Understanding how your romantic partner sees your emotions may help couples cope with conflict

Beliefs about how we are seen by our romantic partners may affect the quality of our relationships, McGill Psychology study finds. A study by researchers at McGill University is shedding new light on the importance of the perception of emotion in romantic relationships. The all-McGill team found that, regardless of how an individual is truly feeling, knowing their partner sees their emotions as a typical reaction to a given situation may lead to better relations within a couple - especially in situations of conflict. The research was led by Lauren Human , a professor in the Department of Psychology, and members of her team at the Social Interaction and Perception Lab , PhD candidates Hasagani Tissera and Jennifer Heyman. The researchers surveyed 189 romantic couples to find out how emotional meta-accuracy - the ability to correctly understand a romantic partner's impressions of the self - impacted momentary relationship quality. "We were interested in understanding how our beliefs about how we are seen by others affects the quality of our relationships,- said Tissera, a PhD candidate and lead author on the paper. -No matter why you are feeling a certain way, interactions within a couple are likely to be more positive when you know your romantic partner sees your emotions as similar to how a typical person would feel in a given situation,- Tissera said.