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11 - Social Networks and Change in Personal Relationships
- Edited by Anita L. Vangelisti, University of Texas, Austin, Harry T. Reis, University of Rochester, New York, Mary Anne Fitzpatrick, University of Wisconsin, Madison
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- Book:
- Stability and Change in Relationships
- Published online:
- 21 October 2009
- Print publication:
- 01 April 2002, pp 257-284
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Summary
Intimate relationships begin, develop, are maintained, change, and dissolve within a larger environment. Although personal characteristics of the pair members and properties that emerge from their interaction (e.g., love) affect the temporal course and outcome of a relationship, the larger environment also is important, and, in fact, can influence the properties that emerge in the pair's interaction. The environment includes both physical forces (e.g., proximity, physical setting) and social networks. The focus of this chapter is on social networks of family and friends and their influences on change and stability in intimate relationships.
Social scientists interested in relationship development, satisfaction, commitment, stability, and other relationship phenomena have generally neglected social environmental explanations, as noted many years ago (e.g., Ridley & Avery, 1979) and also more recently (Berscheid, 1999; Berscheid & Reis, 1998). However, theoretical and empirical contributions on the influence of social networks on intimate relationships have been growing. In the first section of this chapter, we provide a synthesis of previous theoretical statements linking social networks with personal relationships and highlight what we believe to be the network processes and attributes most likely to influence relationships. Next we discuss how these network processes and attributes are related to the formation, development, and stability versus dissolution of premarital relationships. The third section provides a review of the influence of social networks on marriage and other committed relationships.
5 - Happiness in Stable Marriages: The Early Years
- Edited by Thomas N. Bradbury, University of California, Los Angeles
- Foreword by Robert L. Weiss
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- Book:
- The Developmental Course of Marital Dysfunction
- Published online:
- 13 October 2009
- Print publication:
- 13 August 1998, pp 152-179
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Summary
With so many marriages ending in divorce, researchers studying marriage have focused their attention on factors that contribute to marital stability or breakup. Some of these factors have been structural (Kitson, 1992; Teachman & Polonko, 1990), some have been psychological (Gottman & Levenson, 1988), and some interpersonal (Gottman & Krokoff, 1989; Levinger, 1965). Hatchett, Veroff, and Douvan (1996) have dealt with all these levels of analysis simultaneously. But whether such factors are indeed responsible for especially happy marriages is yet another question. Cuber and Harroff (1965) long ago made an important distinction among types of marriages in which husbands and wives may have no question about maintaining loyalties to their spouses and the future of their bonds: Some reflected vital satisfying interdependent relationships while others did not. Among those committed to each other but less satisfied were couples who maintained highly independent life spheres in which husbands and wives had little to do with each other as well as couples whose daily interactive lives were devoid of any vital core of gratifying experience.
What accounts for satisfying marriages among those couples who are unquestionably committed to each other? That is the topic of the current chapter. Having a satisfying marriage is more than just remaining married to someone; it is more than just living by commitments to stay together until “death do us part.”