Gary Lewandowski
Biographic Data
| ID | 4800920 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Gary Lewandowski |
| GIVEN NAMES | Gary |
| FAMILY NAME | Lewandowski |
| SIGNATURE | LEWANDOWSKI G |
| AFFILIATIONS | Monmouth University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-6432-2346 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 24 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 59 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 24 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2004 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Cross-Cultural Adaptation and Validation of the Self-Expansion Questionnaire in Brazil
This study aimed to enhance the understanding of self-expansion in diverse linguistic and cultural contexts by establishing the validity of a Brazilian Portuguese translation of the Self-Expansion Questionnaire (SEQ, Lewandowski & Aron, 2002). A total of 1,366 participants were engaged across three data collections phases in this investigation, employing an online survey methodology. In the initial phase (203 participants, 73,94% females), we exp…
The effect of self-expansion on creativity: Examining the role of novelty experiences
Psychometric evaluation of a Chinese translation of the relational and individual self-expansion scales
Romantic Relationships and Mental Health: Investigating the Role of Self-Expansion on Depression Symptoms
Close relationships have the potential to fundamentally alter relationship partners' self-concepts and, consequently, can impact individuals' mental health. One type of relationship-induced self-concept change is self-expansion, which describes the cognitive reorganization of the self that can occur when individuals include aspects of their partner into the self, or when they share novel and challenging activities together. In the current researc…
Self-expansion motivation and inclusion of others in self: An updated review
In this paper we review the self-expansion model in the context of close relationships, focusing primarily on work in the last 20 years, considering throughout variation in our samples across cultures and other demographics—both in existing studies and in potential implications for future research. The self-expansion model has two key principles. The first half of the paper focuses on the motivational principle: The model theorizes that people ha…
Do shared self-expanding activities have to be physically arousing
Participation in shared self-expanding activities benefits both relationships and the self. However, most studies use tasks that combine self-expansion and arousal within one activity, making it difficult to know what drives the benefits. We tested the distinct effects of self-expansion and arousal in four studies. In Studies 1 and 2, 35 married couples and 106 friend pairs completed experiments manipulating self-expansion and arousal. Self-expan…
Does Hard Work Pay Off? The Influence of Perceived Effort on Romantic Attraction
This study examines how a personâ€TMs willingness to exert effort affects how others perceive their romantic desirability. The study also examines whether the participantsâ€TM implicit theory of personality (incremental or entity) influences ratings of the targetâ€TMs romantic desirability based on the targetâ€TMs level of effort. Seventy-eight (17 males, 61 females) single college students participated in the study. Participants read one of four…
When "we" changes "me: The two-dimensional model of relational self-change and relationship outcomes
Individuals in close relationships may perceive changes to their self-concepts as a result of being with their partners. According to the two-dimensional model of relational self-change, these changes occur across two dimensions, namely direction, which reflects whether the self-concept has gained or lost content, and valence, which reflects whether the self-concept content is positive or negative. These two dimensions combine to create four dist…
Expanding the Self Brick by Brick: Nonrelational Self-Expansion and Self-Concept Size
We conducted three studies to examine whether novel and interesting experiences can expand individuals’ self-concepts. In Studies 1 and 2, participants completed measures of experienced self-expansion and self-concept size. Results indicated that participants who had more novel and interesting experiences tended to have larger self-concepts. In Study 3, we employed an embodied cognition manipulation of self-expansion and again measured self-conce…
“You make me a better/worse person”: A two‐dimensional model of relationship self‐change
For better or worse, relationships have the potential to affect individuals' self‐concepts; however, currently no integrative model exists to explain the variety of these self‐concept changes. We propose that self‐concept changes occur along two independent dimensions: direction (increase vs. decrease in content) and valence (positivity vs. negativity of content). These two dimensions combine to create four processes of relationship‐induced self‐…
The Self-Expansion Model of Motivation and Cognition in Close Relationships
This chapter surveys the self-expansion model as it relates to romantic, familial, and other close relationships. First, we discuss how the model can be expressed as two related but unique fundamental principles relevant to relationships: (1) there is a basic motivation to expand one's potential efficacy, and (2) one way people seek such expansion is through close relationships in which the other's resources, perspectives, and identities are to s…
Just a harmless website: An experimental examination of RateMyProfessors.com’s effect on student evaluations
This set of experiments assessed the influence of RateMyProfessors.com profiles, and the perceived credibility of those profiles, on students’ evaluations of professors and retention of material. In Study 1, 302 undergraduates were randomly assigned to read positive or negative RateMyProfessors.com profiles with comments that focused on superficial or legitimate professor features. Participants then watched a lecture clip, provided professor rati…
Approach motivation and the expansion of self in close relationships
The self‐expansion model posits that individuals are fundamentally motivated to expand their sense of self. It is proposed that approach—but not avoidance—motivation underlies self‐expansion and that approach‐motivated individuals should be especially interested in self‐expanding with a person who provides many novel resources, identities, and perspectives. In Studies 1, 2a, and 2b, correlational evidence that self‐expansion is associated with bo…
An Expanded Self is a More Capable Self: The Association between Self-concept Size and Self-efficacy
The self-expansion model states that an expanded self-concept is associated with an increased sense of self-efficacy. We conducted four studies (three correlational, one experimental) to test this central tenet of the self-expansion model in a non-relational context. Results indicate that self-concept size (Studies 1 and 2) and subjective sense of self-concept (Study 3) were positively associated with greater self-efficacy. In Study 4, individual…
Pick me up: Ego depletion and receptivity to relationship initiation
The success of a relationship initiation strategy, such as a pick-up line or opening gambit, may depend on the target's state receptivity. Self-control is a limited resource that, when depleted, can potentially influence interpersonal interactions. The present research examines whether ego depletion can influence receptivity to various types of opening gambits. To accomplish this, 99 currently single participants either wrote a story with several…
Self-concept Clarity's Role in Self–Other Agreement and the Accuracy of Behavioral Prediction
The current set of studies investigated whether undergraduates with greater self-concept clarity also demonstrated greater accuracy based on self–other agreement and behavioral prediction. Study 1 demonstrated a positive association between self-concept clarity and target–informant agreement for a set of observable traits. Study 2 explored the association of self-concept clarity with target–informant agreement for the Big Five personality traits,…
Reduced self-expansion in current romance and interest in relationship alternatives
Two studies examined the process by which romantic relationship partners who report lower self-expansion in their relationship come to show greater interest in their alternatives. We tested predictions based on the alternatives literature in which lacking relationship-derived self-expansion would lead to failures of motivational bias (i.e., devaluing attractive alternatives) and perceptual bias (i.e., failing to notice attractive alternatives) to…
A Comparison of the Multicultural and Colorblind Perspectives on the Intergroup Attitudes of College Students
This investigation examined whether exposure to a multicultural or colorblind orientation influenced social tolerance in racially diverse students. Students were randomly assigned to a colorblind, multicultural, or control ideology. They completed group-specific measures and general measures of diversity. Results indicate that successful anti-bias interventions require focus on the particular level from which intergroup attitudes are being formed…
The Role of Self-concept Clarity in Relationship Quality
Previous research has linked self-concept clarity to positive outcomes (Campbell et al., 1996 Campbell, J. D., Trapnell, P. D., Heine, S. J., Katz, I. M., Lavallee, L. F. and Lehmann, D. R. 1996. Self-concept clarity: Measurement, personality correlates and cultural boundaries. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 70: 141–156. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]), but has not systematically explored its potential positive a…
Missing a romantic partner: A prototype analysis
In this study, a prototype analysis of romantic missing was conducted. College‐age participants in the United States generated features of missing a partner (Study 1) and rated their centrality (Study 2). In a reaction time task, participants made category judgments for central features more quickly than for noncentral features (Study 3). In recognition and recall tasks, central features were more salient in participants’ memory, and participants…
Personality goes a long way: The malleability of opposite‐sex physical attractiveness
This study tested the influence of personality information on judgments of physical attractiveness. Employing a within‐subject design, 56 female and 22 male college students rated attractiveness of opposite‐sex photos; participated in a distraction task; viewed each photo again, along with personality information (desirable, undesirable, none); and then rated the photos for physical attractiveness, desirability as a friend, and desirability as a …
Losing a self‐expanding relationship: Implications for the self‐concept
Previous research suggests that new relationships expand the self‐concept. The present research applies concepts from the self‐expansion model to examine the conditions under which relationship dissolution may influence the self‐concept. We hypothesized that the more expansion provided by a relationship predissolution, the greater the contraction of the working self‐concept postdissolution, and that this pattern would remain when controlling for …
Including others in the self
We propose that to some extent, people treat the resources, perspectives, and identities of close others as their own. This proposal is supported by allocation, attribution, response time, and memory experiments. Recently, we have applied this idea to deepening understanding of feeling “too close” (including too much of the other in the self leading to feeling controlled or a loss of identity), the effects of relationship loss (it is distressing …
Distinguishing Arousal From Novelty and Challenge in Initial Romantic Attraction Between Strangers
This study attempts to disentangle the influence of arousal from novelty and challenge in the context of interpersonal attraction. Further, this study attempts to demonstrate the robustness of the arousal/attraction effect. Cross-sex stranger pairs participated in one of four game-like physical activities in a 2 (high vs. low novelty/challenge) X 2 (high vs. low arousal) between-pairs design, then completed a measure of romantic attraction. As pr…
When "we" changes "me: The two-dimensional model of relational self-change and relationship outcomes
Individuals in close relationships may perceive changes to their self-concepts as a result of being with their partners. According to the two-dimensional model of relational self-change, these changes occur across two dimensions, namely direction, which reflects whether the self-concept has gained or lost content, and valence, which reflects whether the self-concept content is positive or negative. These two dimensions combine to create four dist…
Self-expansion motivation and inclusion of others in self: An updated review
In this paper we review the self-expansion model in the context of close relationships, focusing primarily on work in the last 20 years, considering throughout variation in our samples across cultures and other demographics—both in existing studies and in potential implications for future research. The self-expansion model has two key principles. The first half of the paper focuses on the motivational principle: The model theorizes that people ha…
Reduced self-expansion in current romance and interest in relationship alternatives
Two studies examined the process by which romantic relationship partners who report lower self-expansion in their relationship come to show greater interest in their alternatives. We tested predictions based on the alternatives literature in which lacking relationship-derived self-expansion would lead to failures of motivational bias (i.e., devaluing attractive alternatives) and perceptual bias (i.e., failing to notice attractive alternatives) to…
Do shared self-expanding activities have to be physically arousing
Participation in shared self-expanding activities benefits both relationships and the self. However, most studies use tasks that combine self-expansion and arousal within one activity, making it difficult to know what drives the benefits. We tested the distinct effects of self-expansion and arousal in four studies. In Studies 1 and 2, 35 married couples and 106 friend pairs completed experiments manipulating self-expansion and arousal. Self-expan…
Romantic Relationships and Mental Health: Investigating the Role of Self-Expansion on Depression Symptoms
Close relationships have the potential to fundamentally alter relationship partners' self-concepts and, consequently, can impact individuals' mental health. One type of relationship-induced self-concept change is self-expansion, which describes the cognitive reorganization of the self that can occur when individuals include aspects of their partner into the self, or when they share novel and challenging activities together. In the current researc…
Pick me up: Ego depletion and receptivity to relationship initiation
The success of a relationship initiation strategy, such as a pick-up line or opening gambit, may depend on the target's state receptivity. Self-control is a limited resource that, when depleted, can potentially influence interpersonal interactions. The present research examines whether ego depletion can influence receptivity to various types of opening gambits. To accomplish this, 99 currently single participants either wrote a story with several…
A Comparison of the Multicultural and Colorblind Perspectives on the Intergroup Attitudes of College Students
This investigation examined whether exposure to a multicultural or colorblind orientation influenced social tolerance in racially diverse students. Students were randomly assigned to a colorblind, multicultural, or control ideology. They completed group-specific measures and general measures of diversity. Results indicate that successful anti-bias interventions require focus on the particular level from which intergroup attitudes are being formed…
Including others in the self
We propose that to some extent, people treat the resources, perspectives, and identities of close others as their own. This proposal is supported by allocation, attribution, response time, and memory experiments. Recently, we have applied this idea to deepening understanding of feeling “too close” (including too much of the other in the self leading to feeling controlled or a loss of identity), the effects of relationship loss (it is distressing …
Distinguishing Arousal From Novelty and Challenge in Initial Romantic Attraction Between Strangers
This study attempts to disentangle the influence of arousal from novelty and challenge in the context of interpersonal attraction. Further, this study attempts to demonstrate the robustness of the arousal/attraction effect. Cross-sex stranger pairs participated in one of four game-like physical activities in a 2 (high vs. low novelty/challenge) X 2 (high vs. low arousal) between-pairs design, then completed a measure of romantic attraction. As pr…
Losing a self‐expanding relationship: Implications for the self‐concept
Previous research suggests that new relationships expand the self‐concept. The present research applies concepts from the self‐expansion model to examine the conditions under which relationship dissolution may influence the self‐concept. We hypothesized that the more expansion provided by a relationship predissolution, the greater the contraction of the working self‐concept postdissolution, and that this pattern would remain when controlling for …
Personality goes a long way: The malleability of opposite‐sex physical attractiveness
This study tested the influence of personality information on judgments of physical attractiveness. Employing a within‐subject design, 56 female and 22 male college students rated attractiveness of opposite‐sex photos; participated in a distraction task; viewed each photo again, along with personality information (desirable, undesirable, none); and then rated the photos for physical attractiveness, desirability as a friend, and desirability as a …
Missing a romantic partner: A prototype analysis
In this study, a prototype analysis of romantic missing was conducted. College‐age participants in the United States generated features of missing a partner (Study 1) and rated their centrality (Study 2). In a reaction time task, participants made category judgments for central features more quickly than for noncentral features (Study 3). In recognition and recall tasks, central features were more salient in participants’ memory, and participants…
The Role of Self-concept Clarity in Relationship Quality
Previous research has linked self-concept clarity to positive outcomes (Campbell et al., 1996 Campbell, J. D., Trapnell, P. D., Heine, S. J., Katz, I. M., Lavallee, L. F. and Lehmann, D. R. 1996. Self-concept clarity: Measurement, personality correlates and cultural boundaries. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 70: 141–156. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]), but has not systematically explored its potential positive a…
A Comparison of the Multicultural and Colorblind Perspectives on the Intergroup Attitudes of College Students
This investigation examined whether exposure to a multicultural or colorblind orientation influenced social tolerance in racially diverse students. Students were randomly assigned to a colorblind, multicultural, or control ideology. They completed group-specific measures and general measures of diversity. Results indicate that successful anti-bias interventions require focus on the particular level from which intergroup attitudes are being formed…
Self-concept Clarity's Role in Self–Other Agreement and the Accuracy of Behavioral Prediction
The current set of studies investigated whether undergraduates with greater self-concept clarity also demonstrated greater accuracy based on self–other agreement and behavioral prediction. Study 1 demonstrated a positive association between self-concept clarity and target–informant agreement for a set of observable traits. Study 2 explored the association of self-concept clarity with target–informant agreement for the Big Five personality traits,…
Reduced self-expansion in current romance and interest in relationship alternatives
Two studies examined the process by which romantic relationship partners who report lower self-expansion in their relationship come to show greater interest in their alternatives. We tested predictions based on the alternatives literature in which lacking relationship-derived self-expansion would lead to failures of motivational bias (i.e., devaluing attractive alternatives) and perceptual bias (i.e., failing to notice attractive alternatives) to…
Just a harmless website: An experimental examination of RateMyProfessors.com’s effect on student evaluations
This set of experiments assessed the influence of RateMyProfessors.com profiles, and the perceived credibility of those profiles, on students’ evaluations of professors and retention of material. In Study 1, 302 undergraduates were randomly assigned to read positive or negative RateMyProfessors.com profiles with comments that focused on superficial or legitimate professor features. Participants then watched a lecture clip, provided professor rati…
Approach motivation and the expansion of self in close relationships
The self‐expansion model posits that individuals are fundamentally motivated to expand their sense of self. It is proposed that approach—but not avoidance—motivation underlies self‐expansion and that approach‐motivated individuals should be especially interested in self‐expanding with a person who provides many novel resources, identities, and perspectives. In Studies 1, 2a, and 2b, correlational evidence that self‐expansion is associated with bo…
An Expanded Self is a More Capable Self: The Association between Self-concept Size and Self-efficacy
The self-expansion model states that an expanded self-concept is associated with an increased sense of self-efficacy. We conducted four studies (three correlational, one experimental) to test this central tenet of the self-expansion model in a non-relational context. Results indicate that self-concept size (Studies 1 and 2) and subjective sense of self-concept (Study 3) were positively associated with greater self-efficacy. In Study 4, individual…
Pick me up: Ego depletion and receptivity to relationship initiation
The success of a relationship initiation strategy, such as a pick-up line or opening gambit, may depend on the target's state receptivity. Self-control is a limited resource that, when depleted, can potentially influence interpersonal interactions. The present research examines whether ego depletion can influence receptivity to various types of opening gambits. To accomplish this, 99 currently single participants either wrote a story with several…
The Self-Expansion Model of Motivation and Cognition in Close Relationships
This chapter surveys the self-expansion model as it relates to romantic, familial, and other close relationships. First, we discuss how the model can be expressed as two related but unique fundamental principles relevant to relationships: (1) there is a basic motivation to expand one's potential efficacy, and (2) one way people seek such expansion is through close relationships in which the other's resources, perspectives, and identities are to s…
Expanding the Self Brick by Brick: Nonrelational Self-Expansion and Self-Concept Size
We conducted three studies to examine whether novel and interesting experiences can expand individuals’ self-concepts. In Studies 1 and 2, participants completed measures of experienced self-expansion and self-concept size. Results indicated that participants who had more novel and interesting experiences tended to have larger self-concepts. In Study 3, we employed an embodied cognition manipulation of self-expansion and again measured self-conce…
“You make me a better/worse person”: A two‐dimensional model of relationship self‐change
For better or worse, relationships have the potential to affect individuals' self‐concepts; however, currently no integrative model exists to explain the variety of these self‐concept changes. We propose that self‐concept changes occur along two independent dimensions: direction (increase vs. decrease in content) and valence (positivity vs. negativity of content). These two dimensions combine to create four processes of relationship‐induced self‐…
Does Hard Work Pay Off? The Influence of Perceived Effort on Romantic Attraction
This study examines how a personâ€TMs willingness to exert effort affects how others perceive their romantic desirability. The study also examines whether the participantsâ€TM implicit theory of personality (incremental or entity) influences ratings of the targetâ€TMs romantic desirability based on the targetâ€TMs level of effort. Seventy-eight (17 males, 61 females) single college students participated in the study. Participants read one of four…
When "we" changes "me: The two-dimensional model of relational self-change and relationship outcomes
Individuals in close relationships may perceive changes to their self-concepts as a result of being with their partners. According to the two-dimensional model of relational self-change, these changes occur across two dimensions, namely direction, which reflects whether the self-concept has gained or lost content, and valence, which reflects whether the self-concept content is positive or negative. These two dimensions combine to create four dist…
Do shared self-expanding activities have to be physically arousing
Participation in shared self-expanding activities benefits both relationships and the self. However, most studies use tasks that combine self-expansion and arousal within one activity, making it difficult to know what drives the benefits. We tested the distinct effects of self-expansion and arousal in four studies. In Studies 1 and 2, 35 married couples and 106 friend pairs completed experiments manipulating self-expansion and arousal. Self-expan…
Self-expansion motivation and inclusion of others in self: An updated review
In this paper we review the self-expansion model in the context of close relationships, focusing primarily on work in the last 20 years, considering throughout variation in our samples across cultures and other demographics—both in existing studies and in potential implications for future research. The self-expansion model has two key principles. The first half of the paper focuses on the motivational principle: The model theorizes that people ha…
Psychometric evaluation of a Chinese translation of the relational and individual self-expansion scales
Romantic Relationships and Mental Health: Investigating the Role of Self-Expansion on Depression Symptoms
Close relationships have the potential to fundamentally alter relationship partners' self-concepts and, consequently, can impact individuals' mental health. One type of relationship-induced self-concept change is self-expansion, which describes the cognitive reorganization of the self that can occur when individuals include aspects of their partner into the self, or when they share novel and challenging activities together. In the current researc…
The effect of self-expansion on creativity: Examining the role of novelty experiences
Cross-Cultural Adaptation and Validation of the Self-Expansion Questionnaire in Brazil
This study aimed to enhance the understanding of self-expansion in diverse linguistic and cultural contexts by establishing the validity of a Brazilian Portuguese translation of the Self-Expansion Questionnaire (SEQ, Lewandowski & Aron, 2002). A total of 1,366 participants were engaged across three data collections phases in this investigation, employing an online survey methodology. In the initial phase (203 participants, 73,94% females), we exp…
Psychology (23 works) · Social Psychology (20 works) · Attachment and Relationship Dynamics (14 works) · Behavioral Health and Interventions (12 works) · Cognitive psychology (11 works) · Social Psychology (11 works) · Developmental psychology (8 works) · Social and Intergroup Psychology (7 works) · Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior (6 works) · Computer Science (5 works)