Testing the Concept of Relational Entitlement in the Dyadic Context: Further Validation and Associations With Relationship Satisfaction

The sense of relational entitlement is the perception one has of what one deserves from one's partner, and it may play a crucial role in determining the quality of a couple's relationship. However, the concept was only recently subjected to empirical examination. The main goals of the curr...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of family psychology 2014-04, Vol.28 (2), p.193-203
Main Authors: George-Levi, Sivan, Vilchinsky, Noa, Tolmacz, Rami, Liberman, Gabriel
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Assertive
Attitude surveys
Construct Validity
Couples
Data Interpretation, Statistical
Discriminant analysis
Entitlement
Entitlement (Psychological)
Expectations
Family Characteristics
Female
Gender Identity
Goals
Heterosexuality
Heterosexuality - psychology
Human
Humans
Interpersonal Relations
Interpersonal Relationship Satisfaction
Israel - epidemiology
Male
Narcissism
Older people
Perception
Personal relationships
Personal Satisfaction
Personality
Rating Scales
Relationship Satisfaction
Spouses - psychology
Test Validity
Validation
Citations: Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The sense of relational entitlement is the perception one has of what one deserves from one's partner, and it may play a crucial role in determining the quality of a couple's relationship. However, the concept was only recently subjected to empirical examination. The main goals of the current study were to continue the work initiated by the scale developers (Tolmacz & Mikulincer, 2011) by (1) further validating the Sense of Relational Entitlement Scale (SRE) in a sample of adult couples; and (2) examining the contribution of each partner's sense of relational entitlement to his or her own and his or her partner's relationship satisfaction. A sample of 120 Israeli, heterosexual, older couples (age = 58 years) in long-term relationships completed the study measurements. Factor analyses revealed that the SRE scale consisted of two major dimensions: conflicted entitlement and assertive entitlement. Applying an Actor-Partner-Interdependence Model (APIM) analysis indicated that the more conflicted one felt with regard to what one was entitled to, the less satisfaction one felt with the relationship. Additionally, the higher one's entitlement expectations were of one's partner (a subfactor of the assertive entitlement dimension), the more one's partner was satisfied with the relationship. The sense of entitlement construct seems to be relevant to the context of dyadic relationships and, as such, is worthy of further attention and investigation.
ISSN:0893-3200
1939-1293
DOI:10.1037/a0036150