Is Well-being Illusory? Examining the Benefits of Positive Illusions for Relationship Quality and Well-being

Previous research has shown that positive illusions about a romantic partner are related to higher levels of relationship quality (Murray, Holmes Griffin, 1996). Using model comparison, and a sample of 458 families (one student with two biological parents, N=1374), the direction of this effect was examined. Model fit favored partner-illusions predicting relationship satisfaction. With this model, several additional hypotheses about personality, self-enhancement, partner-enhancement, well-being and relationship quality were tested. Results revealed that personality had an effect on relationship quality, but this effect was fully mediated by partner-perceptions. This result suggesting that positive perceptions lead to better relationships, regardless of the perception being based on reality or illusions. Personality also significantly predicted well-being, with the effect being partially mediated by relationship quality. The model also allowed us to examine self-enhancement in personality ratings, which were found to be unrelated to the shared variance in well-being ratings.M.A