Meta Analysis Partner Perception and Mood
Creators: name: Versyp, Otto
Publisher: name: OSF Registries
Year: 2024
Subjects: subject: Social and Behavioral Sciences
subject: Psychology
subject: FOS: Psychology

description: Our emotional experiences are largely shaped by our social interactions, particularly within the context of romantic relationships (Butler, 2011). How one feels is likely to be influenced by the many different behaviors, thoughts and feelings of close others. For example, a partner’s negative mood and (work-related) stress is known to negatively contribute to one’s own mood and/or stress (Jones &amp; Fletcher, 1996; Larson &amp; Almeida, 1999; Saxbe &amp; Repetti, 2010). Furthermore, not only observable behaviors and moods but even the (perceived) thoughts or motives of others can bear an impact on people’s moods, regardless of their accuracy (Visserman et al., 2017).
 When assessing how a romantic partner's behavior, thoughts, or feelings might be related to one’s mood, there are two main perspectives to consider: how one reports their partner behaves (own perception), or how their partner (self-)reports behaving (partner perception). Earlier research has shown that for more stable constructs or traits, it is mostly the own perception of a partner’s traits (as opposed to the partner perception) that is related to well-being. Interestingly, what their partner reported themselves mattered less, or sometimes did not matter at all (i.e. did not have any predictive effects on top of the perception of the partner; Joel et al., 2020). For time-varying constructs such as emotional states or momentary well-being, different results have emerged. Gable et al. (2003) have shown that negative behaviors as reported by romantic partners can contribute to one’s mood while remaining unnoticed. In this case, it is not only the own perception that matters, but also the partner’s perception of their negative behavior which can explain additional variation in people’s moods. While some individual studies have yielded similar results, highlighting the importance of the perception of others in determining mood or daily relationship satisfaction (Gable et al., 2003; Girme et al., 2018), some have found support for the exclusive importance of one’s own perception (Haverfield &amp; Theiss, 2023; Venaglia &amp; Lemay, 2019). However, until now, there have been no systematic attempts to delineate the types of constructs (behaviors/thoughts/feelings) for which the importance of these perceptions might differ.
 In this study, we aim to explore whether people’s mood is only determined through their own perception of their partner’s behaviors, thoughts and feelings, or whether their partner’s self-reported perceptions matter as well. To answer this question, we will compile a large-scale collection of available datasets that involve intensive longitudinal data on partner’s mood and a wide range of possible constructs. Using meta-analytic techniques, we will determine to what extent the construct as reported by a partner is able to explain additional variance on top of people’s own perceptions of their partner. We will also assess an interaction between one’s own perception and the perception of a partner to determine the importance of congruence between the two, as well as possible moderators. Moderators here refers to potential variables/contexts for which the importance of one’s partner’s perspective might matter more or less (e.g. is the construct positive or negative? Overt or covert?). 
Moreover, although one might assume that individuals’ perceptions are rooted in reality—that is, perceptions of constructs could be expected to align with what partners self-report—prior studies have demonstrated that people’s perceptions of others’ behavior, thoughts or feelings often diverge from what is self-reported by those individuals, even in seemingly straightforward circumstances (Christensen &amp; Nies, 1980). While this doesn’t necessarily imply “inaccurate” perception, it underscores the lack of universal congruence in perceptions of (social) situations; rather, there exist two distinct interpretations of a given scenario. What one individual perceives as a conflict, another might interpret as a minor altercation. Acknowledging this potential disparity in perception or appraisal suggests the advantage of considering both perspectives in tandem, as advocated in earlier studies (Gable et al., 2003; Reis et al., 2014). These studies suggest that the impact on an individual’s mood or momentary well-being is most pronounced when the two perceptions align (which is also referred to as hits in the quasi-signal detection framework), or diverge (Reifman &amp; Niehuis, 2018). We will therefore also examine to what degree the interaction or congruence of the two different perceptions is related to people’s mood, in an effort to further clarify for which constructs different perceptions might be more or less important. 
Since previous research has observed different degrees of importance of different perceptions for different types of constructs, employing meta-analytic approaches could potentially enable us to draw overarching conclusions regarding the overall relative importance of a partner’s perception (partner’s self-reports), and importantly, determine for which types of constructs a certain perception might matter more or less. In other words, we will also assess potential moderators, to see if, besides a general pattern, we can observe different patterns for different types of behaviors/thoughts/feelings. We are specifically interested in determining whether a partner’s perception matters more (or less) when considering 1) gender, 2) study design (experience sampling or daily diary study), 3) valence of the construct (positive or negative), 4) valence of the outcome (positive or negative mood), 5) visibility (overt or covert), 6) partner-relatedness (construct related to partner or not), 7) different self-construed categories of relationship related constructs (as of now we propose the following categories: agreement, disagreement, warmth, coldness, autonomy, dependence, support/IER, sexuality, rest. However, upon observing all the available data and possible items, we could change these categories), 8) whether or not the construct is an emotion. 
While we have no expectations or clear hypotheses for most of these moderators, for some of them there might be a difference in the importance of the partner’s self-reported behavior/thought/feeling for people’s own mood (see our exact research questions and hypotheses listed below).