The more you believe in your partner's capabilities to change and perceive that he or she is trying to improve, the more secure and happy you will feel in your relationship, a new study has revealed.

That is true even if you think your partner could still do more to be a better partner, according to a new Northwestern University study. "Many of us tend to under appreciate our partner's efforts to improve the relationship, simply because we do not have enough faith in those attempts," said Chin Ming Hui, the lead author of the study and a fourth-year graduate student in the department of psychology at Northwestern University's Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences.