This volume presents seminal empirical findings that show how basic motivations to be safe from being hurt and find value and meaning control how people feel, think, and behave in close relationships. Integrating ideas from the interdependence, goals and embodiment literatures, the authors put a provocative new spin on close relationships. They highlight how motivations infuse romantic life through the vivid and evolving stories of four couples confronting different challenges in their relationship. This book is essential for social psychologists and will also be valuable to clinicians who work directly with couples to effect more happy and stable relationships.

1. Introducing Motivated Cognition 2. Embodying Safety and Value Goals 3. Pursuing Safety 4. Pursuing Value 5. Why Safety Trumps Value 6. When Value Trumps Safety 7. Reality Contraints 8. Looking Forward

Sandra L. Murray is a Professor of Psychology at the University at Buffalo, The State University of New York. Her research examines the automatic and controlled processes involved in the regulation of self-esteem, trust, and commitment in relationships. Her scholarship has received multiple awards and her research has been supported by grants from the National Institute of Mental Health and the National Science Foundation.

John G. Holmes is a Professor of Psychology at the University of Waterloo. His research focuses on the cognitive and motivational processes involved in perceiving another's motives. His teaching and scholarship has received multiple awards and his research has been supported by grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.