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Two of the most important developmental tasks in adolescence are developing autonomy and establishing relationships (i.e., friendships and romantic relationships). Self-socialization processes are ...

School-based mentoring programs are one of the most popular types of prevention programs offered to support students' social-emotional and academic success. Because a high-quality mentoring relationship is thought to be a mechanism for improving youth outcomes, we investigated how mentor- and mentee-relationship quality develops over time. In addition, we examined how relationship development varied as a function of three approaches to selecting mentoring activities (i.e., mentor-directed, program-directed, or jointly determined). We used a random-intercepts crossed-lagged panel model to test how mentor and mentee reports of relationship quality developed over three time points across one school year. Data were gathered from 2014 to 2018 and included 47,699 youth (56% female; 51% Black or Hispanic) who participated in Big Brothers Big Sisters-which provides school-based mentoring services to youth across the U.S. Results indicated that mentors' positive appraisals of the mentoring relationships led to positive appraisals from the mentee at the subsequent time point. In addition, when mentors and mentees jointly determined activities, we found evidence that mentors' and mentees' positive appraisals at one time point led to positive appraisals at the following time point. These results suggest that school-based mentoring programs should consider ways to support joint decision-making among mentors and mentees participating in school-based mentoring programs. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

The current study examined trajectories of relationship confidence, defined as the belief that oneself and the partner together have the skills needed to navigate conflict and maintain a partnership into the future. This study uses data from a sample of 1,294 partnered but unmarried young adults to examine trajectories of relationship confidence across 11 waves of assessment over more than 4 years and the between- and within-person predictors of those trajectories. On average, relationship confidence was high at the outset of the study and remained stable over time. Underlying the overall stability, however, men's and women's trajectories flowed in opposite directions. Women started with more confidence than men, and their confidence decreased over time while men's increased, although the analysis of individuals rather than couples must be considered when interpreting this finding. Individuals in longer partnerships, who were cohabiting at Wave 1, with lower levels of avoidant attachment, more frequent positive interactions and higher satisfaction at Wave 1, and those who married during the study, had higher initial relationship confidence. Having children with a prior partner predicted lower initial confidence and faster decreases over time only for women. At the within-person level, relationship confidence was higher than usual at waves when more positive interactions, less negative interactions, and higher relationship satisfaction were reported, particularly for women. Results highlight the substantial variability in trajectories of relationship confidence among individuals in unmarried relationships as well as an array of factors that influence its development. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Sharing information about oneself, or self-disclosing, is a fundamental interpersonal process that facilitates the attainment of key developmental milestones during adolescence. Changes in self-disclosure behaviors support the social reorientation that sees children dependent on their parents become increasingly reliant on peers for social and emotional support. Neuroimaging research has highlighted protracted maturation of the structure and function of brain regions that support social cognitive and reward processes underlying self-disclosure during adolescence. This review explores behavioral and neural trends in self-disclosure during adolescence, including research that uses novel experimental paradigms to extend the field beyond self-report measures. Findings show that certain aspects of self-disclosure behavior have adapted to changing social environments, but they remain intrinsically valued across the adolescent period and are essential for relationship development, identity formation and overall self-worth and well-being.

A textual relationship is defined as a relationship where intimacy with a partner is primarily sustained through text messaging. In a textual relationship, face-to-face (FtF) contact rarely, if eve...

This study, with a sample (N = 735) of both university students and non-student adults, examined the various strategies that men and women believe they would use to initiate romantic contact with an attractive other in four different settings: social gathering, bar/nightclub, class/workplace, and Facebook. We found that men to a greater degree than women reported they would use direct approaches (e.g., initiate a conversation) and women to a greater degree than men reported they would use the indirect strategy of having a friend introduce them and the passive strategy of waiting for the other to do something. Men’s greater expectation of being direct in relationship initiation (relative to women) was found across the settings. Shyness was associated with the lower likelihood of expecting to be direct in initiation strategies, although the strength of the association was stronger for men than for women and depended on both the particular initiation strategy and the setting. The findings offer insights into the dynamics of relationship development and how plans for initiation strategies may differ for men and women, including the differential influence of shyness on romantic initiation for men and women.

The Fundamentals of Care Framework is an evidence-based, theory-informed framework that conceptualises high-quality fundamental care. The Framework places the nurse-patient relationship at the centre of care provision and outlines the nurse behaviours required for relationship development. Numerous instruments exist to measure behavioural aspects of the nurse-patient relationship; however, the literature offers little guidance on which instruments are psychometrically sound and best measure the core relationship elements of the Fundamentals of Care Framework. This study evaluated the quality of nurse-patient relationship instruments by (1) assessing their content development and measurement properties (e.g. dimensionality, targeting, reliability, validity) and (2) mapping instrument content to the Framework's core relationship elements: trust, focus, anticipate, know, and evaluate. Twenty-seven instruments were evaluated. Findings demonstrated that patients and nurses were rarely involved in item development. Most instruments exhibited poor measurement properties, with only one instrument having complete information on all quality indicators. Instrument content focused primarily on nurses getting to know patients and earning their trust, with only 54, 18, and 1 item(s), respectively, measuring 'focus', 'anticipate' and 'evaluate'. Hence, there does not appear to be a robust instrument measuring behavioural aspects of nurse-patient relationships, nor one capturing the relationship elements of the Fundamentals of Care Framework.

Maternal relationship characteristics have been found to impact academic and behavioral outcomes for youth. However, less is known about how and through what mechanisms these characteristics impact outcomes for mentored youth. In this study, we examined if mentoring relationship quality mediated the relations between maternal relationship characteristics and academic and behavioral outcomes targeted by mentoring programs. Data were drawn from 205 participants who participated in a mentoring program that pairs adolescent girls with college women mentors for 1 year of mentoring. Mentoring relationship quality was the hypothesized mechanism of change and was included in the analysis as a mediator. Results revealed that maternal relationship characteristics (i.e., maternal quality communication/trust and maternal alienation) were directly related to academic and behavioral outcomes of mentoring. The relationship between maternal relationship characteristics and behavioral outcomes was mediated by mentoring relationship quality. Results suggested that girls with stronger maternal quality communication and trust as well as girls who felt more alienated from their mothers may benefit more from mentoring. Results can be used to inform mentor training to include a focus on relationship development with girls experiencing a variety of relational difficulties with their mothers to help improve targeted mentoring outcomes.

This chapter examines the lived experiences of a Black woman who battled Imposter Syndrome while pursuing her doctoral degree at a predominately White institution (PWI). The author shares how her battle with Imposter Syndrome challenged her belief in herself and caused her to feel unworthy. She offers insight into her journey through the doctoral process at a PWI and how she overcame Imposter Syndrome. Further, the author provides advice to other Black women in doctoral programs at PWIs who are encountering Imposter Syndrome, while also offering strategies to overcome Imposter Syndrome that include relationship development, maintaining a support system, and never losing sight of what inspires you.

Developmental changes in adolescents’ relationships with parents and friends intertwine, but individual differences in these relationships are likely to emerge as not all adolescents develop similarly. Generalized anxiety symptoms may underlie these individual differences, as these symptoms have frequently been associated with interpersonal difficulties. This study examines relationship quality development with parents and friends in adolescents with low and high levels of generalized anxiety symptoms. A latent transition analysis was performed in a two-cohort five-wave study design covering ages 12 to 16 (n = 923, 50.8% males) and 16 to 20 (n = 390, 43.4% males). About one-third of adolescents with high levels of generalized anxiety symptoms perceived a turbulent relationship with both their parents and best friends, whereas only one-tenth of those with low levels of generalized anxiety symptoms did. Low levels as opposed to high levels of generalized anxiety symptoms predicted a twice as high likelihood to perceive harmonious relationships with both their parents and best friends. Nevertheless, adolescents with low and high levels of generalized anxiety symptoms exhibited similar trends in relationship development. Overall, our findings indicate that generalized anxiety symptoms are not deterministic markers for relationship difficulties as there were plenty of adolescents with high levels of generalized anxiety symptoms that experienced no relationship difficulties across adolescence.

In recent years, the development of online health-consultation platforms has drawn significant research attention to online patient–doctor relationship development, particularly in developing count...

This research aims to investigate the suitable measurement method of human capital quality and its indicators including both extrinsic and intrinsic factors. Research data were collected randomly from more than 400 students per chosen university in different academic years at the current five most famous economic universities in Vietnam, with 1796 observations and 2100 questionnaires. By combining the use of qualitative and quantitative methods with the support of EVIEW 10 and STATA 22 software, the study was conducted evaluate the impact of four extrinsic factors (academic staffs, administration services, curriculum structure, and infrastructure) and seven intrinsic factors that reflect students’ motivation (learning purpose, acquiring knowledge ability, learning method, hardworking, self-awareness, and relationship development) on human capital quality (expressed through knowledge, skills, and attitudes). The research results indicate that students’ motivation is the most important factor promoting human capital quality whereas administration services and infrastructure has a negative impact on human capital quality. Furthermore, while academic staffs only influence slightly and positively on students’ attitudes curriculum structure can impact both students’ skills and attitudes.

Purpose Partnering has been at the top of the management agenda in the construction industry for many years as a means of improving performance. Previous research shows that partnering has not reached the desired level of strategic partnering, but stopped at project partnering. The purpose of this paper is to provide an analytical framing for transformation from project partnering towards strategic partnering with suppliers. Design/methodology/approach The framework is based on two building blocks: a case study of a contractor involved in implementing strategic partnering with four of its suppliers and a literature review dealing with partnering in construction; and models for close and long-term buyer-supplier collaboration in other contexts. Findings Transformation towards strategic partnering should preferably be based on extension of project partnering in two dimensions: extension in time through relationship development with suppliers and extension in space through increasing network orientation across projects. Practical implications Succeeding with relationship development and network orientation requires contractors to abandon two significant aspects of established construction logic that serve as significant implementation barriers. Competitive bidding in single projects needs to be replaced by collaboration over series of projects. The decentralisation of authority to the project level needs to be supplemented with increasing centralised decision making. Originality/value Previous research showed that despite the considerable interest in partnering there is a lack of systematic theorizing of the phenomenon. This paper contributes to theoretical anchoring through the combining of the case study and the literature review in the abductive approach applied.

China and ASEAN have long history on their relationship. One of ASEAN countries, Indonesia, along with China are two big countries in Asia with similar national interests and objectives in partnership, which are peace and prosperity of G20, APEC, 10+1, and 10+3, in which Indonesia is an active participant. One of the cooperation between China and ASEAN is through education. Indonesia may promote student exchange as well as proposing the idea of students exchange in various forums such as ASEAN-China free-trade, culture, tourism, education and many others. However, the data shown that the proportion of ASEAN students in China do not reflect the proportion of population of each ASEAN countries. �Indonesia, the largest country by population, only sends the second biggest number of students to China behind Thailand, which puts the most students in China Education. �This paper discusses the ups and downs of Indonesia-China relationship in education. SWOT analysis is used to see Indonesia-China relationship in the perspective of ASEAN. It can be concluded that cooperation among countries is inevitable measure facing the more challenging world. However the rough past has created mistrust and prejudice on both sides. But the need to collaborate has shown to be beneficial in promoting education cooperation.

Objective : The objective of the article is to discuss the impact of conflicts in foreign business relationships on the performance of SMEs. Two possible ways in which conflicts influence the company’s performance are considered: direct (conflicts → company’s performance) and indirect (conflicts → business relationships → company’s performance). Research Design & Methods : The article uses the case study method and presents the results of a study of 13 SMEs operating in international markets. Findings: The article proposes a model of the positive impact of conflicts in foreign business relationships on SME performance. A model links relational and operational sources of conflicts with their direct and indirect (through relationships) impact on SME performance and positive and negative outcomes. Implications & Recommendations: The article provides information how to transform conflicts in foreign business relationships into positive outcomes. A crucial role in this respect is played by moderators: trust and informal relationship development, cultural awareness and formal action development. Contribution & Value Added: The originality of the study is that it identifies the main operational and relational sources of conflict situations that impact (directly and indirectly) SMEs performance in their international activities. The identified 4 moderators, by positively impacting SMEs foreign relationship in conflict situations, help these companies to obtain positive conflict outcomes.

The present study explored how romantic relationship qualities develop with age and relationship length. Eight waves of data on romantic relationships were collected over 10.5 years during adolescence and early adulthood from a community-based sample in a Western U.S. city (100 males, 100 females; M age Wave 1 = 15.83). Measures of support, negative interactions, control, and jealousy were derived from interviews and questionnaire measures. Using multilevel modeling, main effects of age were found for jealousy, and main effects of relationship length were found for each quality. However, main effects were qualified by significant age by length interactions for each and every relationship quality. Short relationships increased in support with age. In comparison, long-term adolescent relationships were notable in that they were both supportive and turbulent, with elevated levels of support, negative interactions, control, and jealousy. With age, long-term relationships continued to have high levels of support, but decreased in negative interactions, control, and jealousy. Present findings highlight how the interplay between age and relationship length is key for understanding the development of romantic relationships. (PsycINFO Database Record

We propose that consideration of affective events theory can enrich our understanding of leader-member exchange (LMX) development. Drawing from previous research, we argue that high-quality LMX relationships progress through three stages: role taking, role making, and role routinization. Affective events theory indicates that emotions are relevant at each of these three stages, although their influence is manifested in different ways and at different levels of analysis. During the initial role-taking stage, leaders’ affective expressions serve as affective events influencing member emotions through the processes of emotional contagion and affective empathy, which determine the progress of further relationship development. Next, during the role-making stage, leaders and members are both sources of affective events, and they may gradually become affectively entrained such that their affective states tend to fluctuate in a common rhythm. This pattern of dyadic-level affect helps to build high-quality LMX rel...

We investigated whether partners in newly developing romantic relationships adjust their goals when they experience conflict with the goals of their partner, and the consequences of goal conflict and goal adjustment. Fifty-nine newly dating couples ( N = 118) reported on their goals at an initial session and again 3 months later. Multilevel models indicated that when people reported higher conflict between a goal and their partner’s goals, they were more likely to stop pursuing as well as to devalue the importance of that particular goal over time. Furthermore, goal devaluing was associated with increases in relationship commitment over time but decreases in women’s relationship satisfaction when their partners devalued conflicting goals. Overall levels of goal conflict were associated with marginal decreases in relationship satisfaction. These results indicate that romantic partners try to adjust their goals to reduce goal conflict even in developing relationships, and that these adjustments have consequences for relationship satisfaction and commitment.

Self-disclosure happens between people and lies at the heart of almost all relationships. It elicits a dynamic process that shapes and is shaped by, relationships. We review theoretical and empirical milestones in our understanding of how and why disclosure develops, is maintained, and unravels in relationships. We show that people use their and their partners’ disclosure to discern relationship quality and negotiate relationship development.

This study analyzes how companies use Facebook to facilitate discussions with the public in two countries, Portugal and Brazil, through an exploratory content analysis of corporate Facebook pages. Overall, companies in both countries tend to recognize the relevance of Facebook in relationship development and therefore they use online strategies. Nevertheless, Portuguese companies are ahead of the Brazilian in providing calendars of events and partnerships with blogs/giveaways. They also tend to include more links to media reports. Compared to the Portuguese, the Brazilian public enjoys posting publications that express their feelings and/or emotions more. The article also discusses the implications of corporate relationship management practice.

Romantic relationships are a central focus of scientific inquiry within two psychological literatures—those on close relationships and evolutionary psychology—yet attempts to bridge these topics have been surprisingly rare. Recently, several lines of research have begun drawing from the methodological and theoretical traditions of each literature to inform the other. For example, evolutionary perspectives have recently made important contributions to the study of romantic relationships by highlighting the positive effects of negative emotions (e.g., jealousy) and the potentially negative implications of hormonal contraception use. In addition, the emphasis in the close relationships literature on relationship development over time has begun to refine scholars’ understanding of the ubiquitous evolutionary psychological distinction between short-term and long-term relationships as well as the classic concept of mate value. These lines of work exemplify how the edges of two intersecting literatures can generate intellectual sparks that ignite both fields.

What factors contribute to the effectiveness of ingratiation in the interpersonal relationship development process has been investigated for decades. Research has demonstrated that whether ingratia...

This study examines how the features of communication on Social Network Service(SNS) affect building faculty trust and long-term orientation in professor-student relationships. The research model was developed based on the previous research about communication, SNS and relationship development. The researcher surveyed 210 students to collect research data, and 195 questionnaires were analyzed using SmartPLS. The results indicate that the quality, frequency, interactivity and openness of communication on SNS affect positively on faculty trust. Moreover, the quality, frequency and openness of communication on SNS affect positively on long-term orientation, whereas interactivity does not. This mean that faculty trust plays a mediating role between interactivity and long-term orientation.

According to scientific works of such authors as Michael E. Porter, Christian Ketels, Orjan Solvell, Goran Lindqvist the cluster approach plays a vital role in the economy and in human life generally. It leads to solution to a range of problems in the case of rational implementation. A highly competitive global economy allocates too little resources to certain industries. That development of sustainable, innovative responses from industry is then vital. Nowadays the sustainable development clusters also can help to improve international competitiveness. This paper aims at understanding the cooperative relationship between different members of a cluster. A framework for cooperative relationship development in innovation and knowledge contexts is based on interdependency of cluster members’ strategies with each other, especially education and production components.

The quality of romantic relationships that parents maintain has an impact on their children. Emerging adult children base their relationships on similar values and/or opposing beliefs of their parental romantic relationships. This phenomenological study aimed to identify how African American emerging adults experience their parental romantic relationships and how they find meaning in the romantic relationships of their parents. Results suggest that African American emerging adults develop both positive and negative perceptions about romantic relationships from their parents’ relationships, which affect the way these adults perceive, develop, and maintain their own romantic unions. African American emerging adults also find meaning in their parental couple relationships as they share similar experiences in their relationship quality, mate choice, and/or personal or mate characteristics and personality traits as their parents.

This article reports a study of the experiences of school leavers with social, emotional and behavioural difficulties (SEBD), which identified supportive relationships as key elements in young people demonstrating resilience through this transitional period. Almost all the young people involved in the study had access to potential helpers, but few managed to establish productive relationships with them. Analysis of interviews, conducted over a 15 month period with a group of 15 school leavers, their parents and those who worked with them, suggested that barriers and facilitators to relationship development existed at two levels: institutional and individual. This article focuses on the individual level, in which identity processes appear to play a key role. These processes are used to explain why some school leavers built productive relationships and thrived, whilst many failed to do so, and struggled. These findings have implications for policy, practice and theory.

Online dating is characterized by computer-mediated communication (CMC) with a lessened availability of physical context cues, limiting online daters to nonverbally express themselves. This restricted amount of available cues generated a scientific research tension between the cues-filtered-in approach and the cues-filtered-out approach. Both theories were developed for CMC environments, yet only some explain self-disclosure and romantic relationship development in online dating. Next, the fact that online dating is initiated through CMC also encompasses enlarged opportunities of online dating profile manipulation. These different forms of deception can potentially harm online daters’ mental and physical health. This chapter gives an in-depth view on all the aforementioned aspects of online dating and will further discuss interpersonal trust development through self-disclosure.

In the context of an educational virtual world to assist students to gain research inquiry skills, we are seeking to use Animated Pedagogical Agents (APAs) to capture students’ emotional states and provide motivational support. We have conducted a classroom study involving an Educational Virtual World for acquiring and testing knowledge of biological concepts and science inquiry skills with a total of 30 students in Years 8–9 at a co-educational selective school. To ascertain their emotional feelings while using the VW, students encountered five APAs who greeted them by inquiring “How are you?” We found students were generally willing to disclose their emotional feeling and there were differences in emotions reported based on gender. The approach captures emotions during learning but is minimally disruptive and could aid relationship development with the APA while providing a means to validate other emotion elicitation methods.

Nursing adjuncts are hired to accommodate student enrollment needs. Considered experts in nursing service, the transition to educator is difficult. Perceptions of transition, comparison of novice adjuncts' self-identified responsibilities with full-time members' expectations for role performance, and educational topics for role development are explored. Emerging narratives identify four themes: (a) knowing requirements: must read/must follow; (b) evolving teaching role identity; (c) teaching role management; and (d) faculty relationship development.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine psychological attachment styles (secure, anxious, and avoidant) as antecedents to leader-member exchange (LMX) quality both directly and through their impact on employees’ efforts to build high quality LMX relationships. Employees with secure attachment styles are proposed to be successful at building high quality LMX relationships while employees with anxious and avoidant styles are proposed to display the opposite effect. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected through a survey of 213 employees nested in 37 work groups. Hypotheses were tested using multilevel modeling within MPlus. Findings Results indicated that secure and anxious attachment styles were associated with LMX only by impacting the exertion of effort specifically aimed at relationship development with the manager. Alternatively, the avoidant style was directly and negatively linked to LMX but not associated with effort undertaken to build a high quality relationship. Practical implications The effects of attachment style on effort to develop high quality LMX relationships reveal that subordinate attachment style may impact those subordinates’ ability and interest in developing positive LMX relationships. Therefore, managers may need to purposively deviate from typical LMX development processes in order to create a more conducive environment for developing high quality relationships with subordinates of differing attachment styles. Originality/value This study is one of the first to examine the mediating impact of effort to build high quality LMX relationships given personal propensities (attachment style) to form relationships in the workplace.

Objectives: To explore physiotherapy students' experiences of patient-student relationship development, gained through volunteering with the Action after Stroke charity, with reference to usual placement experience, and to identify any changes in students' thoughts and feelings towards patients, and subsequent effect on relationship development.

The current investigation serves to assess the usefulness, lessons learned, and leader development of eight male students in a senior level university leadership class based on reading and reflection. Thematic analysis of participants’ responses revealed three major themes to explain students’ lessons learned in leader development through journaling: (a) Relationship Development, (b) Technical Skill Development, and (c) Awareness Development. Support exists for the effectiveness of reading and reflection as a pedagogical tool for leader lesson development with a college-age sample.

Self-disclosure is vital to the maintenance and development of personal relationships, but research regarding the use of communication technologies (CTs) for self-disclosure in relationships is mixed. This study extends previous research on the topic by examining associations between reduced-cue CT use, relationship development, and self-disclosure in specific conversations in proximal romantic relationships. Participants ( N = 64) reported on each conversation with their partners over a 4-day period. Use of a reduced-cue CT in a conversation was negatively associated with self-disclosure breadth and depth in that conversation. Furthermore, the negative association between text-based CT use (text messaging, instant messaging, and e-mail) and self-disclosure breadth was weaker at higher levels of relationship development, and the negative association between voice-based CT use (telephone) and self-disclosure depth was stronger at higher levels of relationship development. These findings suggest that CTs function differently in proximal romantic relationships than in previous studies of interactions between strangers and that relationship development is an important factor in understanding self-disclosure via CTs.

This study examines the role of friendship in relationship marketing attributes. Specific friendship components are evaluated in terms of their contribution to relationship outcomes, customer loyalty, and customer commitment. We analyze the relationship between friendship and relationship marketing variables in two different service industries. For relationship development, different aspects of friendship are expected to serve as pivotal attributes. The positive effect of friendship on customer commitment and customer loyalty is examined. We also investigate the mediating role of friendship regarding other relationship marketing characteristics. Friendship is evaluated as both an antecedent and as a mediator in relationship marketing outcomes.

This paper contributes to research on inter-organizational relationship dynamics by applying a dialectical approach. We analyze a situation where the relationship parties have divergent understandings of business exchange, and use a longitudinal, in-depth single case study method to investigate their interaction process. The case study focuses on the relationship between a customer and a supplier in the ferrochrome industry, using the acquisition of the supplier as the trigger of the relationship change process. The paper contributes to studies on relationship dynamics by showing how dynamics of inter-organizational relationships may result from struggles when parties’ interests and goals do not align with existing relationship arrangements. In particular, we focus on the process of (re)construction of the relationship and its linkage to the structural properties of the relationship.

Children's parasocial relationships have been understudied, even though recent research suggests that children learn better from socially meaningful than from socially irrelevant media characters. This study articulates a model of parasocial relationship development among children and, in the process, establishes new measures of children's parasocial interactions and parasocial relationships. Parents of children ( ≤ 8 years old) completed an online questionnaire about their child's favorite media character. The measure of parental perceptions of children's parasocial relationships was composed of three dimensions: character personification, social realism, and attachment. The measure was then utilized as the endogenous variable in a model predicting parental perceptions of children's parasocial relationships. The model revealed that engagement with toy replicas of media characters, repeated media exposure, parent encouragement, and parasocial interactions were significantly related to parental perception...

Although perceived attractiveness has consistently been shown to influence interpersonal attraction, perceiving another person as more similar to oneself is also highly important for attraction. We examine how both perceptions impact unilateral initial attraction (UIA), defined as a positive reaction following the perception of an unknown target within minimal information settings. In three studies, we examine this phenomenon in a social networking site scenario, by asking participants to imagine they were browsing such a site. In Study 1, participants reported greater UIA for an attractive target, and this effect was partially mediated by perceived similarity. In Study 2, participants reported greater UIA for a target neutral in attractiveness, after being conceptually primed with similarity. This effect was mediated by perceived attractiveness. In Study 3, both perceived similarity and perceived attractiveness were associated with increases in UIA, which in turn was associated with greater interest to interact with a target neutral in attractiveness. These novel findings show the importance of perceived similarity for UIA and the importance of this phenomenon for online interactions. We conclude by discussing general implications for online social activities, specifically relationship development. info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersion

This article examines the power of interpersonal communication models and frameworks to help negotiators and counterterrorist teams reach successful outcomes during hostage negotiations. A fundamental premise is that superior communication with hostage takers, such as subtle linguistic techniques and other forms of discourse, is essential to obtain the liberation of hostages. An important theory is Mark Knapp's (1984) model of relational development, which postulates that relationships (e.g., between captors and captives) improve through constant interpersonal dialogue. The idea is that ongoing relationship development is indispensable at each stage of the hostage negotiation process. The ultimate objective is to establish rapport and move into the hostage takers’ world.

This study examines (1) the factor structure of social networking site relational behaviors (SNSRB), (2) the association between the behaviors and relational quality and breakup adjustment, and (3) whether behaviors vary as a function of relational status. Participants’ responses ( N = 363) indicated that the majority of variance in SNSRB was accounted for by 10 factors—surveillance, managing impressions through photographs, regulating usage, maintaining shared networks/contacts, oversharing, communicating directly via private messages, posting about offline activity, relationship broadcasting, status management, and privacy. Additionally, each factor was associated with the participants’ romantic relationships such as quality of current relationships, adjustment to dissolved relationships, or relational status. This study extends understanding of how technology reflects the way people interact throughout the romantic relationship lifespan.

In human service agencies, situations exist at various times in which consumers are not familiar with the staff who work with them. We evaluated effects of familiar versus unfamiliar staff working with two men with severe disabilities in a vocational program. Results indicated both participants displayed more compliance with familiar staff relative to unfamiliar staff and one exhibited more on-task (one was near ceiling levels with both staff). Subsequently, a familiarization process was conducted with four new staff before working with four men with severe disabilities that involved spending time with a participant in a preferred activity and phasing in to the participant’s routine. Each staff worked with one participant after being familiarized and concurrently with another without being familiarized. In all but one case, participant compliance was greater with the familiarized staff. Except when on-task was near ceiling levels, it also was higher with the familiarized staff. Additionally, results offered some support for the existence of a good relationship between familiarized staff and participants in terms of more participant happiness indices than with unfamiliar staff and, to a smaller degree, less unhappiness indices and problem behavior. Implications for practitioners are discussed, including being aware of potential problems when unfamiliar staff work with adults with severe disabilities and considering familiarizing new staff prior to working with individuals. Discussion also addresses how more attention could be directed to relationship development from a practitioner and research perspective.

The competitive dialogue (CD) procedure aims to align the complex demands of principals with possible solutions that contractors have to offer. It is, however, unclear how formal and informal structures and processes in the CD are interrelated and how they determine its effectiveness. The major question in this study is how informal and formal contracting processes differ between projects procured through the CD and comparable projects that are traditionally procured. In a theoretical framework, it is shown that both the negotiations and the commitment stages consist of a formal part (formal bargaining/formal legal contract) and an informal part (informal sense-making/informal psychological contract), and that these dynamically interact as problems of understanding are identified and resolved. These elements and their interactions are studied in four comparable construction projects. The results of this multiple-case study show that commitments and negotiations can substitute for one another, whereas the formal and informal processes within these stages are complementary. Problems of understanding are key in the development of both formal and informal contracts

PurposeThis paper aims to identify and evaluate the factors which influence relationship development between franchisors and franchisees in international service franchise partnerships.Design/methodology/approachCase studies of two international hotel firms were the focus of the enquiry. Interviews and document analysis were used as the data collection techniques.FindingsFindings demonstrate that role performance, asset specificity and cultural sensitivity influence relationship development in franchise partnerships. The influence of these factors, however, varies in different forms of franchise partnerships, namely individual and master franchises.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings are based on case studies in the international hotel industry and therefore may not be generalizable to other industry sectors.Practical implicationsService firms should adopt a systematic organization‐wide approach to, and management of, relationship development in franchise partnerships. In particular, in the case of cross‐country partnerships, both franchisors and franchisees need to develop and exploit their inter‐cultural skills and adapt their business practices to the cultures of host and home countries where appropriate.Originality/valueThe paper exploits three main streams of research which could inform the antecedents of business‐to‐business relationships, namely power‐dependence, transaction cost theories and international business. It thus advances services marketing and more specifically international franchising literatures by offering a holistic theoretical perspective to our understanding of business‐to‐business relationship development.

This article presents the integrative soul mates relationship development model, which provides the helping professionals with a conceptual map for couples’ relationship development from dating, to intimacy, to soul mating, and long-term flourishing. This model is informed by a holistic, a developmental, and a positive psychology conceptualization of the individual and the relationship. It integrates select concepts from narrative therapy, Gottman method, and Jungian analytic psychology. Two pictograms derived from 17th century alchemy are provided to facilitate the visual and metaphorical conceptualization of the model. The soul mates model applies to all individuals and couples interested in optimizing their relationship, regardless of marital status, religious affiliation, or sexual orientation. The model may be applied to counseling, therapy, and coaching interventions, as well as relationship education, research and measurement, courses in higher education, and couples’ workshops and retreats.

Our research deals with the role of actors in change in business relationships and networks. In this study, we explore how cognitive elaboration of experience of a relationship affects the relationship development. The link between behaviors and cognitive elaborations has been the object of recent research in marketing, but little attention has been given to the issue of cognition and behaviors when actors interact in business relationships. Given the role of relationships and their dynamics for the development of business networks, we believe that the issue deserves more attention. Also, compared to the interest in the space dimension of business networks, i.e., network pictures, perceptions of time have been under-investigated. We report findings from 84 bilateral interviews with managers involved as customers or suppliers in 21 relationships with ICT Security at two points in time. We collected their interpretations and reinterpretations of past developments, outcomes, and desired outcomes of the relationships in which they were involved. Our data suggest that the link between managers' cognitive elaborations and relationship dynamics is less direct than commonly assumed. We argue that evolution of a relationship cannot be explained by individual interpretations of the parties involved in the relationship; a preliminary finding is that actors' intentions appear more to shape the interpretations, rather than the contrary.

In this reply, we address and refute each of Norton, Frost, and Ariely’s (2011) specific objections to the conclusion that, ceteris paribus, familiarity breeds liking in live interaction. In particular, we reiterate the importance of studying live interaction rather than decontextualized processes. These rebuttals notwithstanding, we concur with Norton et al.’s call for an integrative model that encompasses both Norton, Frost, and Ariely’s (2007) results and ours, and we point readers toward a description of a possible model presented in our original article.

‘Alignment’ and ‘misalignment’ are terms commonly used both in strategy and in marketing. In B-to-B marketing, in particular, researchers investigated alignment/misalignment between customers and suppliers and recently discussed the effects of misalignment. Research in this field remains however fragmented. There is ambiguity about the objects to be aligned, the processes that characterize their change, the effects on the relationship development and the methods used to assess them. In general, the empirical research that has examined the two concepts in business relationships is limited. In this study we will develop a theoretical framework to assess alignments/misalignments in parties' interpretations of a problem and its solution for the customer, in order to address the following questions: How and why do alignment and misalignment change over time? When can misalignment be positive for the relationship development? We use data from a longitudinal study involving 84 customers and suppliers in the ICT Security Industry. The first finding is that there are no patterns in how alignment changes, but there is a slight tendency toward misalignment over time. Second, change in the alignment is mostly linked to parties' perceptions of the available resources and how these resources are combined, along with parties' interpretations of critical events. Finally, the research suggests that when parties are aware of misalignment, when misalignment is perceptual and when there are no external constraints to action, the effort to align practices produces positive effects, even when misalignment persists.

Past research indicates that social network support is linked to relationship development and continuation. This study fills a gap in the literature by examining social network influence from the perspective of network members. University students completed a survey about a relationship in their network of which they had a strong reaction, either positive or negative. Participants' social reactions to the targeted relationship were associated with the likelihood that they engaged in behaviors to try to influence the relationship. About two thirds of the participants believed that their behaviors had an influence on the outcome of the relationship, and those who reported more influence attempts also reported that they had a greater effect on the relationship. The findings help paint a picture of social network reactions, perceptions, and influence directed toward relationships, from the perspective of the social network.