How can we get the most out of our close relationships? Research in the area of personal relationships continues to grow, but most prior work has emphasized how to overcome negative aspects. This volume demonstrates that a good relationship is more than simply the absence of a bad relationship, and that establishing and maintaining optimal relationships entails enacting a set of processes that are distinct from merely avoiding negative or harmful behaviors. Drawing on recent relationship science to explore issues such as intimacy, attachment, passion, sacrifice, and compassionate goals, the essays in this volume emphasize the positive features that allow relationships to flourish. In doing so, they integrate several theoretical perspectives, concepts, and mechanisms that produce optimal relationships. The volume also includes a section on intensive and abbreviated interventions that have been empirically validated to be effective in promoting the positive features of close relationships.

This volume presents cutting edge research and theory on stability and change in personal relationships. The first section includes chapters that describe the "scaffolding " of stability and change. It focuses on various qualities that partners bring to their relationships. The second section emphasizes ongoing processes that characterize relationships. Chapters focus on issues such as arguing and sacrificing. The final section of the volume describes the influences of social environments on stability and change in relationships. Historical and cross-cultural contexts are examined, as are social networks and the effect of technology.

How can we get the most out of our close relationships? Research in the area of personal relationships continues to grow, but most prior work has emphasized how to overcome negative aspects. This volume demonstrates that a good relationship is more than simply the absence of a bad relationship, and that establishing and maintaining optimal relationships entails enacting a set of processes that are distinct from merely avoiding negative or harmful behaviors. Drawing on recent relationship science to explore issues such as intimacy, attachment, passion, sacrifice, and compassionate goals, the essays in this volume emphasize the positive features that allow relationships to flourish. In doing so, they integrate several theoretical perspectives, concepts, and mechanisms that produce optimal relationships. The volume also includes a section on intensive and abbreviated interventions that have been empirically validated to be effective in promoting the positive features of close relationships.

This indispensible sourcebook covers conceptual and practical issues in research design in the field of social and personality psychology. Key experts address specific methods and areas of research, contributing to a comprehensive overview of contemporary practice. This updated and expanded second edition offers current commentary on social and personality psychology, reflecting the rapid development of this dynamic area of research over the past decade. With the help of this up-to-date text, both seasoned and beginning social psychologists will be able to explore the various tools and methods available to them in their research as they craft experiments and imagine new methodological possibilities.

The Atlas of Interpersonal Situations provides a systematic theoretical account for understanding the impact of situations on patterns of social interaction. Structured around descriptions of twenty-one of the most common situations that people encounter daily, this study presents the tools needed to understand how those situations influence interpersonal behavior. These descriptions are freestanding; each providing analysis, research examples, and everyday descriptions of the prototypical situation. The authors build upon interdependence theory, which stresses the manner in which outcomes are determined by the structure of interpersonal interaction. This analysis makes clear exactly what is "social" about "social psychology."

The study of close relationships is both a central topic in social psychology, and also one of the most dynamic and exciting. Each chapter in this reader is written by leading scholars in the area of relationships. Together, they reflect the diversity of the field and include both contemporary and key historical papers to give comprehensive coverage of social psychological research into the processes that govern the many relationships that are so central to our lives. Topics covered include relationship initiation and attraction, relationship development, cognition and emotion in ongoing relationships, interdependence, and relationship maintenance and deterioration. The volume also contains an introductory chapter by the editors, which sets the subject in its historical context, as well as reviewing the current state of knowledge in the field. Section introductions, discussion questions, suggestions for further reading and comprehensive indexes make this an ideal, user-friendly text for senior undergraduates and graduates in courses on close relationships.

The Atlas of Interpersonal Situations provides a systematic theoretical account for understanding the impact of situations on patterns of social interaction. Structured around descriptions of twenty-one of the most common situations that people encounter daily, this study presents the tools needed to understand how those situations influence interpersonal behavior. These descriptions are freestanding; each providing analysis, research examples, and everyday descriptions of the prototypical situation. The authors build upon interdependence theory, which stresses the manner in which outcomes are determined by the structure of interpersonal interaction. This analysis makes clear exactly what is "social" about "social psychology."

This indispensable sourcebook covers conceptual and practical issues in research design in the field of social and personality psychology. Key experts address specific methods and areas of research, contributing to a comprehensive overview of contemporary practice. This updated and expanded second edition offers current commentary on social and personality psychology, reflecting the rapid development of this dynamic area of research over the past decade. With the help of this up-to-date text, both seasoned and beginning social psychologists will be able to explore the various tools and methods available to them in their research as they craft experiments and imagine new methodological possibilities.

Understanding interpersonal relationships requires understanding actors, behaviors, and contexts. This 2002 volume presents research from a variety of disciplines that examine personal relationships on all three levels. The first section focuses on the factors that influence individuals to enter, maintain, and dissolve relationships. The second section emphasizes ongoing processes that characterize relationships and focuses on issues such as arguing and sacrificing. The third and final section demonstrates that the process of stability and change are embedded in social, cultural, and historical contexts. Chapters address cultural universals as well as cross-cultural differences in relationship behaviors and outcomes. The emergence of relational forms, such as the interaction between people and computers, is also explored. Stability and Change in Relationships will be of interest to a broad range of fields, including psychology, sociology, communications, gerontology, and counselling.

A hallmark of contemporary social psychology is the methodological inventiveness of its researchers. Social psychologists are relentless in their pursuit of novel methods with which to advance their understanding of social behavior. Indeed, some of the most important new methods of the past three decades have come out of social psychological laboratories, and the result is the rapid advance of the social psychological toolbox. This five-volume collection brings together a diverse assortment of the most important contributions in this area, combining methodology with substantive empiricism, and including papers that represent many of the most important methodological innovations to emerge from the past few decades of research. Compiled and introduced by a leading voice in the field, this major work has been created to serve as a far-reaching and conceptually broad resource for scholars worldwide. Volume One: Lab Methods for Studying Social Cognitive Processes Volume Two: Lab Methods for Studying Other Social-Psychological Processes Volume Three: Methods for Studying Social Psychological Processes in Naturalistic Settings Volume Four: Quantitative Tools and Applications: Classic Issues and Approaches Volume Five: Quantitative Tools and Applications: Contemporary Innovations

Close relationships provide a fundamental context for human behaviour and development and as such the study of close relationships has in recent years become a major theme in social psychology. This field produces rich and diverse research that can be daunting to access. Psychology of Close Relationships emphasizes original empirical investigations, as well as including conceptual papers that set the stage for relationship science or that build basic theories. Volume One: Theoretical Foundation - Why Relationships Matter focuses on basic theoretical arguments about the importance of relationships for human behaviour and demonstrations of the consequences of relationships for health and well-being. Volume Two: Attraction and Relationship Development covers the initiation and development of relationships by looking at classic processes such as similarity, proximity, familiarity and attractiveness, as well as material on friendship formation, self-disclosure, and intimacy. Volume Three: Relationship Cognition and Emotion includes articles on the emotional and cognitive processes that characterize relationships. Volume Four: Relationship Maintenance Processes delves into the processes relevant to maintaining and enhancing relationships and investigates interdependence theory, the leading approach to this topic. Volume Five: Relationship Deterioration reviews research on the nature of relationship instability and deterioration, as well as what is known about their causes and consequences.