The Effects Of Power On Sacrificial Action In Romantic Relationship

In romantic relationships,partners often encounter situations where their needs are not aligned,which requires one partner to make sacrifices to advance and maintain the interests of the other partner and the relationship.Whether and how much an individual sacrifices is related to the relative power of the two parties in the relationship.Power describes the degree of control an individual has over resources.Romantic relationship is a kind of dyadic dynamic relationship,in which power can be understood as the ability or potential of one in the relationship to change the thought,emotion and behavior of the other to conform to its own preference.This study argues that power leads to the reduction of sacrificial behaviors in relationships,among which the individual’s avoidance motivation and emotion suppression are two mediating mechanisms.In addition,this study also put self-other overlap variable to explore its moderating effect on power effect.In the first study,231 participants in romantic relationships were surveyed to explore the effect of power on sacrificial behavior in the relationship,and to examine the mediating effects of avoidance motivation and emotion suppression and the moderating effects of self-other overlap.The results showed that :（1）power negatively predicted sacrifice behavior in intimate relationship;（2）Avoidance motivation mediates the negative prediction mechanism of power;（3）The influence of power on sacrificial behavior is moderated by self-other overlap,specifically,when the self-other overlap is low,and the power effect is significant.The second study was an experimental study to observe the influence of self-other overlap and power on sacrificial behavior and its mechanism through manipulation.In addition to manipulating the self-other overlap variable,power,sacrificial behavior,avoidance motivation,and emotional suppression were also measured.The results of regression,mediation and regulation analysis show that the mediation mechanism of emotion suppression is verified on the basis of repeated verification of the conclusion of study 1,so far,the theoretical model proposed in this paper has been verified.Study three was an experience-sampling study in which 131 people who had been in romantic relationships for longer than three months were followed intensively for one week.The results are as follows :（1）the relatively stable power traits of individuals in relationships negatively predict daily sacrifice behaviors in romantic relationships;（2）Avoidance motivation mediates the negative prediction mechanism of power;（3）Emotion suppression mediated the negative prediction mechanism of power;（4）The influence of power on sacrificial behavior is moderated by self-other overlap.When the self-other overlap degree is high,and the power effect is significant.The theoretical model proposed in this paper is verified once again.In this paper,the influence of power on sacrificial behavior in romantic relationship is investigated in different sample groups with different research methods.The three studies jointly verify the negative predictive effect of power on sacrificial behavior,the mediating effect of avoidance motivation,the mediation of emotion suppression,and the moderation of self-other overlap.The findings of this study can supplement and excavate the theoretical development in the field of power and romantic relationship to a certain extent,and contribute to a better understanding of the relationship between power and sacrificial behavior in the love community in the current Chinese era.In terms of application value,it also has some enlightenment on how to maintain a healthy and long-term relationship.