What do short-term and long-term relationships look like? Building the relationship coordination and strategic timing (ReCAST) model.

Abstract

Close relationships research has examined committed couples (e.g., dating relationships, marriages) using intensive methods that plot relationship development over time. But a substantial proportion of people's real-life sexual experiences take place (a) before committed relationships become "official" and (b) in short-term relationships; methods that document the time course of relationships have rarely been applied to these contexts. We adapted a classic relationship trajectory-plotting technique to generate the first empirical comparisons between the features of people's real-life short-term and long-term relationships across their entire timespan. Five studies compared long-term and short-term relationships in terms of the timing of relationship milestones (e.g., flirting, first sexual intercourse) and the occurrence/intensity of important relationship experiences (e.g., romantic interest, strong sexual desire, attachment). As romantic interest was rising and partners were becoming acquainted, long-term and short-term relationships were indistinguishable. Eventually, romantic interest in short-term relationships plateaued and declined while romantic interest in long-term relationships continued to rise, ultimately reaching a higher peak. As relationships progressed, participants evidenced more features characteristic of the attachment-behavioral system (e.g., attachment, caregiving) in long-term than short-term relationships but similar levels of other features (e.g., sexual desire, self-promotion, intrasexual competition). These data inform a new synthesis of close relationships and evolutionary psychological perspectives called the Relationship Coordination and Strategic Timing (ReCAST) model. ReCAST depicts short-term and long-term relationships as partially overlapping trajectories (rather than relationships initiated with distinct strategies) that differ in their progression along a normative relationship development sequence. (PsycINFO Database Record

Relationship Trajectories: A Meta-Theoretical Framework and Theoretical Applications

“…Although scholars occasionally examine initial attraction longitudinally Bahns, Crandall, Gillath, & Preacher, 2017;Eastwick & Finkel, 2008b;Reis, Maniaci, Caprariello, Eastwick, & Finkel, 2011;Sharabi & Caughlin, 2017;Sprecher & Duck, 1994), such studies are rare. Even rarer are studies that attempt to capture the "official" formation of a relationship-defined as the moment two people agree they are romantic partners (Campbell, Chin, & Stanton, 2016;Eastwick & Finkel, 2008a;Eastwick, Keneski, Morgan, McDonald, & Huang, 2018). Consequently, we know remarkably little about what takes place between the moment two strangers meet and the moment they form a mutually recognized, committed romantic partnership (Campbell & Stanton, 2014;Eastwick & Finkel, 2008c).…”

“…Instead, most relationships emerge over time from among people's networks of friends and acquaintances (Bleske-Rechek, Joseph, Williquette, & Donovan, 2016;Hunt et al, 2015;Ingham, Woodcock, & Stenner, 1991;Kaestle & Halpern, 2005;Manning, Giordano, & Longmore, 2006;Walsh, Fielder, Carey, & Carey, 2014). Indeed, the time elapsed between when two people first meet and when they officially establish a romantic relationship typically spans months or years (Eastwick et al, 2018;Hunt et al, 2015). Furthermore, sexual encounters with strangers constitute a small fraction of people's sexual experiences, even among sexually active young adults (Manning et al, 2006;Walsh et al, 2014).…”

“…Recent empirical evidence supports this central hypothesis of the ReCAST model (Eastwick et al, 2018). In five studies, participants were told to think about a real "longterm committed romantic relationship" or a "short-term romantic relationship (e.g., a fling, one-night-stand, or brief affair)" they had experienced.…”

“…Note. Average level of romantic interest reported by participants about their real-life short-term (dotted line) and long-term (solid line) relationships at each event (data from Eastwick et al, 2018). The number of events varied across participants, so these trajectories were calculated until the point that less than half of the original sample size remained.…”

Effects of Relationship Goal on Linguistic Behavior in Online Dating Profiles: A Multi-Method Approach

“…People's online dating intentions and relationship goals may differ: some aim for a traditional life-lasting relationship, where intended intimacy goals may eventually develop into long-term commitment (Sternberg, 1986;Eastwick et al, 2018). These people start dating someone with the intention, but not certainty, of a high-involved relationship (Buunk et al, 2002).…”