Ghosts from the past: an examination of romantic relationships and self-discrepancy

Researchers have previously reported a negative association between romantic involvement and the discrepancy between the actual self and the ideal self. The authors present a schema-based model of romantic involvement and self-discrepancy to help explain this association, focusing on the impact of terminated relationships--"ghosts from the past." In Study 1, participants primed with a past relationship reported increased self-discrepancy relative to participants primed with a present relationship. Study 2 indicated that this increased self-discrepancy was the result of reexperiencing emotionally negative past romantic relationships. Study 3 revealed the role of depressive affect in negative past romantic relationships. Finally, Study 4 indicated that depressive affect mediated the relation between reexperiencing negative past romantic relationships and experiencing self-discrepancy.