I hope my partner can make me change: expected relational self-changes and relational outcomes

The Transformative power of friendships: Examining the relationships among friendship quality, self‐change, and well‐being

“…Despite the potential of friendships in accounting for self‐changes (Richman et al, 2015; Slotter & Gardner, 2011), the two‐dimensional relational self‐change model has been broadly verified in the context of romantic relationships (e.g., Ma & Clark, 2021; McIntyre et al, 2015, 2020). To the best of our knowledge, this model has not yet been tested in friendships.…”

“…In line with the Michelangelo phenomenon (Drigotas et al, 1999; Rusbult et al, 2005, 2009), a partner may attempt to shape individuals' self‐concept toward their ideal self by augmenting favorable features (i.e., self‐expansion) or removing undesirable qualities from their self‐concept (i.e., self‐pruning). Both self‐expansion and self‐pruning are desirable relational processes since the overall positivity of self‐concept increases, and these two processes demonstrated moderate to high bivariate correlations (Dincer et al, 2018; Ma & Clark, 2021; McIntyre et al, 2015). Relatedly, Mattingly et al (2020) retitled these self‐change outcomes as improvement processes .…”

“…Self‐contraction and self‐adulteration, on the other hand, are considered degradation processes since they reduce the overall positivity of people's self‐concept (Mattingly et al, 2020); hence, the two yielded positive bivariate relationships in empirical studies (e.g., Dincer et al, 2018; Ma & Clark, 2021; McIntyre et al, 2015). These aggravating processes involve moving away from an individual's ideal self by diminishing positive self‐content or escalating undesirable attributes (Mattingly et al, 2014).…”