Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- 1 Coming Together: A Perspective on Relationships across the Life Span
- 2 Relationships as Outcomes and Contexts
- 3 Child-Parent Relationships
- 4 A Dynamic Ecological Systems Perspective on Emotion Regulation Development within the Sibling Relationship Context
- 5 Romantic and Marital Relationships
- 6 Close Relationships across the Life Span: Toward a Theory of Relationship Types
- 7 Friendship across the Life Span: Reciprocity in Individual and Relationship Development
- 8 The Consequential Stranger: Peripheral Relationships across the Life Span
- 9 Stress in Social Relationships: Coping and Adaptation across the Life Span
- 10 Social Support and Physical Health across the Life Span: Socioemotional Influences
- 11 Social Cognition and Social Relationships
- 12 Dyadic Fits and Transactions in Personality and Relationships
- 13 Relational Competence across the Life Span
- 14 Social Motivation across the Life Span
- 15 A Lifetime of Relationships Mediated by Technology
- Subject Index
- Author Index
- References
6 - Close Relationships across the Life Span: Toward a Theory of Relationship Types
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 September 2009
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- 1 Coming Together: A Perspective on Relationships across the Life Span
- 2 Relationships as Outcomes and Contexts
- 3 Child-Parent Relationships
- 4 A Dynamic Ecological Systems Perspective on Emotion Regulation Development within the Sibling Relationship Context
- 5 Romantic and Marital Relationships
- 6 Close Relationships across the Life Span: Toward a Theory of Relationship Types
- 7 Friendship across the Life Span: Reciprocity in Individual and Relationship Development
- 8 The Consequential Stranger: Peripheral Relationships across the Life Span
- 9 Stress in Social Relationships: Coping and Adaptation across the Life Span
- 10 Social Support and Physical Health across the Life Span: Socioemotional Influences
- 11 Social Cognition and Social Relationships
- 12 Dyadic Fits and Transactions in Personality and Relationships
- 13 Relational Competence across the Life Span
- 14 Social Motivation across the Life Span
- 15 A Lifetime of Relationships Mediated by Technology
- Subject Index
- Author Index
- References
Summary
In this chapter I discuss how to conceptualize and study individual patterns of close relationships consisting of multiple significant others. The discussion consists of three parts. First, I review previous research on close relationships to clarify which aspects of social relationships have already been studied and which have not been fully understood. Then I use the affective relationships model to examine how the important, but not sufficiently studied, aspects of social relationships from young childhood to old age can be conceptualized. Finally, I discuss the effectiveness of the typological analysis of this model and future directions of this research.
THE NATURE OF CLOSE RELATIONSHIPS
From the time they are born into society, humans are exposed to a variety of social relationships, and are naturally directed toward having interactions with multiple significant others for their survival, safety, and well-being. However, most researchers have focused on dyadic relationships, such as with the mother in infancy (Ainsworth, Blehar, Waters, & Wall, 1978; Bretherton & Waters, 1985; Cassidy & Shaver, 1999; Kobak & Hazan, 1991), with a friend in childhood (Dodge, Pettit, McClasky, & Brown, 1986; Jones & Vaughan, 1990; Parker & Gottman, 1989; Urberg, Degirmencioglu, Tolson, & Halliday-Scher, 1995), and with a romantic partner in adolescence and adulthood (Hazen & Shaver, 1987, 1990; Shaver, Hazen, & Bradshaw, 1988).
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Growing TogetherPersonal Relationships Across the Life Span, pp. 130 - 158Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2003
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