A New Exploration Of Self-expansion Model:Outward Expansion Motivation And Its Facilitation On Romantic Relationships

In the field of intimate relationships,one of the most successful theory in recent years is the self-expansion model proposed by Aron et al.This model attempts to explain the processes underlying human experience and behavior in close relationships.Briefly,the self-expansion model can be described by the following two principles: 1.Motivational principle: People seek to expand their potential —— this self-expansion motivation is a basic human motivation.2.Inclusion-of-other-in-the-self Principle: One way people expand themselves is through close relationships.Self-expansion motivation is the motivation to increase resources,views and identities and therefore enhance the ability to better achieve goals.It is worth noting that the key here is to enhance ability,rather than reach the goal,the motivation of self-expansion is not the motivation to reach goals,but the motivation to enhance the ability,and make yourself better at achieving goals.Self-expansion motivation is essential for intimate relationships,studies have found that dissimilarity people is attractive when intimacy is likely to occur or when the need for self-expansion is high because it provides more opportunities for self-expansion.And engaging in novel,challenging,self-expanding activities with romantic partners can maintain the quality of the relationship.However,an important factor that has been overlooked in previous studies is that in these cases the individual not only gets selfexpansion from the partner,but also provides it to the partner.It is unknown whether these findings about attraction and self-expanding activities might be derived,perhaps in part,from the provision,rather than just the acquisition of self-expansion.Our hypothesis suggests that,1)The motivation for self-expansion can be divided into two types: Inward expansion motivation,the motivation to receive self-expansion and Outward expansion motivation,the motivation to provide self-expansion.2)Outward expansion activities,as well as inward expansion activities,were beneficial to romantic relationship quality.Study 1: Verify the existence of outward expansion motivation by study the effects of outward expansion motivation on attraction.Fifty-one participants(16 male)were first asked to take a personality test,and then to fill in five of their major interests and five of their potential interests(which they hope to explore more in the future).A week later the participants were first putted into a prime for self-expansion motivation,then asked to rate the attractiveness of each of the three potential partners we presented.The potential partners’ interests were each matched in different ways with the participants.The results showed that potential partners whose potential interests were similar to the participants’ current interests were more attractive to the participants with appropriate motivational priming,or participants that are high in openness.The results of study 1 suggest that partners who offer more opportunities for outward expansion are indeed more attractive in certain situation,especially for people with high openness.The second study focuses on outward expansion’s correlation with relationship quality.60 couples were recruited to conduct the experiment.The participants first completed a problem-solving task respectively,and then they discussed with each other and completed another problem-solving task respectively.The index for outward expansion was the number of answers the participant’s partner chose after the discussion that were the same with the participant did before.The results showed that there was a significant correlation between the number of answers the participants’ partners selected after the discussion that were the same with the participants did before and the participants’ PLS score.The results of study 2 indicated that the realization of outward expansion motivation may facilitate one’s relationship quality.The third study focus on whether outward expansion activities were beneficial to romantic relationship quality.Sixty-six participants(33 couples)were recruited,they were first taken to separate rooms where they filled out pre-measured relationship quality questionnaires.The participants then worked together on a puzzle game,one of them will be informed with the solution and were asked to help their partner to solve the puzzle.In bilateral expansion group,one of the participants were asked to help their partner only by giving hints.In the unilateral expansion group,the participant can only answer general questions from their partner with yes or no.In non-expansion group,the participants just tell their partner the solution.After completing the task,the participants were taken to separate rooms to fill out post-test questionnaires.The analysis found that when female participants engaged in bilateral expanding activities,be it given or taken,their relationship quality increase more significantly compare to the non-expansion group,while no difference between groups were found in male participants.This result indicated that the effect self-expansion activities have on romantic relationship quality may have a gender difference.This study draws the following conclusions: 1)individuals have the motivation to obtain self-expansion in intimate relationships,that is,Inward expansion motivation.2)There is also a motive to provide self-expansion to others in the intimate relationship,that is,Outward expansion motivation.3)Outward expansion activities have a positive effect on improving the quality of intimate relationships,especially for females.The results of this study can be a supplement to the self-expansion model,conducive to a more complete understanding of the phenomenon and mechanism of self-expansion in intimate relationships,and may also have a positive guidance value for the maintenance and improvement of intimate relationships in real life.