Access Type

Open Access Dissertation

Date of Award

January 2025

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Department

Psychology

First Advisor

Stephanie Spielmann

Abstract

Romantic relationships are precarious contexts where individuals have a significant opportunity to constrain their close other’s outcomes (Kelley & Thibault, 1978). Such circumstances make uncertainty in a relationship challenging and inherently impose vulnerability to hurt and rejection for both partners (Murray et al., 2006). To deal with these challenges, people are known to employ information-seeking behaviors as ways to improve confidence in their perceptions of the relationship (Knobloch & Solomon, 1999; 2002). Despite existing perspectives on relational uncertainty and communication, there lacks a parsimonious framework identifying what motivates different information-seeking behaviors. The research presented here suggests that a regulatory focus perspective (Higgins, 1997) may illustrate distinct experiences of uncertainty in relationships that uniquely motivate information-seeking decisions. In test of these ideas, one preliminary study and two primary studies were conducted to evaluate how regulatory focus may inform the degree of overtness in information-seeking behaviors individuals use to reduce uncertainty. Specifically, these studies evaluated how regulatory focus may be uniquely concerned with the features of uncertainty as potentially threatening or opportunistic (Primary Study 1) and uncertainty when illustrative of loss or non-gain (Primary Study 2). Ultimately, the aims of these studies were semi supported and may offer an avenue best able to assess the nuances of information-seeking behavioral patterns between and within individuals. Such an understanding is essential, primarily as how people communicate matters for relationship outcomes.

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