Learn how to stay self-centered in intimate relationships and distinguish which changes are positive and which may lead to self-loss. Through psychological testing, you can deeply analyze the impact of your relationship with your partner on your self-image, helping you maintain a healthy self-awareness and relationship.
How do we change in relationships?
Everyone is unique, but our personality and behaviors are affected as we interact with others. This effect is sometimes positive and sometimes it can lead to adverse changes. How do we maintain ourselves while adapting to each other’s needs in a relationship? This article will take you to explore how to avoid losing yourself and use psychological tests to understand the impact of your relationship with your partner.
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Will love change people?
There is a saying that people in love will become more and more like each other. Through research, psychologists have found that this phenomenon seems to have a basis: couples or couples get along for a long time and experience common joys, angers, sorrows, and happiness, and their appearance and behavior gradually become similar. This is not only a change on the surface, but also changes in the inner and self-image. The deeper reason is that the relationship with a partner is not only a relationship between two people, but also a process of mutual influence.
How does self-image change due to relationships?
Self-image is our perception and perception of ourselves. Psychologists believe that intimacy affects our understanding and feeling of our self-image, and this influence can be divided into two aspects: size and valence.
- **Size: ** The size of our self-image determines how broad we know ourselves. Certain relationships may expand our self-image, such as learning new interests or skills from our partners, broadening our horizons. On the contrary, certain relationships may cause us to ignore our interests and hobbies, thereby reducing our self-image.
- **Valence: ** Valence of self-image refers to our evaluation of ourselves, including self-confidence and satisfaction. Some relationships may make us feel more valuable and confident, while others may make us feel failed or uneasy, leading to negative changes in our self-image.
Four changes in self-image
Psychologists suggest that the impact of relationships on self-image can be divided into four different types, each with different consequences.
1. Self-expansion
When the relationship with a partner makes our self-image richer and more diverse, it is self-expanding. This change is usually positive, and it makes us stronger and more comprehensive. For example, trying new activities with your partner, exploring new interests, or learning good qualities from your partner that you didn’t realize before will make us understand ourselves better.
2. Self-contraction
If we give up our interests or habits in a relationship because we over-title with each other, our self-image will shrink. This change can be negative because it makes us feel lost. For example, some people will change their dressing style or living habits to please their partners, thus losing their original selves.
3. Self-pruning
Sometimes, certain changes are necessary and help us grow. Self-tailoring means that we actively give up some bad habits in order to improve ourselves. This change may have positive effects, such as quitting smoking due to a partner’s reminder and reducing unhealthy diet.
4. Self-adultation
Sometimes, relationships can guide us to develop bad habits or make us accept disrespect from each other. Self-adulting means that we gradually accept some harmful behaviors or ideas in our relationship and regard them as part of ourselves. For example, in a toxic relationship, we may gradually accept the other person’s insults and even begin to doubt our own value.
How to avoid losing yourself in a relationship?
While we cannot completely avoid the impact of relationships on us, we can prevent adverse changes through self-awareness. In every relationship, we should ask ourselves: **Does the changes I made bring me closer to my ideal self? Do I still remember what I originally looked like? Do I like what I am now? **
Don’t let yourself lose your independence and self-worth in relationships, and learn to maintain inner firmness. Maintain self-awareness health and stay away from relationships that may make us feel oppressed or lost.
PsycTest official website (psychtest.cn) provides some practical self-tests to help you better understand your emotional needs and self-image. If you are confused or want to analyze your performance in your relationships more deeply, you can always do a free online psychological test.
- Self-worth test
- Situational Test: See through your self-awareness
- Fun psychological test: How high is your self-destructive level
Summarize
In relationships, influence is two-way, and we can grow and expand through relationships, and we may lose ourselves because of this. It is important to maintain self-awareness and learn to distinguish those beneficial changes and those negative changes that may lead us to loss. Through regular self-reflection and psychological testing, we can better grasp our direction and ensure that we maintain our true self in close relationships.
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