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Monica Kulach
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Year: Senior
Major(s): Psychology
Mentor: DeHart, Tracy
Department: Psychology
Project Title: Relational interdependent self-construal, implicit self-esteem and implicit evaluations of romantic partners.
Project Abstract: The purpose of the current study is to explore whether people’s level of relational interdependent self-construal within a romantic relationship is related to the relation between their implicit self-esteem (i.e., unconscious, automatic) and their implicit evaluations of their romantic partners. Previous research has shown a link between implicit self-evaluations and implicit evaluations of their romantic partner. Although previous research has found that having a higher implicit self-evaluations correlates with higher implicit evaluations of romantic partners, we believe that relational interdependent self-construal is also related to the measures mentioned above. In the current study, we want to examine whether relational interdependent self-construal can be a moderator between implicit self and implicit partner evaluations. Interdependent self-construal is the extent that people include close others in their sense of self. We predict that participants who score higher in relational interdependent self-construal should have a stronger relation between their implicit self-esteem and implicit evaluations of their romantic partner. In contrast, participants who score lower in relational interdependent self-construal should have a smaller relation between implicit self-esteem and implicit evaluations of their romantic partner. Understanding factors that predict implicit partner evaluations will contribute to our broader understanding of relationship functioning.
