Drawing on significance quest theory, we hypothesized that when people in romantic relationships experience a general feeling of significance loss, they should develop an obsessive passion toward their partner, which in turn should enhance their willingness to act in an extreme manner to maintain their relationship (i.e., their remaining source of significance). To test this hypothesis, we ran two cross-sectional studies and a longitudinal one. The first operationalized extreme behaviors through self-sacrifice. The second considered obsessive relational intrusion (ORI) to be an example of extreme behavior. The third study tested whether the consequentiality among variables we considered was that hypothesized and ensured that the hypothesized model remained consistent also while considering the possible overlap between significance loss (i.e., quest for significance) and low self-esteem. Results confirmed our hypothesis, suggesting that love, amorous relationships, and romantic partners are perceived as fruitful in maintaining or restoring one's personal sense of significance. Notably, this research represents one of the first applications of both the significance quest theory and, secondarily, the theory of motivational imbalance, to the context of romantic relationships.

中文翻译：

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当人们感到自己微不足道时，他们会对自己的多情伴侣表现出极端的行为

根据意义追寻理论，我们假设，当恋爱关系中的人们普遍感到意义丧失时，他们应该对伴侣产生一种强迫性的热情，这反过来又会增强他们以极端方式行事来维持关系的意愿。即，它们剩余的意义来源）。为了检验这一假设，我们进行了两项横断面研究和一项纵向研究。第一个通过自我牺牲来实施极端行为。第二个认为强迫性关系入侵（ORI）是极端行为的一个例子。第三项研究测试了我们考虑的变量之间的后果是否是假设的，并确保假设的模型保持一致，同时考虑意义丧失（即追求意义）和低自尊之间可能的重叠。结果证实了我们的假设，表明爱情、恋爱关系和浪漫伴侣被认为在维持或恢复一个人的个人意义感方面富有成效。值得注意的是，这项研究代表了意义探索理论和动机失衡理论在浪漫关系背景下的首次应用之一。