ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates the extent to which individual differences in cognitive empathy and affective empathy are predictive of social support provision in couples. Social support researchers and clinicians have repeatedly expressed the need to identify the antecedents of social support provision within close relationships. The investigation found that the association between dispositional empathy and relationship behavior depended in part on the length of the romantic relationship. Empathy was associated with more kinds of behavior, and the associations were stronger for the longer relationships in their dating sample, dispositional perspective taking in particular demonstrated the pattern. To measure relationship quality, we used the depth subscale of the Quality of Relationships Inventory (QRI). Social support researchers and clinicians have repeatedly expressed the need to identify the antecedents of social support provision within close relationships. The chapter focuses on the dispositional empathy of the support provider and on the ways in which it influences the actual level of support provision in romantic relationships.
