Prefazione

[Autom. eng. transl.] "We are the most beautiful couple in the world," read the refrain of a song from a few decades ago. In this synthetic and effective expression is summarized briefly one of the most well-known phenomena in social psychology, the so-called self-enhancement, also known as better-than average effect in identity studies, as bias pro-ingroup in group contexts and known as positive illusion or illusory superiority perceived in dyadic relationships. This phenomenon is defined as the systematic tendency of individuals, groups and couples to favor themselves and to perceive themselves and their relationships as superior to others. This trend has always been associated with the theme of identity: the presence of these mechanisms would in fact be an unequivocal indicator of the achievement of an acquired sense of identity and personal belonging (sense of self), relational and social (sense of us, or we-ness). It is precisely on these mechanisms that the first challenge of this volume is centered: identifying in the concept of 'perceived superiority of the couple relationship with respect to the average' an indicator of a more or less reached identity of the couple itself, in the particular phase of the transition to marriage and analyzing the process of building the identity of the couple along this transition, highlighting the mechanisms, the protective and risk factors, the changes over time. Even the choice of dealing with 'identity' rather than 'competences' as a couple, puts this work in an original and innovative position. The literature on couples and close-relations in general abounds with research dedicated to identifying adaptive behaviors, interactive skills (communication, conflict, problem solving ...) of the couple, but it is difficult to ask the question of what does a couple a couple ', that is, on what qualifies being a couple, its identity, precisely. But the challenges that this volume launches do not end there. Already from the emblematic title 'Much more than two' the volume proposes to take a perspective that, in addition to going beyond the boundaries of the dyad in social terms, takes on an intergenerational perspective, adopting a key to understanding the transition to marriage, which takes into account relations with the families of origin and the function of resource and / or obstacle that they can play in the process of building the identity of the couple.