The development of interpersonal relationships : an experimental approach

Abstract

Questionnaires were used to measure the indicators of the continuation of a relationship and to check the experimental manipulations. Measurements were made at three points during a game. Reliability of the measuring scales ranged from .92 to .95; validity coefficients ranged from .85 to .96.

Discussion centers around the possibility that reward/cost and uncertainty reduction serve different functions in developing relationships: reward/cost affecting functional aspects; and uncertainty reduction affecting attitudinal aspects. The implications of uncertainty reduction for interpersonal communication in developing relationships are also discussed.

The data also indicated that uncertainty consistently predicted two of the indicators, trust and liking, while rewards predicted one of the indicators, desire to continue a relationship. This is seen as indicating that both uncertainty reduction and reward/cost concepts are important in the development of interpersonal relationships.

When interpersonal communication occurs, two conditions are always met: two or more people are present, and a relationship of some kind exists between or among these individuals. Understanding the development of interpersonal relationships over time is seen as important to the understanding of interpersonal communication in general.

The time course of interpersonal relationships can be divided into at least three phases with different psychological and communication characteristics: the Entry Phase, the Middle Phase, and the Exit Phase. This study was primarily concerned with Entry Phase interactions.

Four theoretical perspectives dealing with the development of interpersonal relationships are reviewed: Attribution Theory, Balance Theory, Reward/Cost Theories, and Uncertainty Theory. The theory presented is largely drawn from attribution theory and uncertainty theory, and is called Uncertainty Reduction Theory. Arguments are presented that uncertainty reduction is also a necessary aspect of balance and reward/cost theories.

The primary hypothesis examined by the research was: the lower the amount of uncertainty reduction in the Entry Phase of a relationship, the less likely a relationship is to continue. A path model was developed using interactants' Liking, Trust, Risk-Taking, Desire to Continue a Relationship, and Perceived Rewards, as indicators of the probability of a relationship's continuing; an increase in the indicators would indicate a greater probability of a relationship's continuing. Uncertainty Reduction was an exogenous variable and the five indicators were the endogenous variables.

This study was not only concerned with testing the uncertainty reduction hypothesis. An attempt was made to compare uncertainty reduction theory with reward/cost theory. A reward/cost variable was used as a second exogenous variable in the path model, predicting to the five indicators of a relationship's continuing.

The research design established interpersonal interactions with experimental control using an expanded (5 X 5) Prisoner's Dilemma (PD) game. The game lasted for twenty rounds and employed sequential play. Seventy-eight college students played the game without knowing whom they were playing. All subjects in each research session actually played the experimenter who responded using predetermined responses, randomly generated as a normal distribution around subjects' choices. Uncertainty reduction was varied by changing the variance and range of the response distributions. The reward/cost variable (ric score) was varied by changing the cell values of the PD game payoff matricies. The subjects were randomly assigned to a game board and a response set.

The manipulation checks indicated that neither the uncertainty nor reward/cost manipulations had sufficent effects on the data to allow their use in hypothesis testing. As a result, the manipulation checks themselves were used in the analyses.

The data indicated that uncertainty reduction did occur during the interactions.