Effect of dialectical thinking on romantic relationship satisfaction during COVID-19

Abstract

The present study aims to examine whether thinking styles (i.e. dialectical thinking vs. non-dialectical thinking) affect people’s romantic relationship satisfaction in the context of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Additionally, we aim to find out if gratitude plays a mediating role in relationship satisfaction. Participants were aged between 21 to 63 years (M = 28.5, SD = 10.22), and most of them were of Chinese ethnicity (89.5%). It was hypothesised that participants who were primed to think more dialectically, as compared to those who were not, would be more (1) grateful, (2) satisfied with their romantic relationship, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, it is also hypothesised that (3) dialecticism would predict gratitude which would, in turn, predict people’s romantic relationship satisfaction in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants were experimentally primed with dialectical thinking using a recall-writing task. According to the results of the analyses, all three hypotheses were supported. Some possible reasons behind this observation, limitations, as well as directions for future research, are discussed in this paper.

Keywords: Dialecticism; gratitude; romantic relationship satisfaction, COVID-19 pandemic, Singaporean sample.