››Why did we conduct this study?‹‹

Research has tended to focus on how people respond to and cope with negative events and stressors. Although effective coping strategies are essential to our health and well-being, recent work by Gable and colleagues (2004) suggests that disclosing positive experiences to others – referred to as capitalizing – is associated with greater life satisfaction and personal well-being. Furthermore, individuals who see their partners as responding with interest and enthusiasm report greater levels of relationship commitment, trust, satisfaction, and intimacy. The goals of the present study were to replicate these findings and to explore whether or not attachment security would predict perceptions of partners responses. We also sought to examine whether individual experiences during discussions of positive and negative events would have independent contributions to relationship satisfaction.