Remembering the past and imagining the future: Partners’ responsiveness in specific events relates to relationship satisfaction and subjective well-being

Abstract

Attachment theory indicates that romantic partners’ availability and responsiveness provide individuals with a sense of security and the repeated experience of which could have enduring effects on individuals’ subjective well-being and relationship outcomes. We proposed that retrieving episodic memory and episodic simulation related to secure-base support could also help individuals obtain information about partners’ responsiveness, which in turn would promote long-term subjective well-being and relationship satisfaction. To provide the evidence of this notion, the current study investigated the relationship between partner’s responsiveness in episodic memory/simulation of secure-base support and relationship satisfaction as well as subjective well-being. We recruited 136 young adults ( M age = 21.89, SD = 2.57) who were currently involved in a romantic relationship for at least 6 months. Participants completed measures of relationship satisfaction and subjective well-being; then, they provided specific episodic memory and simulations related to secure-base support as well as rated partners’ responsiveness in each event. Results indicated that partners’ responsiveness in both episodic memory and simulations was significantly positively related to participants’ relationship satisfaction and subjective well-being. These results provide novel implications for the function of episodic memory and episodic simulation of secure-base support in the attachment system.