• PhD, University of Waterloo

My research generally examines how the motivations to (1) feel safe and protected against harm and (2) perceive meaning and value in the partner shape affect, cognition, and behavior in adult close relationships. Using the lens afforded by motivated cognition, I examine both the automatic and controlled processes implicated in the pursuit of safety and value goals. I take a person by situation perspective, examining how features of the person (e.g., self-esteem, trust) and features of the situation (e.g., risk) interact to guide perception, inference, and behavior. I am interested in the mechanisms that govern behavior in specific situations (e.g., a conflict, a support encounter) as well as the processes that forecast the relationship’s eventual fate.

My current research integrates relationship goal pursuits with the broader existential goal to perceive life as meaningful. This research assumes that perceptions of meaning in life depend on experiences inside and outside the relationship making sense. But because random everyday events can violate such expectations, people flexibly shift bases of meaning, finding compensatory order in the world when relationship experiences are nonsensical and finding compensatory order in the relationship when events in the world are nonsensical. These sense-making dynamics have fascinating and paradoxical implications for personal and relationship resilience that my laboratory will be exploring.

Books

• Murray, S. L. & Holmes, J. G. (2017). Motivated cognition in relationships: The pursuit of belonging. New York: Routledge/Taylor & Francis.
• Murray, S. L. & Holmes, J. G. (2011). Interdependent minds: The dynamics of close relationships. New York: Guilford.

Journal Articles

• Murray, S. L., Lamarche, V. M., Pascuzzi, G. S., Allred, C., Seery, M. D., & McNulty, J. K. (2026). Generating collective social safety in times of political change: The motivating effects of inexplicable behavior. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. https://doi.org/10.1177/01461672261468878
• Murray, S. L., & Pascuzzi, G. S. (2026). Are men more dependent or more powerful than women? Behavioral and Brain Sciences. 10.1017/S0140525X25102343
• Murray, S. L., & Pascuzzi, G. S. (2026). Truer of relationship initiation than maintenance? Behavioral and Brain Sciences. 10.1017/s0140525x25102112
• Murray, S. M., Seery, M. D., White, H., Quinton, W. J., & Lyman, C. (2025). The cascading effects of parent (low vs. high) self-esteem: Implications for academic self-trust in stereotype-vulnerable students. Self and Identity, 25, 143-166. https://doi.org/10.1080/15298868.2025.2562866 
• Murray, S. L., Gabriel, S., Lamarche, V.M., Seery, M. D., McNulty, J., K., Ward, D., & Naidu, E. (2025). When do real-world rejections motivate people to seek out symbolic social bonds? Insights from the risk-regulation model. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. 10.1177/01461672251384699
• Wood, J. V., Forest, A. L., Frisen, J., Murray, S. L., Holmes, J. G., & McNulty, J. K. (2024). Self-esteem and romantic relationship quality. Nature Reviews, 3, 27-41.
• Murray, S. L., & Pascuzzi, G. (2024). Pursuing safety in social connection: A flexibly fluid perspective on risk-regulation in relationships. Annual Review of Psychology, 75.
• Murray, S. L. (2023). Regulating relationship risk: Partner responsiveness as a safety signal. Current Opinion in Psychology. 10.1016/j.copsyc.2023.101582  
• Murray, S. L., McNulty, J., Xia, J., Lamarche, V., Seery, M. D., Ward, D., Griffin, D. W., Hicks, L, Jung, H. Y. (2023). Pursuing safety in social connection regulates the risk-regulation, social-safety, and behavioral-immune systems. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 125(3), 519–547. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspi0000420
• Murray, S.L., Xia, J., Lamarche, V. L., Seery, M. D., McNulty, J., Griffin, D. W., Ward, D., Jung, H. Y., Hicks, L., & Dubois, D. (2023). A moth to a flame? Fulfilling connectedness needs through romantic relationships protects conspiracy theorists against COVID-19 misinformation. Current Research in Ecological and Social Psychology, 4, 100111. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cresp.2023.100111
• Murray, S. L., Xia, J., Lamarche, V. M., Seery, M. D., McNulty, J., Ward, D. E., Griffin, D. W., & Hicks, L. (2023). Sensitizing the behavioral-immune system: The power of social pain. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 14(4), 371–380.
• Murray, S.L., Xia, J., Lamarche, V., Seery, M.D., McNulty, J. K., Griffin, D. W., Ward, D. E., & Hicks, L. L. (2022). Trust as a daily defense against collective disease threats. Current Research in Ecological and Social Psychology, 3, 100071. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cresp.2022.100071.
• Lamarche, V., Seery, M. D., Murray, S. L., Kondrak, C. L., Saltsman, T. L., & Streamer, L. (2022). Ecologically motivated relationship safety regulation. Current Research in Ecological and Social Psychology, 3, 100061. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cresp.2022.100061
• Murray, S. L., Seery, M. D., Lamarche, V., Jung, H. Y., Saltsman, T. L., Griffin, D. W., Dubois, D., Xia, J., Ward, D. E., & McNulty, J. (2021). Looking for safety in all the right places: When threatening political reality strengthens family relationship bonds. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 12, 1193-1202.
• Murray, S. L., Lamarche, V., Seery, M.D., Jung, H. Y., Griffin, D. W., & Brinkman, C. (2021). The social-safety system: Fortifying relationships in the face of the unforeseeable. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 120, 99-130.

• Scientific Impact Award, Society of Experimental Social Psychology 
• Theoretical Innovation Award, Society of Personality and Social Psychology 
• Career Trajectory Award, Society of Experimental Social Psychology
• Berscheid-Hatfield Award for Distinguished Mid-Career Achievement, International Association of Relationships Research 
• SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Scholarship and Creative Activities