Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Do You Really Love Me?: An Experimental Investigation Of Reassurance Seeking And Interpersonal Rejection, Kevin T. Cannon

Honors Theses and Capstones

The authors conducted an experiment to test the interpersonal model of depression (Coyne, 1976), and specifically the link between excessive reassurance seeking (ERS) and rejection. The present study involved college-aged romantic couples. Some participants were then manipulated into perceiving that their partner was seeking reassurance from them. Results support the main tenets of Coyne’s (1976) theory. Participants reported increased frustration and reduced felt closeness to dysphoric partners when they were led to believe that their partners were engaging in ERS. Effects on frustration were moderated by partners’ depression, while effects on felt closeness were partially mediated by frustration, yielding a …