Seizing, Freezing, and… Suffering? Looking at Need for Closure in Romantic Relationships

Abstract

Need for Closure (NFC), our tendency to “seize” upon immediate answers and “freeze” by failing to update (Kruglanski, 1989), was predicted to be negatively associated with relationship satisfaction because, once in a relationship, high NFC individuals would be motivated to stay in the relationship, even if they were unhappy, because of a preference for the familiar versus the unknown.  Two measures of relationship satisfaction were analyzed using linear regressions with the two dimensions of NFC, Decisiveness and Need for Simple Structure (NFSS), as continuous predictors.  NFSS proved to be a weak, inconsistent predictor, while Decisiveness turned out to be a strong, positive predictor of relationship satisfaction.  A possible basement effect with the sample used and alternative conceptions of the NFC construct were discussed in effort to explain the results.