What is it that moves and motivates us in our lives? Martijn van Zomeren proposes social relationships are at the essence of this key question and, in a fascinating investigation into human motivation, he develops a novel and integrative psychological theory termed 'selvations theory'. The theory suggests that we are essentially relational beings that seek to regulate relationships in response to felt changes in our network of relationships (selvations). However, we need to do this in culturally appropriate ways and this is where our culturally construed self comes to be of use. From Self to Social Relationships constitutes a powerful argument about human essence, integrating major theories in and around psychology, which has strong implications for the study and practice of social motivation.

Martijn van Zomeren is Associate Professor in the Department of Social Psychology at Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, The Netherlands. In 2009 he was awarded a prestigious VENI grant from the Dutch Science Foundation and in 2011 he was awarded the Kurt Lewin Medal, an early career award from the European Association for Social Psychology. Dr van Zomeren has published a number of contributions to the literature on collective action and social change in high-impact psychology journals.

Prologue; Part I. Assumptions: 1. Toward theoretical integration; 2. A shift from self to selvations; Part II. Selvations Theory: 3. Selvations theory I: value infusion; 4. Selvations theory II: coping with value-infused events; Part III. Implications: 5. So what?; Epilogue.