Relationships are essential for various reasons. One particular beneficial factor of relationships is that it assists individuals in self-expansion. The self-expansion theory states that it is essential for individuals to experience this growth in order to accomplish self-efficacy (Graham and Harf, 2015). Self-efficacy can be defined as an individual’s attitude towards their own potentials in different situations (Mattingly, and Lewandowski, 2013). This desire to expand one’s self is not essentially a deliberate goal, but rather it is something we are unware of. Self-expansion theory operates as a motive in which the goal is to attain access to valued resources, perspectives, as well as, identities (Graham and Harf, 2015). An example of
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Timothy and Jessica engage in activities which they have not done before such as going to Disney Land together, trying new beer, listening to a new genre of music and so forth (40 Days of Dating, 2013). I noticed that the majority of days which Timothy and Jessica fought, were on days which they did daily tasks such as staying in and eating, going out to eat or hanging out with friends but when they did new activities such as going to the Knicks game or to the spa the arguments were less (40 Days of Dating, 2013). The self-expansion theory is not always beneficial for relationships. Sometimes it creates confusion, one individual may confuse the partner’s characteristics and values for their own (Aron and Aron, 1997). An example of confusion in this project was when Jessica began to doubt the project, and Timothy also began to doubt it even though he had nothing to doubt (40 Days of Dating , Day 6, 2016). Timothy was also always telling Jessica to stand up for herself like Timothy stands up for himself, and when Jessica attempts to do this, it back fires with a bigger argument (40 Days of Dating, Day 38, 2013). The limitations of this theory do not take into consideration that some couples are unable to engage in …show more content…
Another example would be when Timothy wanted to go camping, while Jessica wanted to go some where warm, this could lead to a limit the number of new places they could travel to as a couple (40 Days of Dating, Day 26, 2013). To this point, the whole theory about self expansion has been about self growing in the sense that both individuals are satisfied with exploring different activities. On the contrary, not every person will have the same ideas and thoughts about exploring things which may cause conflicts and disagreements between the couple. Therefore, majority of relationships end due to conflict of interest and self expansion stops, which leads for individuals to move on to different people and start self growth all over again. This may be the reason why Timothy and Jessica split up, they were two very distinct individuals. In the forty days of dating experience, Timothy would be considered the type of individual who likes to change his partner to self expand, and Jessica would be considered the type of individual who
Timothy and Jessica engage in activities which they have not done before such as going to Disney Land together, trying new beer, listening to a new genre of music and so forth (40 Days of Dating, 2013). I noticed that the majority of days which Timothy and Jessica fought, were on days which they did daily tasks such as staying in and eating, going out to eat or hanging out with friends but when they did new activities such as going to the Knicks game or to the spa the arguments were less (40 Days of Dating, 2013). The self-expansion theory is not always beneficial for relationships. Sometimes it creates confusion, one individual may confuse the partner’s characteristics and values for their own (Aron and Aron, 1997). An example of confusion in this project was when Jessica began to doubt the project, and Timothy also began to doubt it even though he had nothing to doubt (40 Days of Dating , Day 6, 2016). Timothy was also always telling Jessica to stand up for herself like Timothy stands up for himself, and when Jessica attempts to do this, it back fires with a bigger argument (40 Days of Dating, Day 38, 2013). The limitations of this theory do not take into consideration that some couples are unable to engage in …show more content…
Another example would be when Timothy wanted to go camping, while Jessica wanted to go some where warm, this could lead to a limit the number of new places they could travel to as a couple (40 Days of Dating, Day 26, 2013). To this point, the whole theory about self expansion has been about self growing in the sense that both individuals are satisfied with exploring different activities. On the contrary, not every person will have the same ideas and thoughts about exploring things which may cause conflicts and disagreements between the couple. Therefore, majority of relationships end due to conflict of interest and self expansion stops, which leads for individuals to move on to different people and start self growth all over again. This may be the reason why Timothy and Jessica split up, they were two very distinct individuals. In the forty days of dating experience, Timothy would be considered the type of individual who likes to change his partner to self expand, and Jessica would be considered the type of individual who