Rusbult NSF Michelangelo Longitudinal Study, 2002-2004

Two-year, 5-wave longitudinal study of ‘newly committed’ romantic couples (both partners) assessed every 6 months. Couples had to have started living together, gotten engaged or married within the last year or planned to do so in the next year. The objective of the project was to study ‘newly committed’ couples over time as they pursued important goals related to their ideal self. A wide range of diverse measurements were assessed, making this dataset suitable for investigating a wide variety of topics, and not just on goal pursuits. See the long list of publications that have already used this dataset. Measures include those related to the ideal self and goal support (e.g., some Michelangelo phenomenon measures), general relationship processes and well-being (e.g., commitment, trust, DAS, perceived partner responsiveness, etc.), and general self processes (e.g., personal well-being, some health measures, self-esteem, narcissism, self-control, etc.) Many of the Michelangelo measures and relationship measures also had both partners complete measures about their own behavior as well as equivalent perceived partner behaviors. Please see the separate measures list for details. 187 couples began the study and 98 couples completed the final wave. At waves 1, 3, and 5, couples came into the lab (or some completed questionnaires online if they were unable to attend the lab session) and at waves 2 and 4, couples completed mailed questionnaires. At waves 1 and 5, couples engaged in video-taped discussions about their most important goal, and at wave 3, couples completed a 8-day diary study after the lab session. A small subset of friends of participants also completed some surveys about the couple at wave 3.