{"id":3974,"date":"2018-08-16T11:49:48","date_gmt":"2018-08-16T15:49:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/?p=3974"},"modified":"2018-08-16T11:49:48","modified_gmt":"2018-08-16T15:49:48","slug":"love-the-one-youre-with","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/love-the-one-youre-with\/","title":{"rendered":"Love the One You’re With?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Gary Lewandowski Jr. knows relationships\u2014or to put it more accurately, he knows the science behind romantic relationships, and the factors that contribute to their success or failure. The professor and chair of the psychology department has written more than 50 academic articles and book chapters, and has given more than 100 conference presentations on those subjects. Now he\u2019s co-developed StayGo, the first app that puts that research to work to help users scientifically evaluate their romantic relationships.<\/p>\n

After downloading the free app, users answer a series of questions that are \u201ctethered to a scientific construct and host of research,\u201d says Lewandowski. Some might seem obvious (\u201cHow much passion is in your relationship?\u201d for example), while others look for information scientists know to be important for a successful relationship but people might not think about (\u201cHow do you react when your partner presents you with good news?\u201d). The app\u2019s proprietary algorithms tailor the results to the user. \u201cIf you\u2019re a 23-year-old female who is heavy into online dating, our scoring system works very differently for you than for a 45-year-old male trying to evaluate his 20-year marriage,\u201d says Lewandowski.<\/p>\n

Scores are normed on 100, but most users will find they initially score in the 70s. That\u2019s because most people\u2019s relationships are average, says Lewandowski\u2014a fact that can be disconcerting for some. \u201cWe don\u2019t think about our relationship as being average, but that\u2019s great, because it\u2019s good to have positive illusions about our relationships,\u201d he says. For those looking to make the illusion reality, the app provides science-based feedback on how to improve in low-scoring areas.<\/p>\n

StayGo also features a daily tracker that allows users to see how their relationship is trending over time. \u201cWe call it the Fit Bit for relationships,\u201d says Lewandowski. There\u2019s also a feature that allows friends and family to anonymously share their perspective on your relationships.<\/p>\n

Lewandowski created the app with colleagues from ScienceOfRelationships.com, a website he and other researchers cofounded \u201cto get science into the hands of people who can use it,\u201d he says. \u201cWe know that as much as we publish our work in journals, most people don\u2019t read them. So as much as science discovers info that\u2019s good for people, if we put it in a place that it never gets used, people can\u2019t benefit from it,\u201d says Lewandowski. The website bridges that gap, making the research accessible and engaging; the app takes it one step further.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody deserves a great relationship, but people don\u2019t spend enough time thinking about them,\u201d says Lewandowski. \u201cIf all this app does is get people to do that, that\u2019s a pretty big accomplishment.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Professor\u2019s new app helps you evaluate the health of your romantic relationships<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"image_focus":"","hide_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"thumbnail":"","catString":"Uncategorized","issue":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3974","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3974"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3974\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3977,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3974\/revisions\/3977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}