"You make me a better/worse person": A two‐dimensional model of relationship self‐change. Issue 1 (March 2014)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: MATTINGLY, BRENT A.; LEWANDOWSKI, GARY W.; McINTYRE, KEVIN P.
• Is Part Of: Personal relationships. Volume 21:Issue 1(2014)
• Page Start: 176
• Page End: 190
• Publication Date: 2014-03
• Subjects: Interpersonal relations -- Periodicals; 302
• DOI: 10.1111/pere.12025
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1350-4126

Abstract

<abstract abstract-type="main" id="pere12025-abs-0001"> <title>Abstract</title> <p id="pere12025-para-0001">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‐concept change: self‐expansion (increasing positive content), self‐contraction (decreasing positive content), self‐pruning (decreasing negative content), and self‐adulteration (increasing negative content). Using community and university samples, we developed a measure of self‐concept change (Study 1) and examined how the four self‐processes were associated with love (Study 1), relationship quality (Studies 2 and 3), and infidelity (Study 3). The self‐concept improvement processes (i.e., self‐expansion and self‐pruning) were associated with greater love and relationship quality, whereas in Study 3 self‐concept degradation processes (i.e., self‐contraction and self‐adulteration) predicted infidelity.</p> </abstract>