AUTHOR=Branand Brittany , Mashek Debra , Aron Arthur 

TITLE=Pair-Bonding as Inclusion of Other in the Self: A Literature Review

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychology

VOLUME=10

YEAR=2019

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02399

DOI=10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02399

ISSN=1664-1078

ABSTRACT=<p>This article surveys scholarship on the self-expansion model principle of inclusion of other in the self (IOS) as it relates to long-term pair-bonding (i.e., enduring adult romantic monogamous relationships). First, we introduce the concept of IOS and then provide a brief overview of prior research. We then review compelling extensions and findings related to relational concepts such as perspective taking (<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref8">Bernstein et al., 2015</xref>), social comparison (<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref34">Thai and Lockwood, 2015</xref>), self-determination (<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref41">Weinstein et al., 2016</xref>), humor (<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref36">Treger et al., 2013</xref>), and pain contagion (<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref22">Martire et al., 2013</xref>). Next, we explore two recent theoretical directions of the principle—the two-dimensional model of relational self-change (<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref27">McIntyre et al., 2015</xref>) and the perceived inclusion of the other in the self (IOS-perceived) construct (<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref35">Tomlinson and Aron, 2013</xref>). Considering these findings and their relation to pair-bonding, we propose important future directions of the IOS principle of the self-expansion model.</p>