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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.Individuals in satisfying romantic relationships often report experiencing positive changes to their self-concepts as a result of their relationship partners. For example, it is common to hear someone speak glowingly of their romantic partner by stating, "He makes me a better person" or "I like the person I am when I'm around her." However, not all relationship partners positively affect individuals' self-concepts. In fact, some romantic partners

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Students completed surveys at the beginning and end of a sophomore-level course on research and statistics. We hypothesized that the course would produce advances in knowledge of research and statistics and that those changes would be accompanied by more favorable attitudes toward the subject matter. Results showed that knowledge did increase significantly, but 4 of 6 attitude measures showed no change. Two attitude measures (perceived utility of research and statistics) showed significant declines. These results demonstrate the independence of knowledge and attitudes and show that attitudinal change is not monolithic. We argue that students' misconceptions about research might underlie the declines in perceived utility of research and statistics.