ABSTRACT
This chapter sets the stage for motivational competition by revealing that safety and value are necessarily interconnected goal pursuits. It turns to research on the risk regulation model to highlight the motivational sway safety often holds over value. The chapter applies the risk regulation model to explain why relationships so often frustrate the belongingness needs of people most in need of romantic connection. It illustrates the generality of risk regulation by showing its imprint on general behavioral systems for approach and avoidance. The chapter demonstrates that safety's imperial control over value has such a large footprint, and turns to the specifics and examines how safety's regulation of value affects the daily lives of couples like Skyler and Walt. It considers reversals in goal priorities play out next as we turn to the role that self-esteem plays in regulating the tension between safety and value goal pursuits.
