Romantic passion represents one of the most fragile and elusive elements of relationship quality but one that is increasingly valued and tied to relationship and individual well-being. We provide the first examination of whether experiencing personal self-expansion-positive self-change and personal growth without a romantic partner-is a critical predictor of passion. Previous research has almost exclusively examined the consequences of couples' sharing novel experiences (i.e., relational self-expansion) on romantic relationships. Instead, the consequences of personal self-expansion for romantic relationships remain largely unexamined even though most positive self-growth may occur without a romantic partner (e.g., at work). We investigated the consequences of personal self-expansion for passion in three studies including two 21-day experience sampling studies of community couples and a study in a context likely to elicit heightened personal self-expansion: during job relocation. Within-person increases in daily personal self-expansion were associated with greater passion through greater positive emotions (Studies 1 and 2). In contrast, high between-person levels of personal self-expansion were associated with lower passion through lower levels of intimacy, suggesting that individuals may drift apart from their partners with more chronic personal self-expansion (Studies 1, 2, and 3). That is, consistently growing outside of the relationship in ways that are not shared with a romantic partner may reduce feelings of closeness and connection, and ultimately passion. Results also suggest that chronic personal self-expansion may be a double-edged sword for individual well-being, simultaneously associated with lower passion, but greater fulfillment of competence needs. Results controlled for relational self-expansion and time together. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

中文翻译：

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越来越多的欲望还是越来越疏远？个人自我膨胀对浪漫激情的后果。

浪漫激情代表了关系质量中最脆弱和最难以捉摸的元素之一，但它越来越受到重视并与关系和个人幸福联系在一起。我们首次检验了在没有浪漫伴侣的情况下体验个人自我扩张的积极自我改变和个人成长是否是激情的关键预测因素。以前的研究几乎专门研究了夫妻分享新奇经历（即关系自我扩张）对浪漫关系的影响。相反，尽管大多数积极的自我成长可能发生在没有浪漫伴侣的情况下（例如，在工作中），但个人自我膨胀对浪漫关系的后果在很大程度上仍未得到检验。我们在三项研究中调查了个人自我膨胀对激情的影响，包括对社区夫妇进行的两项为期 21 天的经验抽样研究，以及一项在可能引起个人自我膨胀的背景下进行的研究：在工作搬迁期间。日常个人自我扩张的人内增加与通过更大的积极情绪产生的更大热情有关（研究 1 和 2）。相比之下，人与人之间较高的个人自我膨胀水平与较低水平的亲密关系导致的热情较低有关，这表明个人可能会因更长期的个人自我膨胀而与伴侣疏远（研究 1、2 和 3）。也就是说，在关系之外持续以不与浪漫伴侣分享的方式成长可能会减少亲密感和联系感，并最终减少激情。结果还表明，长期的个人自我扩张可能是个人幸福感的一把双刃剑，同时与较低的热情有关，但能更好地满足能力需求。结果控制关系的自我扩展和时间。（PsycInfo 数据库记录 (c) 2021 APA，保留所有权利）。