http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/06/health/06mind.html
"Some Protect the Ego by Working on Their Excuses Early"
by Benedict Carey
January 5, 2009
The New York Times
Basically, the point is that if you set yourself up for failure ahead of time, then you won't feel so bad when you fail. This can be a way of avoiding disappointment; of bringing your life under control.
[nerd hat]
I want to draw on this article to interpret why Kara Thrace marries Samuel Anders. It is a shocking move, given that she has recently declared her love to Lee Adama - and it's pretty fracking clear that they're meant for each other (as Dualla remarks in a deleted scene, they're linked.). The reason, I think, is this: Anders, despite being a resistance fighter, is also more or less a big kid; he's the sort who'd still be playing Halo 3 with his buds when he was thirty. Adama, on the other hand, despite his occasional problems, is more of an adult - someone who really is a mover and a shaker in the world, who is driven to do well (roughly). Kara's problem is that, despite being incredibly talented, she's constantly setting herself up for failure. She can't, in a way, accept that sort of a life. She's too afraid of failing to be willing to step up to the plate 24/7, in a way. Choosing Adama would have been much like embracing that side of her - and it's safer to go with Anders, to maintain her self-conception: a frack-up.
(I almost want to say that she puts all this away while she's in a Viper, though, considering how well she does there).
[/nerd hat]
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alternatively: http://endlessrecombination.blogspot.com/2009/01/only-part-of-us-is-sane.html
You can perhaps see some of this in the look Starbuck and Apollo exchange while embracing their loving spouses towards the end of the following episode:
http://en.battlestarwiki.org/wiki/Taking_a_Break_From_All_Your_Worries
(on this interpretation, it is her desire for Apollo, not Anders, that manifests Starbuck's self-destructive tendencies)
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