Relational Uncertainty and Message Processing in Marriage

Affection Deprivation in Romantic Relationships

“…Furthermore, Knobloch and Solomon (2003) found that episodic relational uncertainty was associated with both anger and sadness, while events that increased relational certainty were associated with happiness. Knobloch, Miller, Bond, and Mannone (2007) also found that relational uncertainty was positively correlated with fear and those high in relational uncertainty assessed relationship talk as more threatening and reported avoiding more relationship talk. Previous research has also found positive associations between relational uncertainty and perceived difficulty of conversations for romantic couples (Knobloch & Solomon, 2005).…”

“…Relational uncertainty was measured using the abbreviated scale taken from Knobloch et al (2007). The abbreviated scale consisted of three subscales, each containing four items.…”

The role of relational uncertainty in depressive symptoms and relationship quality

“…Dating partners experiencing relational uncertainty describe their courtship as less stable (Knobloch, 2007b), view irritations as more threatening (Theiss & Solomon, 2006b), appraise unexpected events as more severe (Knobloch & Solomon, 2002b), and feel more negative emotion (Knobloch, Miller, & Carpenter, 2007;Theiss & Solomon, 2006a). Spouses entertaining doubts judge conversations with their partner to be more threatening to themselves and to their marriage (Knobloch, Miller, Bond, & Mannone, 2007). Most notably, spouses report less satisfaction with their marriage and less love for their partner under conditions of relational uncertainty (Knobloch, 2008).…”

“…The two constructs share striking similarities: Both depressive symptoms and relational uncertainty spark pessimistic rather than optimistic judgments (c.f. Gotlib & Neubauer, 2000;Knobloch, Miller, Bond, & Mannone, 2007), promote avoidance of social situations (c.f. Girgus & Nolen-Hoeksema, 2006;Knobloch & Carpenter-Theune, 2004), and correspond with relational difficulties (c.f.…”

A Dimensional Approach to Characterizing On-Again/Off-Again Romantic Relationships

“…Relational uncertainty was assessed through Knobloch, Miller, Bond, and Mannone's (2007) measure of self (e.g. "How important this relationship was to you"; 4 items, α = .82), partner (e.g., "How important this relationship was to your partner"; 4 items, α = .92), and relationship uncertainty (e.g., "The future of this relationship"; 4 items, α = .77).…”