Jennifer Crocker
Researchers often assume that in their close relationships, as in the rest of their lives, people are fundamentally self-centered and self-serving. Although this view surely describes many relationships at least some of the time, I will argue that it is at best incomplete and at worst wildly misleading as a depiction of the self in relationships. I will present evidence from longitudinal studies of romantic relationships that illustrate how relationships work in the egosystem and in the ecosystem.