Premarital Romantic Commitment

Relational skills gained through forming committed romantic partnerships in emerging adulthood provide the foundation for sustained intimacy in later adult relationships. Commitment emerges as a crucial relational factor in the quality and longevity of romantic relationships. Twenty-nine emerging adults spoke about the meaning, expectations, and formation of commitment in romantic relationships. Results revealed that emerging adults maintain traditional values concerning monogamy, trust/respect, and planning for the future. Although the majority of the participants could readily identify what they were looking for in a romantic commitment, they hesitated to communicate their desire with their partners. Clinical implications are discussed.

Commitment among unmarried emerging adults: Meaning, expectations, and formation of relationships

Relational skills gained through forming committed romantic partnerships in emerging adulthood (ages 18–29) provide the foundation for sustained intimacy in later adult relationships. Commitment is a crucial relational factor affecting the quality and longevity of romantic relationships. This qualitative study examined the meaning, expectations, and formation of commitment in romantic relationships among 29 emerging adults using consensual qualitative research methodology. Four categories pertaining to commitment were identified: (a) meaning of commitment; (b) expectations of a committed romantic relationship; (c) considerations made prior to commitment; and (d) experience with commitment talk. Though the majority of the participants could readily identify meanings and expectations of a committed romantic relationship, they hesitated to communicate their desire with their partners. Clinical implications are discussed.

The relational orientation framework for examining culture in Chinese societies

Individualist and collectivist cultural frameworks have been the dominant research paradigm in cross-cultural studies despite evidence of conceptual and measurement problems with collectivism. We propose a new theoretical framework of psychological functioning in Chinese societies that captures some of the useful elements of collectivism without its drawbacks. The relational orientation framework takes into account the variety of relations in an individual’s social and cultural environment. The model comprises a structural–relational factor grounded in sociological structuration theory and relational orientation characteristics, and a rational–relational factor that captures important aspects of agency based on social exchange theory. We discuss the framework’s role in providing an alternative to methodological individualism for research in Chinese societies.

When and by whom are apologies considered? The effects of relationship and victim/observer standing on Japanese people’s forgiveness

Existing studies report on tendencies for first-party victims of a transgression to be less considerate of apologies compared to third-party observers when deciding on forgiveness. The present research investigated the conditions in which such discrepancies arise, focusing exclusively on the factor of one’s relational involvement with the transgressor. We presented Japanese participants (N = 116) with hypothetical cases of transgression, while varying on victim/observer standing, involvement with the transgressor, and the sincerity of presented apologies. As a result, the victim/observer discrepancy—where people who took the victim’s perspective rather than the observer’s perspective indicated decreased discrimination of the apology’s sincerity—emerged under high relational involvement. We further examined the role of trait evaluation of the transgressor as a mediator of the effect of apology on forgiveness. The test revealed that high involvement strengthens the mediation effect among the observers, while weakening the mediation among the victims. Based on the obtained findings, we discussed insights into how the relational factor facilitates different motives in victims and observers, leading to discrepancies in their reactions.