Turning Points in Developing Romantic Relationships

Abstract

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

The expression of compassionate love in everyday compassionate acts

“…Underwood (2009) theorized that CL is most likely to be beneficial when partners have a shared perspective about their interaction. Yet, relationship partners often disagree about their interactions, even when focusing on relatively concrete behaviors (e.g., Baxter & Bullis, 1986;Thomas & Fletcher, 1997). These differences may reflect motivated cognition-for example, people tend to interpret partners' behavior in a manner that reflects their motives, personality traits, or situationally specific goals (Baldwin, 1992;Murray, 1999).…”

When a Small Thing Means so Much: Nonverbal Cues as Turning Points in Relationships

“…They have also had interest in particular changes that the turning points bring about, such as levels of commitment, relational satisfaction (e.g., Baxter & Bullis, 1986;Surra, 1987), self-efficacy (i.e., Docan-Morgan, 2011), and closeness (e.g., Golish, 2000;Johnson, Wittenberg, Villagran, Mazur, & Villagran, 2003;Johnson et al, 2004;Poulos, 2012). As noted, nonverbal behavior has not been the primary focus of this scholarship.…”

“…First, previous research only suggests a few behaviors-touch, space, environment, and time-that may trigger relational change. To better assess the types of cues recognized as important to turning points, and consistent with similar arguments made in other contexts (e.g., Docan-Morgan & Manusov, 2009) Second, Baxter and Bullis (1986) Third, given that nonverbal behaviors are both indicators of relationships (Guerrero & Floyd, 2006) and also are made sense of within the larger narrative of a relationship (Manusov & Koenig, 2001), we ask the following: Last, the current study also investigates the reported outcomes of relational turning points. As noted, most research (e.g., Golish, 2000) on relational turning points examines only one outcome variable (i.e., closeness).…”

“…In their investigation of romantic partners, for example, Baxter and Bullis (1986) noted that two behaviors associated with touch-first kiss and first sex-were important events in escalating relationship commitment. They also found other turning points associated to some degree with physical space, often discussed as a form of nonverbal communication.…”

A self-determination theory perspective on mentoring relationships at work

“…Turning point analysis investigates the changing nature of relationships by examining events that contribute to specific changes. Turning points are events that create positive or negative changes in a relationship, and are associated with relational satisfaction, commitment, and metacommunication (Baxter & Bullis, 1986). Examining turning points may lead to a better understanding of which events relate to change in mentoring relationships.…”