Romantic Couples Study with Physiological and Survey Data, 2009

A 2009 study of 106 participants (53 heterosexual couples) from Chapel Hill, North Carolina, conducted by Sara B. Algoe at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Data includes baseline physiological recordings, structured conversation tasks (gratitude vs. daily events), and nightly questionnaires over a 28-day period. Participants were on average 29 years old, cohabiting, and had been in their relationships for over 5 years.

Use Cases

• Predict relationship satisfaction based on physiological activity during conversations.
• Analyze the effects of gratitude expression versus mundane conversation on personal well-being.
• Model dyadic interaction patterns using combined survey and psychophysiological data.
• Study longitudinal changes in couple dynamics from nightly questionnaire responses over 28 days.

Strengths

• Multi-modal data collection includes psychophysiology, saliva samples, and self-reported surveys.
• Longitudinal design with 28 nights of nightly questionnaires and an average of 5 prompted conversations.
• Well-defined participant criteria (e.g., cohabiting, age >=24) and demographic details provided (e.g., 78.4% White/Caucasian, 58% married).
• Structured experimental design with random assignment to conversation topics (gratitude vs. events of the day).

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Sample is geographically limited to the Chapel Hill, NC region and demographically homogeneous (mostly White, non-Hispanic).
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Collection Method

Lab sessions and longitudinal online questionnaires over one month.

Time Range

2009

Geography

Chapel Hill, North Carolina and surrounding region (e.g., Durham, NC), U.S.A.