Who recognizes and chooses behaviors that are best for a relationship? the separate roles of knowledge,attachment,and motivation

Participants made relationship decisions in several choose your own adventure-type dating story tasks by choosing between two options at each of 20 points throughout the computerized stories. one option was always the relationship-enhancing option; the other option was detrimental to the relationship. study 1 included two experimental conditions: participants were either asked to identify the relationship-enhancing option or to report which option they would actually choose. individuals high in relationship knowledge were more likely to identify relationship-enhancing behaviors but not more likely to actually choose them. secure individuals and individuals strongly motivated to have supportive relationships were more likely to identify and to choose relationship-enhancing options. in study 2 partner supportiveness was manipulated; the fictitious partner was either supportive or nonsupportive. individuals high in relationship knowledge were better at recognizing when a partner was supportive and when not,whereas attachment anxiety lessened the appreciation of having a supportive partner. © 2010 by the society for personality and social psychology,inc.