This volume intergrates one contextual, developmental, and relational theory of personality socialization in the family and other settings with a complementary model of relational styles. Both the theory and the model share complementary characteristics of replicable operations in laboratory evaluation and in preventative and psychotherapeutic interventions in problems with intimate relationships. Further, both the theory and the model are linked to two major models of personality and intimate relationships, the circumplex and attachment, respectively. The theory's 15 models are derived from a variety of social psychological sources, including the social comparison model and resource exchange theory in social psychology. The complementary model, Elementary Pragmatic, owes its origins to communication and systems theories, going beyond them in specificity and applications.

Scholars and researchers looking for novel and original ideas demonstrating how to link theory with practice and evaluation with interventions will find this volume of interest.

A scientist is always led by intellectual curiosity; obviously he has collected information about the subjects of the field of interest in a systematic way (this attitude was moved by a peculiar interest that lets him investigate on all aspects of the problem, also dwelling upon aspects apparently marginal or non-traditional (this habit was not taught to him by anyone). In this case he already shows the so called "scheme-breaking" attitude rather than an attitude that would imply a systematic and essential examination of the state of art. This book addresses the scientific investigation carried out with the greatest originality driven by that intellectual curiosity but it must face the experimental evidence to get irrefutable results.