Doubt Begets Doubt: Causal Uncertainty as a Predictor of Relational Uncertainty in Romantic Relationships

Abstract

The current study explored whether causal uncertainty (CU), or doubts about one's ability to understand causes of social events, predicts relational uncertainty (RU) and, in turn, negative relational outcomes in romantic relationships. Seventy-nine couples completed measures of RU, perceived relationship quality, CU, depression, and attachment style. As predicted, higher levels of CU were associated with more partner and relationship uncertainty, and lower relationship quality, even when controlling for depression and attachment. Mediational analyses further demonstrated that causally uncertain participants' negative perceptions of relationship quality stemmed primarily from doubts about their partner's involvement in the relationship.Knobloch and Solomon (1999, 2002a) proposed that people can experience doubts about the level of involvement in their romantic relationship. Such relational uncertainty (RU) can stem from three separate, but related, sources: (1) the self, which generates doubts about your own involvement in the relationship; (2) the partner, which generates doubts about your partner's level of involvement; and (3) the relationship, which generates doubts about the nature of the relationship itself. Although RU is not inherently detrimental in romantic relationships (see Knobloch, 2007), research suggests that RU tends to have negative, rather than positive

An investigation of relational turbulence and depressive symptoms in newly married women

“…Although the means of the relational uncertainty variables were relatively low, they are consistent with previous research on relational uncertainty (e.g., Boucher, ; Knobloch, , ; Steuber & Solomon, ). Furthermore, given that our focus in the present analysis was on the change in these variables rather than on the absolute levels of the variables, the variance that is relevant for the present analysis is the variance in the change scores, not the variance in the levels of the relational uncertainty variables.…”

“…Participants responded to six Likert-type items completing the stem "My partner … " (1 = strongly disagree, 7= strongly agree), such as "interferes with the things I need to do each day" and "makes it harder for me to schedule my activities." Although the means of the relational uncertainty variables were relatively low, they are consistent with previous research on relational uncertainty (e.g., Boucher, 2015;Knobloch, 2007Knobloch, , 2008Steuber & Solomon, 2012). Furthermore, given that our focus in the present analysis was on the change in these variables rather than on the absolute levels of the variables, the variance that is relevant for the present analysis is the variance in the change scores, not the variance in the levels of the relational uncertainty variables.…”