The 80 partners from 40 romantic relationships were independently interviewed using the RIT procedure with regard to the turning points of their respective relationships; 26 types of turning points were found, which reduced to 14 supratypes. These supra-types differed in their association with relational commitment, with some events strongly positive, some strongly negative. and others relatively modest in reported change in commitment. About half of the turning points involved explicit metacommunication between the relationship parties, but the likelihood of relationship talk varied by turningpoint type. About halfof the 759 identified turningpoints were agreed upon by relationshippartners, but agreement differed depending on turning point type. Neither partner agreement nor the presence of explicit metacommunicarion was related to the respondent's current satisfaction with the relationship. However, theproportion of total turningpoints that were negative correlated negatively with current satisfaction. Two turning point events, Exclusivity and Disengagement. individually differentiated more from less satisfied relationship parties.Almost 25 years ago, Bolton (1961) argued the centrality of the"turning point" as a unit of analysis in understanding developmental processes in romantic relationships. However, to date only a handful of studies have examined relational turning points, and a basic descriptive profile is still lacking of what events are associated with relational change. As Hinde (1981) has observed, adescriptive base is crucially important if the study

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