Laurie Couch, Associate Professor and Interim Chair of Psychology
Research Interests
My primary research emphasis has been the investigation of interpersonal relationships. In particular, I am very interested in the role of trust in the development and maintenance of relationships, and in the experiences of individuals who have been betrayed by important others. I am trained as a Social/Personality psychologist, and I believe strongly in utilizing multiple perspectives and methodologies in studying any phenomenon, thus to gain a better understanding of the concepts of trust and betrayal, I have investigated the constructs from many different viewpoints. For example, across my career I have studied these topics from social cognitive and developmental perspectives, from an assessment and construct conceptualization perspective, and from an evolutionary perspective. I also have investigated psychological and physiological correlates of trust and betrayal, and I focused on individual differences in both experiences.
Although I have conducted quantitative and qualitative studies devoted to better understanding trust and betrayal in close relationships for several years, I have found I am increasingly interested in understanding the experience of betrayal in romantic contexts. I believe this shift is a result of two conclusions I reached in my earlier work. The first is that although trust is necessary for the development and maintenance of relationships, it cannot exist unless there is at least the possibility that one’s partner will betray. Therefore, in a strange way, the concept of betrayal is necessarily a part of every relationship. Second, contrary to common perceptions (e.g., beliefs that “it won’t happen to me”), empirical evidence clearly suggests that betrayal is a relatively common experience in romantic relationships. Consequently, although I continue to collect data on interpersonal trust, I typically do so now with the intent of investigating its links to betrayal. I have been fortunate to receive generous funding from several sources to conduct this research, and as a result I am making progress; however, most of my betrayal data still are relatively new. Some of this work is described below.
Recent Research Activities
Most recently, I have conducted a series of retrospective studies designed to investigate individual differences in post-betrayal reactions, particularly those reactions that may have clinical implications. The main objective of these studies was to discern the extent to which victims of romantic betrayals experience short- and long-term clinical or subclinical levels of depression and anxiety, trauma reactions, and problems with psychological resolution after the event. In addition, my collaborators and I sought to investigate the role of one’s personality characteristics (e.g., dependency, neuroticism, attachment style, inhibition, etc.), love styles, and sex in such reactions, and to evaluate the extent to which betrayal may be experienced as a relational loss. Data from these studies was gathered using self-report methodologies, including questionnaires and structured interviews in which participants described their worst experience as victims of romantic betrayal, endorsed mental and physical health symptoms from the one-month period following the event and at the time of participation, and reported relational changes due to betrayal. The results, which should be of use to laypersons and counseling professionals alike, have suggested problematic mental and physical health outcomes for victims of betrayal with neurotic or inhibited personalities, as well as those with insecure attachments and obsessive love styles. Results also clearly suggest a pattern of sex differences in reactions after betrayal, with women reporting more negative post-betrayal reactions and problems with psychological resolution than men. Finally, our results leave little question that betrayal produces the psychological experience of loss, particularly for relational benefits such as attachment, guidance from one’s partner, and feelings that the partner is a source of reliable alliance.
Along these same lines, I have collected data through two collaborative projects that I hope will demonstrate that the psychological aftermath of betrayal can be measured physiologically as well as through self-report measures. In one study, which was funded by the National Science Foundation’s Kentucky Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (NSF Ky EPSCoR) program, several measures of physiological reactivity (i.e., heart rate, blood pressure, and GSR) were taken as participants described neutral vs. betrayal events in their lives. In the other study, vagal tone (a complex measure of heart reactivity linked to distress) was assessed in reaction to structured interview questions about neutral and betrayal-related topics. In both cases, my collaborators have expertise with such data that I do not, thus I have entrusted them with the process of data transformation – which takes quite a bit of time – and data analyses. In the end, we hope to show that physiological indices of stress over recalling betrayal are reliably associated with individual difference variables, such as personality, love styles, and sex.
Another of my projects investigated social cognitive aspects of trust and betrayal. Fortunately, the project received funding from NSF Ky EPSCoR and from Morehead State University. After utilizing techniques common in cognitive psychology to discern boundaries around and better define the concept of betrayal (i.e., to gain prototypicality information about the betrayal), my hypothesis was that individuals of varying levels of trust would perceive and utilize betrayal information differently. In particular, it was assumed that individuals with high trust would discount betrayal information because it undermines the certainty they feel about the positive nature of the interpersonal world, whereas individuals with low trust were expected to readily process and give more weight to betrayal information because it supports the certainty they feel about the negative nature of the interpersonal world. Individuals with moderate levels of trust were assumed to be relatively uncertain about the nature of the interpersonal world, and thus they were expected to be swayed by the valence of the information with which they were presented, which in the case of betrayal would be negative. The study utilized cognitive techniques to ascertain differences in memory, reaction time, and attitudes as betrayals were considered. Participants completed a computer interaction in which they were exposed to two counterbalanced stories about romantic betrayal, and then they made judgments about the seriousness of the events and the extent to which each represented the concept of betrayal, they rated each of the characters in the stories, and they answered recall questions – all while their reaction times were assessed for each activity. Overall, results of this work revealed that betrayal is a “fuzzy concept,” which means that whereas there are some prototypical examples of the concept which can be observed and may readily come to mind when the concept is invoked, the conceptual boundaries of betrayal are difficult to observe. Limited support, however, was observed for my other hypotheses. Some methodological limitations in the study left doubt about to the utility of the model, therefore a new study is now underway to address them.
Current Research
My student collaborators and I currently are investigating the psychological experiences of perpetrators of romantic betrayal, including their personality characteristics, romantic histories, and feelings of connectedness to others. The project is a survey study, and it is expected to run through spring 2010.
Future Research Plans
My research plans for the future are to continue my investigations of trust and betrayal. I am very interested in conducting longitudinal studies that assess the affects of various individual difference variables on one’s experience of betrayal. Using this method I also would be interested to observe patterns of repair or dissolution in relationships between victims and perpetrators, as well as victims’ experience of relational loss after betrayal. And, in cases of relational dissolution, I would be particularly interested in studying the development of subsequent relationships to determine whether, as most people believe, having been betrayed by a romantic partner affects the development of new relationships. Finally, I also hope to examine the process individuals go through as they cope with betrayal to discern whether negative mental and physical health outcomes might be buffered through successful coping.