"I Want You to Want Me": Implications of the Desire to Be Sexually Valued for Psychological Functioning and Romantic Relationships
| dc.contributor.advisor | Lemay, Edward | en_US |
| dc.contributor.author | Teneva, Nadya | en_US |
| dc.contributor.department | Psychology | en_US |
| dc.contributor.publisher | Digital Repository at the University of Maryland | en_US |
| dc.contributor.publisher | University of Maryland (College Park, Md.) | en_US |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2021-09-17T05:32:41Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2021-09-17T05:32:41Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2021 | en_US |
| dc.description.abstract | People often want to be seen as sexually appealing and desirable sexual partners. I refer to this tendency as the desire to be sexually valued, and I propose that it can differ between people and have effects on functioning within romantic relationships. I expected this desire to be psychologically important for cognition, well-being and behavior within relationships. I hypothesized that this desire would be associated with psychological well- being through biasing perceptions that one is sexually desired by their partner and exacerbating reactivity to sexual rejection. Furthermore, I proposed that this desire can refer to evaluations by others in general, or it may be targeted toward a specific person such as one’s romantic partner. I expected the desire to be sexually valued to be associated with behavioral tendencies within romantic relationships, including initiation of sexual activity and a number of other behaviors targeted at increasing sexual value. Moreover, I hypothesized that people who desire to be sexually valued might adopt a communal sexual motivation towards their partners, a motivation to meet their partner’s sexual needs, which can, in turn, be associated with their own and their partner’s higher sexual and relationship satisfaction. Three studies were utilized to test these hypotheses. Study 1 and Study 3 were dyadic studies, and Study 1 included a daily diary component. Study 2 was a self-report study including only people involved in romantic relationships. Results suggested that the desire to be sexually valued exacerbated the effects of daily, but not chronic, sexual rejection on some relationship outcomes. Further, this desire was associated with wishful thinking within romantic relationships, but the strength and nature of these effects depended on participants’ attachment anxiety in Study 1. The desire to be sexually valued by one’s partner predicted increased sexual communal strength toward that partner as well as engagement in a number of behaviors aimed at increasing one’s sexual value. Finally, this desire was indirectly associated with relationship quality through perceptions of being valued by partners, suggesting that wishful thinking may explain some of its relationship benefits. Implications are discussed. | en_US |
| dc.identifier | https://doi.org/10.13016/qo8x-tavb | |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/1903/27795 | |
| dc.language.iso | en | en_US |
| dc.subject.pqcontrolled | Psychology | en_US |
| dc.subject.pqcontrolled | Sexuality | en_US |
| dc.subject.pquncontrolled | desire | en_US |
| dc.subject.pquncontrolled | motivation | en_US |
| dc.subject.pquncontrolled | relationships | en_US |
| dc.subject.pquncontrolled | satisfaction | en_US |
| dc.subject.pquncontrolled | sexuality | en_US |
| dc.title | "I Want You to Want Me": Implications of the Desire to Be Sexually Valued for Psychological Functioning and Romantic Relationships | en_US |
| dc.type | Dissertation | en_US |
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