Optimizing assurance: the risk regulation system in relationships.

@article{Murray2006OptimizingAT,
  title={Optimizing assurance: the risk regulation system in relationships.},
  author={Sandra L. Murray and John G. Holmes and Nancy L. Collins},
  journal={Psychological bulletin},
  year={2006},
  volume={132 5},
  pages={
          641-66
        }
}
A model of risk regulation is proposed to explain how people balance the goal of seeking closeness to a romantic partner against the opposing goal of minimizing the likelihood and pain of rejection. The central premise is that confidence in a partner's positive regard and caring allows people to risk seeking dependence and connectedness. The risk regulation system consists of 3 interconnected "if--then" contingency rules, 1 cognitive, 1 affective, and 1 behavioral. The authors describe how… 
View on PubMed
labs.psych.ucsb.edu
682 Citations
Highly Influential Citations
68
Background Citations
249
Methods Citations
24
Results Citations
30

Figures from this paper

682 Citations

The architecture of interdependent minds: A Motivation-management theory of mutual responsiveness.

A system of procedural or "if... then" rules that foster mutuality in responsiveness by informing and motivating trust and commitment are described and it is argued that tuning rule accessibility and enactment to match the situations encountered in a specific relationship shapes its personality.

Taking Chances in the Face of Threat: Romantic Risk Regulation and Approach Motivation

The results suggest that the romantic risk regulation may be inherently linked to a broader approach and avoidance system and that specific risk regulation behaviors may be driven by global motivational shifts to a greater degree than previously theorized.

The Commitment‐Insurance System: Self‐Esteem and the Regulation of Connection in Close Relationships

Maintaining mutual commitment in the face of risk

Dependence regulation in newlywed couples: A prospective examination.

The current study prospectively examines the association between perceived regard and levels of dependence in newlywed couples over nine years of marriage and results demonstrate that changes in perceived regard predict Levels of dependence, changes in dependence do not predict perceived regard, and alternative explanations cannot account for these effects.

Balancing connectedness and self-protection goals in close relationships: a levels-of-processing perspective on risk regulation.

A model of risk regulation is proposed to explain how low and high self-esteem people balance the tension between self-protection and connectedness goals in romantic relationships. This model assumes…

Commitment insurance: compensating for the autonomy costs of interdependence in close relationships.

A model of the commitment-insurance system is proposed to examine how low and high self-esteem people cope with the costs interdependence imposes on autonomous goal pursuits. In this system, autonomy…

When self-protection overreaches: Relationship-specific threat activates domain-general avoidance motivation

The dynamics of relationship promotion: controlling the automatic inclination to trust.

A dynamic model of how trust regulates relationship promotion revealed that acute uncertainty about a partner's caring increased relationship-promotive sentiment and behavior when (a) people lacked self-regulatory resources to question impulsively trusting sentiments and (b) when people had self-Regulatory resources available to override impulsively distrusting sentiments.

Risk Regulation in High-Conflict Parenting

ABSTRACT That “there is no gathering of roses without risking the thorns” might be the simplest way to think of the paradox of relationship. Risk regulation as psychological mechanism minimizes…
...

References

SHOWING 1-10 OF 207 REFERENCES

Self-control and accommodation in close relationships: an interdependence analysis.

A pilot study and 3 additional studies examined the hypothesis that self-control promotes individuals' ability to accommodate in response to a romantic partner's potentially destructive behavior, finding that dispositional self- control was positively associated with accommodative tendencies in all 4 investigations.

Family approval as a constraint in dependency regulation: Evidence from Australia and Indonesia

Murray and colleagues' dependency regulation model suggests that individuals in romantic relationships permit themselves to be emotionally dependent on a romantic partner only when they are certain…

Accommodation processes in close relationships: Theory and preliminary empirical evidence.

A theory of accommodation processes is advanced, and the results of 6 studies are reported. Accommodation refers to the willingness, when a partner has engaged in a potentially destructive act, to…

Interpersonal risk and the evaluation of transgressions in close relationships

An experiment examined individuals’willingness to excuse a romantic partner of blame for a transgression when perceptions that a relationship is risky are salient. Participants evaluated an actual…

The Mismeasure of Love: How Self-Doubt Contaminates Relationship Beliefs

The authors argue that individuals with more negative models of self are involved in less satisfying relationships because they have difficulty believing that they are loved by good partners. Dating…

Commitment Processes in Close Relationships: An Interdependence Analysis

This article employs interdependence theory as a means of understanding how and why some relationships survive difficult times whereas other promising relationships end. Interdependence theory makes…

Putting the partner within reach: a dyadic perspective on felt security in close relationships.

Putting the partner of a dating couple more within the psychological grasp of low self-esteem people may effectively increase felt security in the partner's regard.

Interpersonal expectations as the building blocks of social cognition: An interdependence theory perspective.

In this paper I use interdependence theory as an analytic framework for depicting the logically interconnected network of expectations that determines social interaction. The framework focuses on…

Attachment working models and the sense of trust : An exploration of interaction goals and affect regulation

Five studies examined the association between adult attachment style and the sense of trust in close relationships. Study 1 focused on the accessibility of trust-related memories. Studies 2-5 focused…

Perceived superiority in close relationships: why it exists and persists.

It is revealed that earlier perceived superiority predicts later relationship status (persisted vs. ended) and increases over time in dyadic adjustment and also, commitment accounts for unique variance in perceived superiority beyond self-esteem.
...