Main description:

Several years ago, two of my colleagues and I had the opportunity to interview Fritz Heider-perhaps the most influential theorist in the field of social psychology (Harvey, Ickes, & Kidd, 1976). During our interview, Heider affirmed a belief that had guided his career since the 1920s, the belief that the study of human relationships is the most important task in which social scientists can engage. Although many social scientists would profess to share this belief, it is nonetheless true that the study of human relationships has been one of the most neglected tasks in the history of the social sciences-including psychology. What Heider found in the 1920s-that most psychologists acknowledged the importance of studying human relationships but at the same time tended to focus their own research on more "tractable" topics such as memory and cognition-is still very much evident in the 1980s. Even within the more specific domain of social psychology, a majority of researchers still choose to address those hybrid topics ("social cognition," "social categorization and stereotyping," "person memory," etc. ) that relate most directly to traditional areas of psychological research. Still other researchers, while choosing to study such important interpersonal phenomena as altruism, aggression, conflict, and interpersonal attraction, tend to focus so exclusively on these isolated and abstracted phenomena that they fail to provide a more inclusive view of the relationships in which these phenomena occur.

Contents:

I. Comparative and Developmental Perspectives.- 1. Predictability and Control in Relationships: A Perspective from Animal Behavior.- Dominance Relations.- Advantages and Compensations of Hierarchies.- Comparative Social Psychology.- Xenophobia.- Conclusion, Generalization, and Speculation.- 2. Compatibility in Parent-Infant Relationships: Origins and Processes.- The Dynamics and Ontogeny of Parent-Infant Interaction.- Influences on the Compatibility of Infant-Parent Relationships.- Extreme Incompatibility: A Case Study of Child Maltreatment.- Conclusion.- 3. Compatibility and Incompatibility in Children's Peer and Sibling Relationships.- Sociometric Status.- Friendships.- Sibling Relationships.- Friendships and Sibling Relationships.- The Concept of Compatibility.- II. Behavioral Interdependence: Social Exchange.- 4. Equity and Intimate Relations: Recent Research.- Equity Theory: An Overview.- Specific Equity Hypotheses for Intimate Relationships.- A Review of Existing Research.- Summary and Discussion.- The Future of Equity Research.- 5. Implications of Relationship Type for Understanding Compatibility.- Two Types of Relationships: Communal and Exchange.- Implications of the Communal/Exchange Distinction for Compatibility.- Conclusion.- III. Emotional Interdependence.- 6. Compatibility, Interdependence, and Emotion.- The Anatomy of a Relationship.- Close Relationships.- Compatible Relationships.- Close Relationships and Compatible Relationships.- Compatibility and the Endurance of Relationships.- Compatible Relationships and Healthy Relationships.- Summary.- 7. Incompatibility, Loneliness, and "Limerence".- Incompatibility Defined.- Desire and Emotion.- Loneliness and Social Needs.- Limerence: Fantasy Meets Reality.- Issues for Research.- Conclusion.- IV. Personality and Cognitive Interdependence.- 8. Sex-Role Influences on Compatibility in Relationships.- Sex Roles and Dyadic Compatibility in the Laboratory.- A Theoretical Integration.- Sex Roles and Marital Satisfaction: Survey Research.- Further Implications for Theory and Research.- 9. The Role of the Self in the Initiation and Course of Social Interaction.- Three Sources of the Impact of the Self.- Two Examples of the Impact of the Self on the Course of Social Conduct.- Compatibility: The Interdependence of Two Selves.- 10. Marital Compatibility and Mutual Identity Confirmation.- Interpersonal-Interactionist Approaches.- The Development of the Self.- A Brief Glance at Mutual Reality Maintenance in Transgenerational Perspective.- 11. Cognitive Interdependence in Close Relationships.- Interdependent Cognition.- Transactive Memory Processes.- Transactive Memory Structures.- Transactive Memory and Intimate Life.- 12. Interpersonal Perception in Relationships.- Distinctive Aspects of Personal Relationships.- Attribution and Compatibility.- Understanding and Compatibility.- Conclusion.- V. Perspectives on Marital Interaction.- 13. Compatibility in Marriage and Other Close Relationships.- Theoretical Analysis.- Compatibility in Mate Selection.- Compatibility in Marriage.- Conclusion.- 14. Assessment and Treatment of Incompatible Marital Relationships.- Marital Therapy.- Current Issues.- Conclusion.- Author Index.