Lydia F Emery
Biographic Data
| ID | 651756 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Lydia F Emery |
| GIVEN NAMES | Lydia F |
| FAMILY NAME | Emery |
| SIGNATURE | EMERY L F |
| AFFILIATIONS | Northwestern University |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-5616-8222 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 14 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 23 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 14 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2014 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
How Incarceration Policy Affects Relationships
The United States incarcerates over a million people every year, and 45% of Americans have had an incarcerated loved one. This paper leverages research from the field of relationship science to analyze how policies surrounding incarceration affect people's relationships. We consider implications of policy during the pre-incarceration, incarceration, and reentry periods for the psychology of relationships among couples and families impacted by the…
Self‐Expansion Theory: Origins, Current Evidence, and Future Horizons
Self‐expansion theory is one of the first psychological theories of love, and arguably the first to focus on how romantic relationships influence a person's sense of self. Over the past 40 years, a robust literature has supported the notion that people are motivated to expand their self‐concepts, and romantic relationships are a central avenue for self‐expansion. In this paper, we revisit the origins of self‐expansion theory to determine how well…
Making Sense of ‘Us: Mechanisms Linking Attachment Avoidance and Couple Identity Clarity
Just as people strive to understand their own individual identities—to form a clear and coherent sense of who they are—they also seek to gain a clear understanding of who and what they are as a couple. However, some people may struggle in this goal; specifically, people high in attachment avoidance, who face barriers unique to the specific nature of their insecurity. We investigated whether attachment avoidance is negatively correlated with coupl…
Taking a social‐class‐in‐context perspective on the psychology of social class
Social class researchers in social psychology have pushed the field to become more focused on and attentive to the critical role of sociocultural contexts. In this article, we label and articulate the key ingredients of the approach that many social psychological researchers have come to use: what we refer to as a social‐class‐in‐context perspective . This perspective means attending to the contextual differences in resources that create social c…
The delusion of the disappearing self? Attachment avoidance and the experience of externally invisible self-loss in romantic relationships
All of us experience self-change in relationships, but our subjective experiences of change may not always align with external metrics of such change. We hypothesized that people with higher attachment avoidance are more likely to experience self-change as a loss, which in turn predicts lower relationship commitment. We further hypothesized, however, that there would be a disparity in perceptions, such that avoidant people will experience self-lo…
Confusion or Clarity? Examining a Possible Tradeoff Between Self-Expansion and Self-Concept Clarity
Most people are motivated to self-expand, collecting new attributes and experiences in a process that boosts well-being, but people with low self-concept clarity resist it. Perhaps, then, there is a tradeoff between self-expansion and self-concept clarity. Across a 2-week daily dairy, we found no evidence for such a tradeoff—self-expanding was not associated with lower self-concept clarity, either that day, the next day, or the period as a whole.…
Mostly White, heterosexual couples: Examining demographic diversity and reporting practices in relationship science research samples
a major subfield of social-personality psychology, illustrating both the unique diversity-relevant challenges faced by particular subfields and the barriers to inclusive and diverse research that are shared across research areas. Specifically, we examine the sample diversity and reporting practices of 1,762 studies published in eight mainstream psychology and relationships journals at two time points-(a) 1996-2000 and (b) 2016-2020-and center our…
Expanding me, loving us: Self-expansion preferences, experiences, and romantic relationship commitment
Self-expansion is a process through which people increase the size of their self-concept by incorporating novel content into their sense of identity. Greater self-expansion predicts positive outcomes for individuals and romantic relationships. However, there are individual differences in the motivation to self-expand. In the present research, we predicted that the experience of relational self-expansion would be associated with relationship commi…
Connect or protect? Social class and self-protection in romantic relationships
Lower SES (socioeconomic status) couples tend to face particular challenges in their relationships. Relative to higher SES couples, they are less likely to marry and more likely to divorce-but they do not value their romantic relationships any less. Drawing on risk regulation theory and theories of social class as culture, we suggest that lower SES individuals adapt to their more chronically precarious environments by prioritizing self-protection…
Who are “We”? Couple Identity Clarity and Romantic Relationship Commitment
This research introduces the construct of couple identity clarity—the extent to which an individual, as one of two partners in a romantic relationship, believes that the two of them know who they are as a couple. Cross-sectional (Studies 1–2), experimental (Study 3), and longitudinal (Study 4) studies supported the hypothesis that couple identity clarity is associated with higher commitment. Moreover, higher couple identity clarity, although rela…
Knowing Who You Are and Adding to It: Reduced Self-Concept Clarity Predicts Reduced Self-Expansion
People are generally motivated to increase the diversity of their self-concepts, within their relationships and outside of them. Self-expansion enhances both individual and relationship well-being; however, almost no research has investigated what circumstances attenuate people’s desire for self-expansion. The present research addressed this question by testing the central hypothesis that experiencing lower self-concept clarity would predict less…
Do we look happy? Perceptions of romantic relationship quality on Facebook
Does the information that people share about their romantic relationships on Facebook influence how other people perceive their relationship quality? Across 2 studies, people's accuracy at inferring others' relationship quality based on their Facebook profiles and how Facebook profiles influenced others' judgments of people's relationship quality and likability were investigated. Perceived relationship quality corresponded to self‐reported relati…
Imagining the White Picket Fence: Social Class, Future Plans, and Romantic Relationship Quality
Previous research has established that individuals from a lower social class report lower relationship quality. However, to date, no studies have examined interdependence processes within the relationship as a mechanism underlying this association. The present research investigates the role of planned tangible investments as a mediator between social class and relationship quality. Across two studies, we test this hypothesis correlationally (Stud…
Committed to the honor code: An investment model analysis of academic integrity
Mostly White, heterosexual couples: Examining demographic diversity and reporting practices in relationship science research samples
a major subfield of social-personality psychology, illustrating both the unique diversity-relevant challenges faced by particular subfields and the barriers to inclusive and diverse research that are shared across research areas. Specifically, we examine the sample diversity and reporting practices of 1,762 studies published in eight mainstream psychology and relationships journals at two time points-(a) 1996-2000 and (b) 2016-2020-and center our…
Taking a social‐class‐in‐context perspective on the psychology of social class
Social class researchers in social psychology have pushed the field to become more focused on and attentive to the critical role of sociocultural contexts. In this article, we label and articulate the key ingredients of the approach that many social psychological researchers have come to use: what we refer to as a social‐class‐in‐context perspective . This perspective means attending to the contextual differences in resources that create social c…
Connect or protect? Social class and self-protection in romantic relationships
Lower SES (socioeconomic status) couples tend to face particular challenges in their relationships. Relative to higher SES couples, they are less likely to marry and more likely to divorce-but they do not value their romantic relationships any less. Drawing on risk regulation theory and theories of social class as culture, we suggest that lower SES individuals adapt to their more chronically precarious environments by prioritizing self-protection…
Committed to the honor code: An investment model analysis of academic integrity
The delusion of the disappearing self? Attachment avoidance and the experience of externally invisible self-loss in romantic relationships
All of us experience self-change in relationships, but our subjective experiences of change may not always align with external metrics of such change. We hypothesized that people with higher attachment avoidance are more likely to experience self-change as a loss, which in turn predicts lower relationship commitment. We further hypothesized, however, that there would be a disparity in perceptions, such that avoidant people will experience self-lo…
Imagining the White Picket Fence: Social Class, Future Plans, and Romantic Relationship Quality
Previous research has established that individuals from a lower social class report lower relationship quality. However, to date, no studies have examined interdependence processes within the relationship as a mechanism underlying this association. The present research investigates the role of planned tangible investments as a mediator between social class and relationship quality. Across two studies, we test this hypothesis correlationally (Stud…
Committed to the honor code: An investment model analysis of academic integrity
Knowing Who You Are and Adding to It: Reduced Self-Concept Clarity Predicts Reduced Self-Expansion
People are generally motivated to increase the diversity of their self-concepts, within their relationships and outside of them. Self-expansion enhances both individual and relationship well-being; however, almost no research has investigated what circumstances attenuate people’s desire for self-expansion. The present research addressed this question by testing the central hypothesis that experiencing lower self-concept clarity would predict less…
Do we look happy? Perceptions of romantic relationship quality on Facebook
Does the information that people share about their romantic relationships on Facebook influence how other people perceive their relationship quality? Across 2 studies, people's accuracy at inferring others' relationship quality based on their Facebook profiles and how Facebook profiles influenced others' judgments of people's relationship quality and likability were investigated. Perceived relationship quality corresponded to self‐reported relati…
Who are “We”? Couple Identity Clarity and Romantic Relationship Commitment
This research introduces the construct of couple identity clarity—the extent to which an individual, as one of two partners in a romantic relationship, believes that the two of them know who they are as a couple. Cross-sectional (Studies 1–2), experimental (Study 3), and longitudinal (Study 4) studies supported the hypothesis that couple identity clarity is associated with higher commitment. Moreover, higher couple identity clarity, although rela…
Expanding me, loving us: Self-expansion preferences, experiences, and romantic relationship commitment
Self-expansion is a process through which people increase the size of their self-concept by incorporating novel content into their sense of identity. Greater self-expansion predicts positive outcomes for individuals and romantic relationships. However, there are individual differences in the motivation to self-expand. In the present research, we predicted that the experience of relational self-expansion would be associated with relationship commi…
Connect or protect? Social class and self-protection in romantic relationships
Lower SES (socioeconomic status) couples tend to face particular challenges in their relationships. Relative to higher SES couples, they are less likely to marry and more likely to divorce-but they do not value their romantic relationships any less. Drawing on risk regulation theory and theories of social class as culture, we suggest that lower SES individuals adapt to their more chronically precarious environments by prioritizing self-protection…
Confusion or Clarity? Examining a Possible Tradeoff Between Self-Expansion and Self-Concept Clarity
Most people are motivated to self-expand, collecting new attributes and experiences in a process that boosts well-being, but people with low self-concept clarity resist it. Perhaps, then, there is a tradeoff between self-expansion and self-concept clarity. Across a 2-week daily dairy, we found no evidence for such a tradeoff—self-expanding was not associated with lower self-concept clarity, either that day, the next day, or the period as a whole.…
Mostly White, heterosexual couples: Examining demographic diversity and reporting practices in relationship science research samples
a major subfield of social-personality psychology, illustrating both the unique diversity-relevant challenges faced by particular subfields and the barriers to inclusive and diverse research that are shared across research areas. Specifically, we examine the sample diversity and reporting practices of 1,762 studies published in eight mainstream psychology and relationships journals at two time points-(a) 1996-2000 and (b) 2016-2020-and center our…
Taking a social‐class‐in‐context perspective on the psychology of social class
Social class researchers in social psychology have pushed the field to become more focused on and attentive to the critical role of sociocultural contexts. In this article, we label and articulate the key ingredients of the approach that many social psychological researchers have come to use: what we refer to as a social‐class‐in‐context perspective . This perspective means attending to the contextual differences in resources that create social c…
The delusion of the disappearing self? Attachment avoidance and the experience of externally invisible self-loss in romantic relationships
All of us experience self-change in relationships, but our subjective experiences of change may not always align with external metrics of such change. We hypothesized that people with higher attachment avoidance are more likely to experience self-change as a loss, which in turn predicts lower relationship commitment. We further hypothesized, however, that there would be a disparity in perceptions, such that avoidant people will experience self-lo…
Self‐Expansion Theory: Origins, Current Evidence, and Future Horizons
Self‐expansion theory is one of the first psychological theories of love, and arguably the first to focus on how romantic relationships influence a person's sense of self. Over the past 40 years, a robust literature has supported the notion that people are motivated to expand their self‐concepts, and romantic relationships are a central avenue for self‐expansion. In this paper, we revisit the origins of self‐expansion theory to determine how well…
Making Sense of ‘Us: Mechanisms Linking Attachment Avoidance and Couple Identity Clarity
Just as people strive to understand their own individual identities—to form a clear and coherent sense of who they are—they also seek to gain a clear understanding of who and what they are as a couple. However, some people may struggle in this goal; specifically, people high in attachment avoidance, who face barriers unique to the specific nature of their insecurity. We investigated whether attachment avoidance is negatively correlated with coupl…
How Incarceration Policy Affects Relationships
The United States incarcerates over a million people every year, and 45% of Americans have had an incarcerated loved one. This paper leverages research from the field of relationship science to analyze how policies surrounding incarceration affect people's relationships. We consider implications of policy during the pre-incarceration, incarceration, and reentry periods for the psychology of relationships among couples and families impacted by the…
Psychology (12 works) · Social Psychology (12 works) · Attachment and Relationship Dynamics (11 works) · Romance (6 works) · Developmental psychology (5 works) · Behavioral Health and Interventions (4 works) · CLARITY (4 works) · Sociology (4 works) · Computer Science (3 works) · Death Anxiety and Social Exclusion (3 works)