E J Finkel
Biographic Data
| ID | 9816 |
|---|---|
| NAME | E J Finkel |
| GIVEN NAMES | E J |
| FAMILY NAME | Finkel |
| SIGNATURE | FINKEL E J |
| AFFILIATIONS | Northwestern University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-0213-5318 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 87 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 1027 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 87 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2001 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 17 |
Choosing Our Reality: Relational Mobility Shapes When and With Whom People Share Reality
Our perceptions of reality are partly a byproduct of our goals. Past research has found that people are motivated to selectively share reality—shared inner states about the world—with those who help them achieve their goals (i.e., instrumental others). We argue that this desire to share reality with instrumental others depends on relational mobility: how free others are to leave relationships. Across 39 countries ( N ≈ 17,000), relational mobilit…
In-Person and Virtual Dates are Comparable, But People Don’t Know It
Virtual dating has become popular, but how do people feel about potential romantic partners on virtual versus in-person first dates? In Study 1, a sample of online participants predicted that in-person dates would be markedly better than virtual dates. Study 2 examined whether this prediction received support in a dataset of 4,542 real-life blind dates. We examined first-date outcomes (e.g., date enjoyment and attraction) and partner trait-percep…
A worldwide test of the predictive validity of ideal partner preference matching
10,358) across 43 countries and 22 languages to estimate preference-matching effect sizes. The most rigorous tests revealed significant preference-matching effects in the whole sample and for partnered and single participants separately. The "corrected pattern metric" that collapses across 35 traits revealed a zero-order effect of β = .19 and an effect of β = .11 when included alongside a normative preference-matching metric. Specific traits in t…
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…
How to give great research talks to any audience
Bi+ identity visibility and well-being in the context of romantic relationships
Bi+ people-those who are attracted to multiple gender groups and who use labels such as bisexual, pansexual, queer, or fluid-encounter challenges related to making their identities visible and experience reduced well-being relative to their gay/lesbian and heterosexual peers. In a sample of 450 bi+ participants, we pursue two primary goals. First, we investigate whether the subjective feeling that one's bi+ identity is invisible is associated wit…
Love's a dance you learn as you go: Evidence for interpersonal complementarity during romantic conflict and its association with relationship outcomes
High‐quality romantic bonds benefit people. Extant literature has explored many individual and relational factors that contribute to high‐quality relationships, yet research on how moment‐to‐moment behaviours predict quality is still in the nascent stages. The current study explored interpersonal complementarity on warmth and dominance as one index of moment‐to‐moment interaction dynamics in romantic relationships. The sample included 180 couples…
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…
Common Cents: Bank Account Structure and Couples' Relationship Dynamics
When a romantic relationship becomes serious, partners often confront a foundational decision about how to organize their personal finances: pool money together or keep things separate? In a six-wave longitudinal experiment, we investigated whether randomly assigning engaged or newlywed couples to merge their money in a joint bank account increases relationship quality over time. Whereas couples assigned to keep their money in separate accounts o…
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…
Interventions to reduce partisan animosity
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…
Realness is a core feature of authenticity
We established realness as the relatively stable tendency to act on the outside the way one feels on the inside, without regard for proximal personal or social consequences. In nine studies, we showed that realness is a) a core feature of individual differences in authenticity, b) generally adaptive but largely unrelated to agreeableness, c) highly stable, d) reliably observable in dyadic behavior, and e) predictive of responses to situations wit…
Machine learning uncovers the most robust self-report predictors of relationship quality across 43 longitudinal couples studies
Significance What predicts how happy people are with their romantic relationships? Relationship science—an interdisciplinary field spanning psychology, sociology, economics, family studies, and communication—has identified hundreds of variables that purportedly shape romantic relationship quality. The current project used machine learning to directly quantify and compare the predictive power of many such variables among 11,196 romantic couples. P…
Using social and behavioural science to support Covid-19 pandemic response
The COVID-19 pandemic represents a massive global health crisis. Because the crisis requires large-scale behaviour change and places significant psychological burdens on individuals, insights from the social and behavioural sciences can be used to help align human behavior with the recommendations of epidemiologists and public health experts. Here we discuss evidence from a selection of research topics relevant to pandemics, including work on nav…
A Growth Mind-Set Intervention Improves Interest but Not Academic Performance in the Field of Computer Science
We investigated whether a growth mindset intervention could be leveraged to promote performance and interest in computer science, through what mechanisms it might do so, and whether effects were stronger for women than for men. In particular, we explored whether the growth mindset intervention improved academic performance and career interest by increasing intrinsic value. We developed and tested a scalable, online, 4-session growth mindset inter…
Negligible evidence that people desire partners who uniquely fit their ideals
Using social and behavioural science to support Covid-19 pandemic response
Creativity and romantic passion
Romantic passion typically declines over time, but a downward trajectory is not inevitable. Across 3 studies (1 of which encompassed 2 substudies), we investigated whether creativity helps bolster romantic passion in established relationships. Studies 1A and 1B revealed that people with highly creative personalities report not only greater overall passion but also an attenuation in the tendency for passion to decline as relationship duration incr…
People feel worse about their forgiveness when mismatches between forgiveness and amends create adaptation risks
Building on principles of evolutionary psychology and sociometer theory, we propose that people feel worse about the extent to which they have forgiven when their forgiveness level increases their risk of exploitation or their risk of spoiling a valuable relationship. We predicted that people would feel worse about their forgiveness level when they grant a high level of forgiveness to a perpetrator who has made weak (vs. strong) amends, thereby h…
The I 3 Model: A metatheoretical framework for understanding aggression
Can you get the magic back? The moderating effect of passion decay beliefs on relationship commitment
The present research introduces the construct of a decay theory of passion-a lay belief that romantic passion decline is irreversible-and investigates how this construct interacts with existing levels of passion for one's romantic partner to predict lower relationship commitment and greater pursuit of romantic alternatives. Across three studies employing experimental and nonexperimental procedures-and a set of meta-analytic syntheses including ad…
The Psychology of Close Relationships: Fourteen Core Principles
Relationship science is a theory-rich discipline, but there have been no attempts to articulate the broader themes or principles that cut across the theories themselves. We have sought to fill that void by reviewing the psychological literature on close relationships, particularly romantic relationships, to extract its core principles. This review reveals 14 principles, which collectively address four central questions: (a) What is a relationship…
Replicability and other features of a high-quality science: Toward a balanced and empirical approach
Finkel, Eastwick, and Reis (2015; FER2015) argued that psychological science is better served by responding to apprehensions about replicability rates with contextualized solutions than with one-size-fits-all solutions. Here, we extend FER2015's analysis to suggest that much of the discussion of best research practices since 2011 has focused on a single feature of high-quality science-replicability-with insufficient sensitivity to the implication…
When power shapes interpersonal behavior: Low relationship power predicts men’s aggressive responses to low situational power
When does power in intimate relationships shape important interpersonal behaviors, such as psychological aggression? Five studies tested whether possessing low relationship power was associated with aggressive responses, but (a) only within power-relevant relationship interactions when situational power was low, and (b) only by men because masculinity (but not femininity) involves the possession and demonstration of power. In Studies 1 and 2, men…
Using social and behavioural science to support Covid-19 pandemic response
Dealing with betrayal in close relationships: Does commitment promote forgiveness
This work complements existing research regarding the forgiveness process by highlighting the role of commitment in motivating forgiveness. On the basis of an interdependence-theoretic analysis, the authors suggest that (a) victims' self-oriented reactions to betrayal are antithetical to forgiveness, favoring impulses such as grudge and vengeance, and (b) forgiveness rests on prorelationship motivation, one cause of which is strong commitment. A …
Sex differences in mate preferences revisited: Do people know what they initially desire in a romantic partner
In paradigms in which participants state their ideal romantic-partner preferences or examine vignettes and photographs, men value physical attractiveness more than women do, and women value earning prospects more than men do. Yet it remains unclear if these preferences remain sex differentiated in predicting desire for real-life potential partners (i.e., individuals whom one has actually met). In the present study, the authors explored this possi…
Self-control and accommodation in close relationships: An interdependence analysis
Accommodation refers to the willingness, when a partner has engaged in a potentially destructive behavior, to (a) inhibit impulses toward destructive responding and (b) instead respond constructively. A pilot study and 3 additional studies examined the hypothesis that self-control promotes individuals' ability to accommodate in response to a romantic partner's potentially destructive behavior. Dispositional self-control was positively associated …
Self-regulatory failure and intimate partner violence perpetration
Five studies tested the hypothesis that self-regulatory failure is an important predictor of intimate partner violence (IPV) perpetration. Study 1 participants were far more likely to experience a violent impulse during conflictual interaction with their romantic partner than they were to enact a violent behavior, suggesting that self-regulatory processes help individuals refrain from perpetrating IPV when they experience a violent impulse. Study…
Maintaining sexual desire in intimate relationships: The importance of approach goals
Three studies tested whether adopting strong (relative to weak) approach goals in relationships (i.e., goals focused on the pursuit of positive experiences in one's relationship such as fun, growth, and development) predict greater sexual desire. Study 1 was a 6-month longitudinal study with biweekly assessments of sexual desire. Studies 2 and 3 were 2-week daily experience studies with daily assessments of sexual desire. Results showed that appr…
Best research practices in psychology: Illustrating epistemological and pragmatic considerations with the case of relationship science
In recent years, a robust movement has emerged within psychology to increase the evidentiary value of our science. This movement, which has analogs throughout the empirical sciences, is broad and diverse, but its primary emphasis has been on the reduction of statistical false positives. The present article addresses epistemological and pragmatic issues that we, as a field, must consider as we seek to maximize the scientific value of this movement…
Does self-love lead to love for others? A story of narcissistic game playing
Five studies investigated the links among narcissism, self-esteem, and love. Across all studies, narcissism was associated primarily with a game-playing love style. This link was found in reports of general love styles (Study 1a) and of love in ongoing romantic relationships (Studies 1b-3, 5). Narcissists' game-playing love style was the result of a need for power and autonomy (Study 2) and was linked with greater relationship alternatives and le…
Interventions to reduce partisan animosity
Familiarity does indeed promote attraction in live interaction
Does familiarity promote attraction? Prior research has generally suggested that it does, but a recent set of studies by Norton, Frost, and Ariely (2007) challenged that assumption. Instead, they found that more information about another person, when that information was randomly selected from lists of trait adjectives, using a trait evaluation paradigm, promoted perceptions of dissimilarity and, hence, disliking. The present research began with …
Too Proud to Let Go: Narcissistic Entitlement as a Barrier to Forgiveness
Narcissistic entitlement impedes forgiveness in ways not captured by other robust predictors (e.g., offense severity, apology, relationship closeness, religiosity, Big Five personality factors), as demonstrated in 6 studies. Narcissistic entitlement involves expectations of special treatment and preoccupation with defending one's rights. In Study 1, entitlement predicted less forgiveness and greater insistence on repayment for a past offense. Com…
Middle class and marginal? Socioeconomic status, stigma, and self-regulation at an elite university
In four studies, the authors investigated the proposal that in the context of an elite university, individuals from relatively lower socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds possess a stigmatized identity and, as such, experience (a) concerns regarding their academic fit and (b) self-regulatory depletion as a result of managing these concerns. Study 1, a correlational study, revealed the predicted associations between SES, concerns about academic f…
The attachment system in fledgling relationships: An activating role for attachment anxiety
Is it sensible to study attachment dynamics between potential romantic partners before they share a full-fledged attachment bond? The present data indicate that such an approach may reveal novel insights about initial attraction processes. Four studies suggest that the state-like experience of attachment anxiety has functional implications within fledgling (i.e., desired or undeveloped) romantic relationships, well before the formation of an atta…
So far away from one's partner, yet so close to romantic alternatives: Avoidant attachment, interest in alternatives, and infidelity
Temptation pervades modern social life, including the temptation to engage in infidelity. The present investigation examines one factor that may put individuals at a greater risk of being unfaithful to their partner: dispositional avoidant attachment style. The authors hypothesize that avoidantly attached people may be less resistant to temptations for infidelity due to lower levels of commitment in romantic relationships. This hypothesis was con…
The doormat effect: When forgiving erodes self-respect and self-concept clarity
We build on principles from interdependence theory and evolutionary psychology to propose that forgiving bolsters one's self-respect and self-concept clarity if the perpetrator has acted in a manner that signals that the victim will be safe and valued in a continued relationship with the perpetrator but that forgiving diminishes one's self-respect and self-concept clarity if the perpetrator has not. Study 1 employed a longitudinal design to demon…
The voodoo doll task: Introducing and validating a novel method for studying aggressive inclinations
Aggression pervades modern life. To understand the root causes of aggression, researchers have developed several methods to assess aggressive inclinations. The current article introduces a new behavioral method-the voodoo doll task (VDT)-that offers a reliable and valid trait and state measure of aggressive inclinations across settings and relationship contexts. Drawing on theory and research on the law of similarity and magical beliefs (Rozin, M…
Buffering against weight gain following dieting setbacks: An implicit theory intervention
Using I3 theory to clarify when dispositional aggressiveness predicts intimate partner violence perpetration
Deriving hypotheses from I3 theory (pronounced "I-cubed theory"), the authors conducted 4 studies to clarify the circumstances under which dispositional aggressiveness predicts intimate partner violence (IPV) perpetration. Consistent with the hypothesis that this link would be stronger when inhibitory processes are weak rather than strong, Studies 1 and 2 demonstrated that dispositional aggressiveness was an especially robust predictor of IPV per…
Mispredicting distress following romantic breakup: Revealing the time course of the affective forecasting error
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…
Motivations for promotion and prevention and the role of trust and commitment in interpersonal forgiveness
The part of me that you bring out: Ideal similarity and the Michelangelo phenomenon
This work examines the Michelangelo phenomenon, an interpersonal model of the means by which people move closer to (vs. further from) their ideal selves. The authors propose that partner similarity--similarity to the ideal self, in particular--plays an important role in this process. Across 4 studies employing diverse designs and measurement techniques, they observed consistent evidence that when partners possess key elements of one another's ide…
Putting the brakes on aggression toward a romantic partner: The inhibitory influence of relationship commitment
Why do people behave aggressively toward romantic partners, and what can put the brakes on this aggression? Provocation robustly predicts aggression in both intimate and nonintimate relationships. Four methodologically diverse studies tested the hypothesis that provocation severity and relationship commitment interact to predict aggression toward one's romantic partner, with the aggression-promoting effects of provocation diminishing as relations…
When and why do ideal partner preferences affect the process of initiating and maintaining romantic relationships
Three studies explored how the traits that people ideally desire in a romantic partner, or ideal partner preferences, intersect with the process of romantic relationship initiation and maintenance. Two attraction experiments in the laboratory found that, when participants evaluated a potential romantic partner's written profile, they expressed more romantic interest in a partner whose traits were manipulated to match (vs. mismatch) their idiosync…
Navigating personal and relational concerns: The quest for equilibrium
The authors' personal-relational equilibrium model suggests that people come to seek equilibrium in their dedication to personal and relational concerns in that these 2 important needs cannot always be gratified simultaneously. The authors proposed that the experience of personal-relational disequilibrium motivates attempts to restore equilibrium and that achieving equilibrium promotes life satisfaction. Four studies revealed good support for the…
Interindividual-intergroup discontinuity reduction through the anticipation of future interaction
Consistent with the role of a long-term perspective in reducing the tendency of intergroup relations to be more competitive than interindividual relations in the context of noncorrespondent outcomes, an experiment demonstrated that anticipated future interaction reduced intergroup but not interindividual competitiveness. Further results indicated that the effect was present only for groups composed of members high in abstractness (Openness-Intell…
Interindividual–intergroup discontinuity reduction through the anticipation of future interaction
Consistent with the role of a long-term perspective in reducing the tendency of intergroup relations to be more competitive than interindividual relations in the context of noncorrespondent outcomes, an experiment demonstrated that anticipated future interaction reduced intergroup but not interindividual competitiveness. Further results indicated that the effect was present only for groups composed of members high in abstractness (Openness-Intell…
Self-control and accommodation in close relationships: An interdependence analysis
Accommodation refers to the willingness, when a partner has engaged in a potentially destructive behavior, to (a) inhibit impulses toward destructive responding and (b) instead respond constructively. A pilot study and 3 additional studies examined the hypothesis that self-control promotes individuals' ability to accommodate in response to a romantic partner's potentially destructive behavior. Dispositional self-control was positively associated …
Self‐Respect and Pro‐Relationship Behavior in Marital Relationships
This work advances an interdependence theoretic analysis of the role of self‐respect in ongoing close relationships. Self‐respect is defined as the tendency to perceive the self as a principled person who is worthy of honor and high regard and is argued to rest on moral integrity. Consistent with predictions, results from a study of marital relationships revealed that individual self‐respect is positively associated with both the individual's and…
Dealing with betrayal in close relationships: Does commitment promote forgiveness
This work complements existing research regarding the forgiveness process by highlighting the role of commitment in motivating forgiveness. On the basis of an interdependence-theoretic analysis, the authors suggest that (a) victims' self-oriented reactions to betrayal are antithetical to forgiveness, favoring impulses such as grudge and vengeance, and (b) forgiveness rests on prorelationship motivation, one cause of which is strong commitment. A …
Does self-love lead to love for others? A story of narcissistic game playing
Five studies investigated the links among narcissism, self-esteem, and love. Across all studies, narcissism was associated primarily with a game-playing love style. This link was found in reports of general love styles (Study 1a) and of love in ongoing romantic relationships (Studies 1b-3, 5). Narcissists' game-playing love style was the result of a need for power and autonomy (Study 2) and was linked with greater relationship alternatives and le…
Higher Order Factor Structure Of A Self-Control Test: Evidence From Confirmatory Factor Analysis With Polychoric Correlations
The self-control test developed by Grasmick, Tittle, Bursik, and Arneklev was designed to measure each of six components of self-control, namely, impulsivity, a preference for simple rather than complex tasks, risk seeking, a preference for physical rather than cerebral activities, a self-centered orientation, and a volatile temper. This conceptualization clearly suggests that self-control may be defined as a higher order construct that leads to …
Too Proud to Let Go: Narcissistic Entitlement as a Barrier to Forgiveness
Narcissistic entitlement impedes forgiveness in ways not captured by other robust predictors (e.g., offense severity, apology, relationship closeness, religiosity, Big Five personality factors), as demonstrated in 6 studies. Narcissistic entitlement involves expectations of special treatment and preoccupation with defending one's rights. In Study 1, entitlement predicted less forgiveness and greater insistence on repayment for a past offense. Com…
Willingness to express emotion: The impact of relationship type, communal orientation, and their interaction
This research examines the effects of relationship type (close vs. business), a personality variable (dispositional communal orientation), and the interaction of these two variables on individuals’ willingness to express emotions to relationship partners. Results supported our predictions that (a) people are willing to express more emotion in relationships likely to be high in communal strength than in relationships likely to be low in communal s…
Executive Self, Self-Esteem, and Negative Affectivity: Relations at the Phenotypic and Genotypic Level
Complementary approaches examined the relations among executive self, self-esteem, and negative affectivity. A cross-sectional (N = 4,242) and a longitudinal (N = 158) study established that self-esteem mediated the relation between executive self and negative affectivity. A 3rd study (N = 878 twin pairs) replicated this pattern and examined genetic and environmental influences underlying all 3 phenotypes. Covariation among the 3 phenotypes refle…
Impelling and Inhibiting Forces in the Perpetration of Intimate Partner Violence
The huge corpus of research identifying risk factors for intimate partner violence (IPV) has outpaced theoretical models explaining how these risk factors combine to exert their effects. This report presents a 2-stage process model investigating how a previously nonviolent interaction between intimate partners escalates to IPV. The first stage examines whether at least one partner experiences strong violence-impelling forces, which lead the indiv…
Speed‐dating as an invaluable tool for studying romantic attraction: A methodological primer
Research on initial romantic attraction flourished in the 1960s and 1970s but has now been partially eclipsed by research on close relationships. The authors argue that speed‐dating procedures, in which participants attend an event where they experience brief “dates” with a series of potential romantic partners, permit researchers to “retrofit” the advances of close relationships research to the study of initial romantic attraction. Speed‐dating …
Mispredicting distress following romantic breakup: Revealing the time course of the affective forecasting error
Vengefully ever after: Destiny beliefs, state attachment anxiety, and forgiveness
Two studies examined how destiny beliefs (that potential relationships are or are not "meant to be") interact with state attachment anxiety to predict forgiveness tendencies. In Study 1, participants experienced an experimental manipulation of attachment anxiety (vs. security) before indicating the degree to which they would forgive a series of hypothetical partner offenses. In Study 2, participants reported every 2 weeks for 6 months (14 waves i…
Navigating personal and relational concerns: The quest for equilibrium
The authors' personal-relational equilibrium model suggests that people come to seek equilibrium in their dedication to personal and relational concerns in that these 2 important needs cannot always be gratified simultaneously. The authors proposed that the experience of personal-relational disequilibrium motivates attempts to restore equilibrium and that achieving equilibrium promotes life satisfaction. Four studies revealed good support for the…
Sex differences in mate preferences revisited: Do people know what they initially desire in a romantic partner
In paradigms in which participants state their ideal romantic-partner preferences or examine vignettes and photographs, men value physical attractiveness more than women do, and women value earning prospects more than men do. Yet it remains unclear if these preferences remain sex differentiated in predicting desire for real-life potential partners (i.e., individuals whom one has actually met). In the present study, the authors explored this possi…
Maintaining sexual desire in intimate relationships: The importance of approach goals
Three studies tested whether adopting strong (relative to weak) approach goals in relationships (i.e., goals focused on the pursuit of positive experiences in one's relationship such as fun, growth, and development) predict greater sexual desire. Study 1 was a 6-month longitudinal study with biweekly assessments of sexual desire. Studies 2 and 3 were 2-week daily experience studies with daily assessments of sexual desire. Results showed that appr…
The attachment system in fledgling relationships: An activating role for attachment anxiety
Is it sensible to study attachment dynamics between potential romantic partners before they share a full-fledged attachment bond? The present data indicate that such an approach may reveal novel insights about initial attraction processes. Four studies suggest that the state-like experience of attachment anxiety has functional implications within fledgling (i.e., desired or undeveloped) romantic relationships, well before the formation of an atta…
Motivations for promotion and prevention and the role of trust and commitment in interpersonal forgiveness
Self-regulatory failure and intimate partner violence perpetration
Five studies tested the hypothesis that self-regulatory failure is an important predictor of intimate partner violence (IPV) perpetration. Study 1 participants were far more likely to experience a violent impulse during conflictual interaction with their romantic partner than they were to enact a violent behavior, suggesting that self-regulatory processes help individuals refrain from perpetrating IPV when they experience a violent impulse. Study…
The part of me that you bring out: Ideal similarity and the Michelangelo phenomenon
This work examines the Michelangelo phenomenon, an interpersonal model of the means by which people move closer to (vs. further from) their ideal selves. The authors propose that partner similarity--similarity to the ideal self, in particular--plays an important role in this process. Across 4 studies employing diverse designs and measurement techniques, they observed consistent evidence that when partners possess key elements of one another's ide…
Who Am I Without You? The Influence of Romantic Breakup on the Self-Concept
Romantic relationships alter the selves of the individuals within them. Partners develop shared friends and activities and even overlapping self-concepts. This intertwining of selves may leave individuals’ self-concepts vulnerable to change if the relationship ends. The current research examines several different types of self-concept change that could occur after a breakup and their relation to emotional distress. Across three studies, using var…
Smooth Operating: A Structural Analysis of Social Behavior (Sasb) Perspective on Initial Romantic Encounters
The present report used the comprehensive structural analysis of social behavior (SASB) observational coding scheme to examine which behaviors differentiate smooth from awkward initial romantic encounters. Participants on speed-dates rated as smooth (by independent observers) behaved more warmly and were more other-focused than participants on awkward dates. In addition, participants on smooth dates tended to avoid extremes on the autonomy dimens…
In the wake of betrayal: Amends, forgiveness, and the resolution of betrayal
The present work advances a dyadic model of victim and perpetrator interactions following betrayals, and the effect of their interactions on betrayal resolution and relationship quality. The authors propose that perpetrator amends promotes victim forgiveness and that both amends and forgiveness contribute to betrayal resolution. In Study 1, married couples discussed unresolved betrayal incidents, and their behavior was rated by partners and train…
In the Pursuit of Science
Psychology (85 works) · Social Psychology (80 works) · Attachment and Relationship Dynamics (49 works) · Developmental psychology (36 works) · Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior (29 works) · Romance (27 works) · Behavioral Health and Interventions (26 works) · Psychoanalysis (18 works) · Social and Intergroup Psychology (18 works) · Computer Science (17 works)