title: Becoming Irreplaceable: How Comparisons to the Partner's Alternatives Differentially Affect Low and High Self-Esteem People.
abstract: It is proposed that people are motivated to feel hard to replace in romantic relationships because feeling irreplaceable fosters trust in a partner's continued responsiveness. By contrast, feeling replaceable motivates compensatory behavior aimed at strengthening the partner's commitment to the relationship. A correlational study of dating couples and 2 experiments examined how satiating/thwarting the goal of feeling irreplaceable differentially affects relationship perception and behavior for low and high self-esteem people. The results revealed that satiating the goal of feeling irreplaceable increases trust for people low in self-esteem. In contrast, thwarting the goal of feeling irreplaceable increases compensatory behaviors meant to prove one's indispensability for people high in self-esteem.
authors.affiliation: University at Buffalo, State University of New York.
authors.forename: Sandra L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Murray
authors.forename: Sadie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Leder
authors.forename: Jennifer C D
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: McClellan
authors.forename: John G
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Holmes
authors.forename: Rebecca T
authors.initials: RT
authors.lastname: Pinkus
authors.forename: Brianna
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Harris