1 Department of Psychology, University of Pittsburgh.
2 Department of Psychology, Oakland University.
Perspect Psychol Sci. 2018 May;13(3):373-389. doi: 10.1177/1745691617744522. Epub 2018 Apr 11.
Interpersonal relationships and goal pursuit are intimately interconnected. In the present article, we present a people-as-means perspective on relationships. According to this perspective, people serve as means to goals-helping other people to reach their goals in a variety of ways, such as by contributing their time; lending their knowledge, skills, and resources; and providing emotional support and encouragement. Because people serve as means to goals, we propose that considering relationship processes in terms of the principles of goal pursuit can provide novel and important insights into the ways that people think, feel, and behave in these interpersonal contexts. We describe the principles of means-goals relations, review evidence for each principle involving people as means, and discuss implications of our approach for relationship formation, maintenance, and dissolution.
人际关系和目标追求是密切相关的。在本文中，我们提出了一种将人际关系视为手段的观点。根据这一观点，人们是达到目标的手段——通过各种方式帮助他人实现目标，例如贡献时间；提供知识、技能和资源；以及提供情感支持和鼓励。由于人们是达到目标的手段，我们提出，从目标追求的原则的角度来考虑关系过程，可以为人们在这些人际环境中思考、感受和行为的方式提供新颖而重要的见解。我们描述了手段-目标关系的原则，回顾了涉及将人视为手段的每个原则的证据，并讨论了我们的方法对关系形成、维持和破裂的影响。
