هنگامی که حفاظت از خود بیش از حد گسترده می شود: تهدید روابط خاص باعث فعال شدن انگیزه اجتناب دامنه عمومی می شود

Abstract Murray, Holmes, and Collins’ [Murray, Holmes, and Collins (2006) Optimizing assurance: The risk regulation system in relationships. Psychological Bulletin, 132, 641–666] interpersonal risk regulation model posits that people cope with threats to their romantic relationships by prioritizing self-protection goals over connectedness goals. The current paper tests whether these relationship-specific responses to threat are reflective of broader shifts in motivation. In Study 1, participants were quicker to identify avoidance-related words than approach-related words following a relationship-specific threat. In Study 2, threatened participants performed better than control participants on an anagram task under an avoidance frame, but not under an approach frame. These results suggest that relationship threat nonconsciously heightens global avoidance motivation and that the interpersonal risk regulation model may originate from a more fundamental approach-avoidance system.

Conclusions The present studies provide empirical evidence that risk regulation in romantic relationships is a manifestation of a larger regulatory system. This work underscores the importance of managing risk in romantic relationships. Balancing the conflicting goals of seeking intimacy and avoiding rejection is so essential to romantic life that these processes are intrinsically dependent on a fundamental regulatory system that governs approach and avoidance. Consequently, romantic relationships can elicit broad motivational shifts that permeate cognitions and behavior both in and out of romantic contexts. Research to date has focused on the behaviors and cognitions associated with interpersonal risk regulation, but further work is needed to elucidate the motivation underlying these processes and to understand how romantic interactions can shape goal pursuit.