Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities Journal

Approach and avoidance motivational orientations play a striking role within close relationships, with approach-oriented goals predicting increased positive affect and relationship satisfaction. As research suggests that motivational orientations influence individuals’ ability to regulate their own emotions (i.e., intrapersonally), we posit that these motives may also moderate individuals’ ability to regulate the emotions of others, thus affecting social outcomes. We hypothesize that individuals whose partners use more affect-bettering (versus affect-worsening) emotion regulation strategies will show improved relationship outcomes, with this link being strengthened in individuals high (rather than low) in approach motives. 37 romantic couples (74 participants) completed daily diary surveys for 10 days, with one partner reporting their use of affect-bettering and affect-worsening emotion regulation strategies and the other partner reporting their relationship outcomes. Preliminary results show that participants high in approach motives experienced significantly improved relationship outcomes in response to their partners’ use of affect-bettering emotion regulation strategies. This has implications for extending our understanding of extrinsic emotion regulation strategies and approach-avoidance motives in the close relationships context.