Social Psychology Commons^™

What's Good For Me Depends On What I See In You: Intimacy Avoidance And Resources Derived From Close Others, Cheryl Kondrak, Mark Seery, Shira Gabriel, Shannon Lupien

Articles & Book Chapters

Past research has demonstrated that comfort with intimacy differentially affects the extent to which a person assimilates/contrasts to a close other. Specifically, individuals comfortable with intimacy benefit most from assimilating to those who embody positive aspects, whereas individuals uncomfortable with intimacy benefit most from contrasting to those who embody a mix of positive and negative aspects. Using a multi-method approach, the current research provides evidence suggesting that both those who are positively regarded and those who engender mixed feelings have the potential to benefit the perceiver differentially as a function of the types of traits that are most salient at …