Many thanks to my thesis committee members for your time, help, humor, and support: Dr. David Wasieleski, Dr. Mark Whatley, and Dr. Jennifer Rahman.

ConclusionOverall, this study shows that individuals who prefer romantic movie genres may have higher levels of romantic idealism. Additionally, individuals who have higher levels of romantic idealism may have higher overall relationship satisfaction. This study has helped show that beliefs and expectations about romance and relationships may be related to preference for specific media genres. These findings may indicate that media and beliefs acquired from exposure to media, such as movies, may be important factors in the development of relationship expectations and beliefs, as well as of relationship satisfaction.

Hypotheses

1.Preference for romantic movie genres will be negatively correlated with Relationship Satisfaction (CSI), and positively correlated with Romantic Idealism (RBI, Eros, Mindreading) and Beliefs about Media and Romance.2.Preference for romantic movie genres will be negatively correlated with relationship history.3.Relationship satisfaction will be negatively correlated with romantic idealism.4. Relationship satisfaction will be negatively correlated with relationship history (number of significant relationships and length of longest significant relationship).5.Beliefs in myths about media and romance will be positively correlated with romantic idealism and negatively correlated with relationship satisfaction.6.Beliefs in myths about media and romance will be negatively correlated with relationship history.

Abstract

This study examined whether high preference for romantic movie genres was related to relationship satisfaction, romantic idealism, and relationship history (the number of self-reported previous serious relationships, as well as length of those relationships). A total of 185 undergraduate students enrolled in psychology courses participated in this study. For the purposes of this study, data only from females (n =146) was used to interpret results due to the small number of data gathered from male participants (n = 37).

Measures

• Demographic SheetQuestions about general demographics as well as general relationship history.

• Movie Genre Preference InventoryA self-made measure targeting movie genre preferences. Romantic comedy and romantic drama were the two genres used for data.

• Couples Satisfaction Index (CSI-32)A 32-item questionnaire designed to measure how satisfied an individual is within his/her current (or most recent) relationship (Funk & Rogge, 2007). Internal consistency was .96.

• Relationship Belief Inventory (RBI)- Mindreading is Expected SubscaleA 4-item subscale which measures the extent to which individuals believe that relationship partners should be able to know and sense their partners’ feelings and thoughts without having to ask or be told (Eidelson & Epstein, 1982; James et al., 2002). Internal consistency was .52.

• Love Attitude Scale- Eros SubscaleMeasures expectations of lovers (either current or future) as specifically related to passionate love (Hendrick & Hendrick, 1986). Items were modified to be worded as expectations, as was also done in Segrin and Nabi’s (2002) study. Internal consistency was .71.

• Galician’s Mass Media Love QuizTargets beliefs regarding myths portrayed by the mass media about love and romance (Galician, 2005). Internal consistency was .75.

Happily Ever After: The Relationship between MovieGenre Preference and Romantic Ideals

 Jessica Gillard

Faculty Mentor: Dr. David Wasieleski, Ph.D. Department: Psychology and Counseling

Correlations

**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

*. Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).

Results

•Preference for romantic movie genres was significantly positively correlated with romantic idealism and expectations of passionate love, but was not significantly correlated with expectations of mindreading. •Preference for the romantic comedy genre was significantly negatively correlated with length of longest relationship. •Relationship satisfaction was positively correlated with romantic idealism, as well as with expectations of passionate love, and expectations of mindreading. •A significant positive correlation was found between preference for romantic drama genres and relationship satisfaction. No significant correlations were found between preference for romantic comedy genres and relationship satisfaction.•No significant correlation was found between preference for romantic comedy and number of significant relationships. No significant correlation was found between preference for romantic drama and length of relationship or number of relationships. •Relationship satisfaction was not significantly correlated with relationship history.•Beliefs in myths about media and romance were significantly positively correlated with romantic idealism, expectations of passionate love, and expectations of mindreading. Beliefs in myths about media and romance were positively significantly correlated with relationship satisfaction.•There was a significant negative correlation between beliefs in myths about media and romance and length of longest relationship. There was no correlation between media beliefs and number of significant relationships.

Length of

Longest

Relationship

Number of

Significant

Relationships Eros Mindreading RomIdeal Media CSI RomCom

Number of

Significant

Relationships

Pearson Correlation .030 

Sig. (2-tailed) .728  

Passionate Love

(Eros)

Pearson Correlation -.119 .177*  

Sig. (2-tailed) .164 .038  

Mindreading Pearson Correlation .115 -.024 .294**  

Sig. (2-tailed) .179 .782 .000  

Romantic

Idealism

Pearson Correlation -.095 .121 .903** .692**  

Sig. (2-tailed) .264 .156 .000 .000  

MediaRomance Pearson Correlation -.187* .045 .287** .448** .419**  

Sig. (2-tailed) .026 .600 .001 .000 .000  

Relationship

Satisfaction

(CSI)

Pearson Correlation -.058 .030 .550** .278** .554** .204*  

Sig. (2-tailed) .503 .729 .000 .001 .000 .017  

Romantic

Comedy

Pearson Correlation -.218** .038 .168* .026 .169* .033 .143  

Sig. (2-tailed) .009 .652 .047 .763 .045 .692 .094  

Romantic Drama Pearson Correlation -.036 .034 .196* .113 .192* .102 .180* .428**  

Sig. (2-tailed) .666 .688 .020 .183 .023 .225 .034 .000