Positive And Negative Reappraisal As Love Regulation Strategies In College Students

This study examined the effects of reappraisal of an ex-partner on reducing romantic love-feelings in students who are experiencing distress related to a romantic break-up. The current study was based on the study by Langeslag and Sanchez (2018), which assessed various love regulation strategies. My goal was to replicate their findings that negative reappraisal of an ex- partner reduced love feelings, and to add a positive reappraisal condition to further explore these findings. Forty seven students completed a pre-screening questionnaire. Thirty-two of the participants who met screening requirements were contacted to participate in the final phase of the study, however, only 5 participants completed the study. The 5 participants were randomly assigned to a positive, negative, or control reappraisal task which contained prompts asking them to reflect on a positive or negative aspect of their ex-partner (or on information unrelated to their partner in the control condition) and then completed measures of love-feelings. Participants in the positive reappraisal condition saw almost no reduction in love scores across but did report feeling less unpleasant than those in the negative condition. Those in the negative condition saw reduction in their love scores on both measures.