclined to have HRS, and, when comparing a HRS woman and a HRS man, we can observe that the woman is more likely to surrender to the thought of being fully rejected. Their partners have proved to express dissatisfaction when concerning the evolution of their relationship, and, thus, they've shown that HRS has a great importance in breaking up a relationship. Conflicts are generally more damaging for HRS women than they are for HRS men, and, subsequent to a conflict, HRS women are affected much more than LRS women. Without having experienced a conflict, the behavior of HRS women does not differ greatly from that of LRS women.

Downey, Freitas, Michaelis, and Khouri have undertaken a research to find out if HRS people directly influence their romantic partners into acting so that the relationship would end. 53 couples have been part of a one year research. After one year 29% of the couples had broken up. The couples that eventually broke up showed signs of dissatisfaction concerning their relationship during the one-year period. People that aren't constantly satisfied with their relationship are less likely to have their relationships last al least one year.

In general, people with HRS can predict relationship problems between them and their romantic partners. The first part of the one year research has shown that conflicts are some of the main indicators that can point toward a relationship that has HRS problems. However, the study might have been affected by some external factors, and thus, the results are not considered to be reliable.

The second study devised by Downey, Freitas, Michaelis, and Khouri involved couples firstly tackling the dependability of the diaries that the couples had wrote, and, secondly, attempting to determine if HRS women would have a greater negative influence on their partners consequent to a conflict. After having received the results, researchers found out that HRS men did not have a greater negative influence on their partners than the LRS men had. In contrast, HRS women have been reported to have a much worse impact on their partners subsequent to a conflict than LRS women have. During a conflict HRS women had a more negativist behavior than LRS women had, and, as a result, their partners had been entitled to express more anger.