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Risk in Intimacy as a Chronically Accessible Schema

Steven P. Woods

College of William & Mary

The cognitive underpinnings of perceptions of risk in intimacy (RII) were investigated in two studies. Using response times to measure schema accessibility, we found partial support for the hypothesis that, although most people have risk-in-intimacy schemas available in memory, those schemas are more accessible to high-RII individuals. In Study 1, high-RII women responded to relationship events more quickly and rated those events as representing greater risk than did low-RII women. In Study 2, high-RII individuals interpreted ambiguous social situations more negatively and did so more quickly than low-RII individuals. In some cases, however, high-RII individuals responded more slowly than low-RII individuals. Possible explanations for these findings are discussed.

Key Words: intimacy • risk in intimacy • romantic relationships • schemas

Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, Vol. 16, No. 2, 249-263 (1999)
DOI: 10.1177/0265407599162007


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