Relationship science is a theory-rich discipline, but there have been no attempts to articulate
the broader themes or principles that cut across the theories themselves. We have sought to …

Transactive goal dynamics (TGD) theory conceptualizes 2 or more interdependent people
as 1 single self-regulating system. Six tenets describe the nature of goal interdependence …

Across two field studies of romantic attraction, we demonstrate that postural expansiveness
makes humans more romantically appealing. In a field study (n= 144 speed-dates), we …

Highlights•Relative to other primates, humans are born immature—less fully
developed.•Human parents often pairbond, which increases paternal investment in …

This article introduces a metatheoretical framework—the Relationship Trajectories
Framework—that conceptualizes how human mating relationships develop across their …

Close relationships research has examined committed couples (eg, dating relationships,
marriages) using intensive methods that plot relationship development over time. But a …

Relationship researchers and evolutionary psychologists have been studying human mating
for decades, but research inspired by these two perspectives often yields fundamentally …

Physical attractiveness plays a crucial role in mate choice for both men and women. This is
reflected in visual attention: people immediately attend towards and look longer at attractive …

Theoretical perspectives on mating differentially emphasize whether (and why) romantic
partner selection and maintenance processes derive from stable features of individuals (eg …

ABSTRACT A large, controversial literature has examined the hypothesis that the
attractiveness of potential partners predicts romantic desire more strongly for men than for …