How People React to the Termination of an Intimate Relationship: An Exploratory Mixed-Methods Study
Intimate relationships frequently come to an end, and in the current research, we have endeavored to examine how individuals would potentially react in the scenario where their intimate partner decides to terminate a relationship they wish to continue. More specifically, employing open-ended questio...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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SAGE Publishing
2025-01-01
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| Series: | Evolutionary Psychology |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1177/14747049241312231 |
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| author | Menelaos Apostolou Isaias Taliadoros Timo Juhani Lajunen |
| author_facet | Menelaos Apostolou Isaias Taliadoros Timo Juhani Lajunen |
| author_sort | Menelaos Apostolou |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Intimate relationships frequently come to an end, and in the current research, we have endeavored to examine how individuals would potentially react in the scenario where their intimate partner decides to terminate a relationship they wish to continue. More specifically, employing open-ended questionnaires on a sample of 219 Greek-speaking participants, we identified 79 possible reactions. Subsequently, using close-ended questionnaires on a sample of 442 Greek-speaking participants, we categorized these reactions into 13 broad factors. Participants indicated that they were more likely to feel sadness, inquire of their departing partners why they wish to end the relationship, and attempt to divert their thoughts elsewhere to avoid dwelling on the end of the relationship. Men indicated a higher likelihood than women to seek revenge sex, although significant sex differences were not observed in other reactions. Furthermore, we classified these 13 factors into three broader domains. The highest-rated domain was “Accept and forget,” followed by “Sadness and depression,” and “Physical and psychological aggression.” These findings could enable us to gain a better understanding of the process of relationship dissolution, and could potentially be employed to identify and prevent reactions that may have harmful repercussions for the individuals involved in the relationship. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-67a0dc3af4024619b25ed92fff73fb8f |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1474-7049 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | SAGE Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Evolutionary Psychology |
| spelling | doaj-art-67a0dc3af4024619b25ed92fff73fb8f2025-01-13T08:03:37ZengSAGE PublishingEvolutionary Psychology1474-70492025-01-012310.1177/14747049241312231How People React to the Termination of an Intimate Relationship: An Exploratory Mixed-Methods StudyMenelaos Apostolou0Isaias Taliadoros1Timo Juhani Lajunen2 Department of Social Sciences, , Nicosia, Cyprus Department of Social Sciences, , Nicosia, Cyprus Department of Psychology, , Trondheim, NorwayIntimate relationships frequently come to an end, and in the current research, we have endeavored to examine how individuals would potentially react in the scenario where their intimate partner decides to terminate a relationship they wish to continue. More specifically, employing open-ended questionnaires on a sample of 219 Greek-speaking participants, we identified 79 possible reactions. Subsequently, using close-ended questionnaires on a sample of 442 Greek-speaking participants, we categorized these reactions into 13 broad factors. Participants indicated that they were more likely to feel sadness, inquire of their departing partners why they wish to end the relationship, and attempt to divert their thoughts elsewhere to avoid dwelling on the end of the relationship. Men indicated a higher likelihood than women to seek revenge sex, although significant sex differences were not observed in other reactions. Furthermore, we classified these 13 factors into three broader domains. The highest-rated domain was “Accept and forget,” followed by “Sadness and depression,” and “Physical and psychological aggression.” These findings could enable us to gain a better understanding of the process of relationship dissolution, and could potentially be employed to identify and prevent reactions that may have harmful repercussions for the individuals involved in the relationship.https://doi.org/10.1177/14747049241312231 |
| spellingShingle | Menelaos Apostolou Isaias Taliadoros Timo Juhani Lajunen How People React to the Termination of an Intimate Relationship: An Exploratory Mixed-Methods Study Evolutionary Psychology |
| title | How People React to the Termination of
an Intimate Relationship: An Exploratory
Mixed-Methods Study |
| title_full | How People React to the Termination of
an Intimate Relationship: An Exploratory
Mixed-Methods Study |
| title_fullStr | How People React to the Termination of
an Intimate Relationship: An Exploratory
Mixed-Methods Study |
| title_full_unstemmed | How People React to the Termination of
an Intimate Relationship: An Exploratory
Mixed-Methods Study |
| title_short | How People React to the Termination of
an Intimate Relationship: An Exploratory
Mixed-Methods Study |
| title_sort | how people react to the termination of an intimate relationship an exploratory mixed methods study |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1177/14747049241312231 |
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