Memory Structures for Relational Escalation A Cognitive Test of the Sequencing of Relational Actions and Stages

Abstract

On the basis ofmemory structure research, a series of four studies was conducted in order to determine whether individuals (1) could generate memory structures for escalating relationships, (2) agree on the rank ordm'ng of expected actions, (3) distinguish between the perceived typicality of such actions and how necesw y the behaviors were in order for a relationship to develop, and (4) segment prototypical scenes of escalating relationships in a time-ordered linear sequence. A number of hypotheses dealing with the generation and processing of expectations for relationship growth are offered and discussed. Additionally, gender diferences are posited in which women generate more escalating actions, pracess relationship memory structures faster, and rate common actions as being more typical than men do. Results revealed a prototypical escalating menmy structure containing 13 behaviors that could be processed and understood in terms offour underlyingfactors. Gender differences were also obserued, and these are discussed in terms of females closely monitoring relational trajectories. Implications of menwry structure resenrchfor analyzing relational stages are discussed as well.critical assumption of many developmental theories (e.g., Knapp, 1984, Levinger, 1974Lewis, 1972;Murstein, 1974) is A that relationships progress through a series of stages. Furthermore, recognition of particular relational stages serves the heuristic function of assessing developmental trajectories and providing cues for stage-appropriate conduct. While research on relationships James M.

First-Date Scripts: Gender Roles, Context, and Relationship

“…For example talk refers to the first time the action is mentioned in a script, talk (2) refers to the second time the action is mentioned in the script, and so on. Following the conventional rule used in script research (e.g., Honeycutt et al 1989;Laner and Ventrone 1998;Frieze 1989, 1993), an item was included in a script if that item was mentioned by at least 25% of participants.…”

“…Previous research on relational scripts has found that men's scripts tend to include more redundant actions than do women's scripts (Honeycutt et al 1989), indicating that women have more complex memory structures for relational development than do men. This difference likely reflects a gender difference in which women think more about relationships and are expected to be "relationship experts" more so than are men.…”

“…Following Honeycutt et al (1989), the redundancy coefficient (i.e., the proportion of unique actions mentioned in each script) was calculated for each participant's script. As a proportion, the redundancy coefficient is a positive number, with a maximum of 1, where 1 indicates that no redundancy exists.…”

“…In the past few decades, relationship researchers in a variety of disciplines (e.g., Honeycutt et al 1989;Laner and Ventrone 1998) have devoted attention to the scripts and memory structures that individuals hold for dating relationships. Studies in this area also reflect scholars' persistent interest in the cognitive processes involved in producing and understanding communication (Berger 1997).…”

The Role of Gender in the Generation of Stalking Scripts

“…We know, for example, how people believe a first date progresses (Bartoli and Clark 2006;Frieze 1989, 1993), how individuals attempt to secure a date (Pryor and Merluzzi 1985), adolescents' scripts for sexual encounters (Krahé et al 2007), scripts relating to sexual intent (Lenton and Bryan 2005), as well as what happens when a relationship ends (Battaglia et al 1998;Honeycutt et al 1992). Results from these studies have allowed investigators to determine that generally shared scripts exist for these relationship events.…”