It is widely accepted that all people have a basic human need for relatedness. This means that

everyone needs warm interpersonal interactions to feel good about him/herself. In contrast,

people who suffer from chronic loneliness and who find themselves in hostile or rejecting

relationships would be at a higher risk for psychological problems. All people go through

certain life transitions that could challenge this feeling of warm interpersonal connection (e.g.,

parents bringing their baby to day-care for the first time, parents witnessing the home-leaving

process of their adolescent). However, not all people experience this transition as equally

distressing and some people respond to it differently than others. Therefore, the project will

investigate two important questions: (a) What factors determine why some people experience

the same event as more or less frustrating in terms of relatedness? and (b) What are possible

reactions to such events, and what factors determine how people respond? For both research

questions, individuals’relationships with important others in the past (i.e., attachment to

mother and partner) will be examined as a factor that could play a role in the appraisal of and

response to life transitions. To investigate these questions, self-report questionnaires and a

diary will be used to capture thoughts, feelings and behaviors of individuals who are

confronted with the aforementioned life transitions (either in real-life or by watching a videoclip).