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Thinking of you: Nonconscious pursuit of interpersonal goals associated with relationship partners (2003)
| Venue: | Journal of Personality & Social Psychology |
| Citations: | 118 - 12 self |
BibTeX
@ARTICLE{Fitzsimons03thinkingof,
author = {Gráinne M. Fitzsimons and John A. Bargh},
title = {Thinking of you: Nonconscious pursuit of interpersonal goals associated with relationship partners},
journal = {Journal of Personality & Social Psychology},
year = {2003},
pages = {148--163}
}
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Abstract
The mere psychological presence of relationship partners was hypothesized to trigger interpersonal goals that are then pursued nonconsciously. Qualitative data suggested that people tend to pursue different interpersonal goals within different types of relationships (e.g., mother, best friend, coworker). In several studies, priming participants ’ relationship representations produced goal-directed behavior (achievement, helping, understanding) in line with the previously assessed goal content of those representations. These findings support the hypothesis that interpersonal goals are component features of relationship representations and that mere activation of those representations, even in the partner’s physical absence, causes the goals to become active and to guide behavior nonconsciously within the current situation. Many of people’s most strongly held goals, fears, and desires spring from their ongoing close relationships. Friends, family members, colleagues, and romantic partners are those whom people try hardest to understand, to whom they wish to grow closer, and from whom they seek to gain approval. Relationship partners are the elicitors of strong and influential motivations—motivations that alter people’s perceptions, change their emotions, and guide
Keyphrases
interpersonal goal relationship partner nonconscious pursuit different interpersonal goal romantic partner close relationship alter people goal content different type goal-directed behavior mere psychological presence qualitative data mere activation several study component feature participant relationship representation influential motivation motivation family member partner physical absence current situation relationship representation
