594 vI. SELF‑ AND S OCIAL P ROCESSES
the desired end states toward which people 
strive when they enter social interactions. At 
the broadest level, people strive to meet their 
needs for agency, communion, and psycho -
logical coherence. Depending on the nature 
of the relationship (e.g., Kelley & Thibaut, 
1978), these broadly defined goals may also 
give rise to various midlevel goals, such 
as self-  verification, ingratiation, and self- 
promotion (Jones & Pittman, 1982), as well 
as specific goals, such as garnering the affec -
tions of a particular person.
Targets’ initial identities and relationship 
goals should guide them toward certain en -
vironments and situations. Indeed, all or -
ganisms gravitate toward environments— 
or “opportunity structures” (e.g., Hawley, 
1950; McCall & Simmons, 1966)—that 
routinely satisfy their needs (e.g., Clarke, 
1954; Odum, 1963). For example, people’s 
identities may guide them toward certain 
vocations, living environments, hobbies, 
and leisure activities, thereby ensuring that 
the experiences they routinely encounter are 
ones that support and buttress their chron -
ic identities (cf. Caspi & Roberts, 1999). 
Moreover, people may choose interaction 
partners who seem similar to them (Byrne, 
1971), who share their reactions to the world 
(Bosson, Johnson, Niederhoffer, & Swann, 2006; Pinel, Long, Landau, Alexander, & 
Pyszczynski, 2006) or who like them (Lowe 
& Goldstein, 1970; Sprecher, 1998).
Interestingly, the evidence that targets 
prefer partners who like them may reflect 
a desire for appraisals that verify people’s 
identities. Because the majority of people in 
unselected samples have positive self-views, 
for most people, positive evaluations (e.g., 
appraisals that indicate that one is viewed 
favorably) are more self-  verifying than 
negative evaluations. When researchers do  
measure targets’ self-views, evidence of self- 
verification strivings emerges even among 
people with negative self-views. For exam -
ple, a meta-  analysis of self-  verification in 
marriage relationships revealed that people 
enjoyed superior relationship quality if their 
spouses perceived them in a self-  verifying 
manner (Kwang & Swann, 2010), and this 
was true whether people’s self-views were 
positive or negative. Furthermore, people 
display self-  verification strivings cross- 
culturally (e.g., Seih, Buhrmester, Lin, 
Huang, & Swann, 2013) and at the level 
of personal self-views (Swann, Pelham, & 
Krull, 1989), social self-views, and collec -
tive self-views (Chen, Chen, & Shaw, 2004; 
Gómez, Seyle, Huici, & Swann, 2009; 
Lemay & Ashmore, 2004).Target’s 
Identity 
and Goals
Perceiver ’s 
Identity 
and GoalsOutcomes: 
• Goal Attainment
• Relations hip 
 Quality
• Well-Being
• Produc tivity
• Etc.Target’s 
Upda ted
Identity 
and GoalsTarget’s 
Situated
Identity 
Perceiver ’s 
Situated 
AppraisalPerceiver ’s 
Upda ted 
Identity 
and GoalsBehavi oral Negot iation Mecha nisms 
(identity cues, impression m anage ment, etc.) 
Intrapsychic Mechani sms (selective attention,
biased interpretation, etc.)
FIGURE 27.1. A process model of identity negotiation.