Date of Award

2013

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Psychology

First Advisor

Sheets, Virgil

Abstract

The current study strives to understand the influence of breakups on the expanded self and its representation through possessions. The self-expansion theory (Aron & Aron, 1986) states that involving oneself in a romantic relationship alters one's sense of self by taking on the partner's characteristics and qualities and integrating them into the self. The study examined the reported self-expansion in the relationship and the couple representativeness of a possession to see if this affected the outcome of the possessions (kept vs. discarded). Participants were asked to report their three favorite possessions and five possessions they would keep (or kept) and five possessions they would discard (or discarded). As hypothesized, people in self-expanding relationships kept (or would keep) possessions that were more representative of their relationships; this was not found for items that were discarded (or would be discarded). People in a prior self-expanding relationship had more relationship representative items as their favorite possessions; this was not seen for those currently in a self-expanding relationship. There was no significant relationship between self-expansion in a prior relationship and emotional distress or self-concept clarity for those who were dumped by their partner. This study provides some support for the idea that people keep possessions from self-expanding relationships to receive support for the expanded self.

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