Project Title: “The Impact of Compassionate Goals and Nonzero-Sum Beliefs on Relationship Quality”
Shan Gao
Mentor: Tao Jiang, Psychology
People with compassionate goals care about the well-being of both oneself as well as others. (Crocker & Canevello, 2008). In the context of close relationships, nonzero-sum beliefs refer to the idea that conflicts can be resolved in a manner that is beneficial to both partners (Crocker, Canevello, & Lewis, 2017). Previous research has shown that both nonzero-sum beliefs and compassionate goals predict higher relationship quality among American couples (e.g., Crocker et al., 2017).
We recruited 103 romantic couples (206 participants) from China for a two-wave longitudinal study. Both compassionate goals and nonzero-sum beliefs independently predicted higher relationship quality in both waves. In testing the interaction between compassionate goals and nonzero-sum beliefs, the results demonstrated that relationship quality was lowest among those lower in compassionate goals and lower in nonzero-sum beliefs about relationships.. These results suggested that either compassionate goals or nonzero-sum beliefs are sufficient to promote relationship quality in Eastern cultures, and there is no direct benefit to both in shaping relationship quality.