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AbstractThe self‐expansion model of love developed out of a confluence of research on attraction and arousal, Eastern psychology, motivation theory, and the social psychology of personal relationships. The model treats love (the desire for a relationship with a particular other) as arising from a desire to expand the self by including that other in the self, as well as by associating expansion with that particular other. First, the model is described, including its function as a source of heuristically important metaphors for common human experiences of love and its unique focus in relation to other approaches to love. The remainder of the article examines its application, including supporting research, to predictors of falling in love, motivations for unrequited love, consequences of falling in love, love as including each other in each other's self, and how love changes (and how it can be maintained) in long‐term relationships. The conclusion examines current trends in which the model serves as both a very general integration of useful perspectives and as a set of precise mini‐theories.

Sensory processing sensitivity (SPS) is a temperament trait found in around 20% of humans, which has been found to enhance responsiveness to diverse stimuli. In this study, we investigated for the first time the extent to which SPS, and its interaction with quality of parenting, predicts
positive and negative experiences in response to emotional stimuli. Participants (N = 96) from the upper and lower quartiles on the standard SPS measure (the Highly Sensitive Person Scale) rated the valence and their arousal level when viewing emotionally evocative and neutral pictures
selected from the International Affective Picture System. High (vs. low) SPS individuals rated pictures eliciting emotion, and especially positive ones, as significantly more valenced, and tended to respond faster to the positive pictures; also, high, vs. low, SPS individuals who had reported
having high-quality parenting reported greater arousal in response to positive pictures. Overall, results suggest that high SPS individuals respond more strongly to emotional stimuli—especially positive—without being more aroused unless they had especially high-quality parenting.

ObjectiveTo explore the relationship between sensory processing sensitivity (SPS) and parental subjective experience (PSE).BackgroundSPS is a temperament trait characterized by greater sensitivity to environmental and social stimuli; no previous research has examined the relation of SPS to PSE (e.g., how much parents feel parenting is difficult or feel connected to their child).MethodIn the first of two online studies, mothers were unaware of the study's relation to SPS (N = 92). In the second, mothers (n = 802) and fathers (n = 65) were recruited through an SPS‐related website. SPS was assessed by the short version of the Highly Sensitive Person Scale; PSE by 27 items with three components—Parenting Difficulties, Good Coparenting Relationship, and Attunement to Child.ResultsControlling or not for external stressors, negative affectivity, children's age, and socioeconomic status, high‐SPS mothers in both studies scored meaningfully higher on Parenting Difficulties and Attunement to Child; high‐SPS fathers scored higher on Attunement to Child. SPS had little association with Coparenting Relationship.ConclusionParents high in SPS report more attunement with child, although mothers found parenting more difficult.ImplicationsThis information could aid family researchers, particularly by considering the role of adult temperament. It also suggests that interventions focused on high‐SPS parents could improve their parenting experience and hence perhaps enhance child development. Thus, this research and what may follow from it could advance both theory and practice.

The results leading to this publication have received funding from the Innovative Medicines Initiative 2 Joint Undertaking under grant agreement No 777394 for the project AIMS-2-TRIALS. This Joint Undertaking receives support from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme and EFPIA and AUTISM SPEAKS, Autistica, SFARI. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript; or in the decision to publish the results. Any views expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the funders.