Exploring how exchange orientation affects conflict and intimacy in the daily life of romantic couples

We test the hypothesis that partners’ tendency to “keep score” in a relationship–as reflected in their exchange orientation–will moderate the effect of daily conflicts on their relationship evaluations. Cohabitating romantic partners (N = 82 couples) participated in a 28-day daily diary study. Partners higher in exchange orientation showed lower intimacy with their partner on days with conflict compared to days without conflict; the effect was attenuated for partners lower in exchange orientation. This result held even while adjusting for daily negative affect. We conclude that close monitoring of costs and benefits in a relationship, a characteristic of partners with high exchange orientation, may lead partners to overreact to simple daily conflicts, to the detriment of relationship evaluations.

Words beyond the Partial Deed: Prosocial Framing of a Partial-Trust Act Promotes Reciprocation between Strangers

Displaying partial trust in exchanges between strangers is a common practice, but it does not effectively promote reciprocation. This is an intriguing phenomenon that warrants investigations regarding social mechanisms that can promote reciprocation without changing the level of trust. We seek to examine, given a partial-trust act, whether framing the motive underlying the act as prosocial (mutually beneficial) can promote reciprocation in an exchange between strangers. Across three experiments in the United States, we found that trustor prosocial (vs. no-motive) framing can promote trustee reciprocation through trustee felt obligation and that this effect is particularly strong among trustees with a strong rather than weak exchange orientation. Concurrently, this prosocial framing effect can operate serially through trustee perceived invitation for exchange and felt obligation. Our findings help address the conundrum of promoting reciprocation without introducing deleterious uncertainty about social motives given a partial-trust act that is prevalent in exchanges at zero acquaintance.

Communal strength, exchange orientation, equity, and relational maintenance

The purpose of this study was to explore communal strength (i.e., partner-specific communal orientation) and partner-specific exchange orientation, as well as equity, as predictors of relational maintenance. A sample of 309 heterosexual couples completed self-reports. Given the dyadic interdependence, the actor–partner independence model was used. Dyadic analyses were undertaken using structural equation modeling conducted in AMOS. Results indicated that underbenefitedness was a predictor of maintenance behaviors, but overbenefitedness was not. Communal strength was also associated with engagement in maintenance behaviors. Importantly, communal strength moderated the association between underbenefitedness and maintenance such that underbenefitedness did not result in decreases in self-reported maintenance behaviors for those with greater communal strength to the same extent as it did for those with lower communal strength. Exchange orientation also moderated the association between underbenefitedness and maintenance behaviors such that a decline in maintenance behaviors was not as pronounced for those with lower exchange orientations as those with higher exchange orientations. Findings suggest the important role relational orientations may play in enacting our relationships.

Exploring how exchange orientation affects conflict and intimacy in the daily life of romantic couples

We test the hypothesis that partners’ tendency to “keep score” in a relationship—as reflected in their exchange orientation—will moderate the effect of daily conflicts on their relationship evaluations. Cohabitating romantic partners ( N = 82 couples) participated in a 28-day daily diary study. Partners higher in exchange orientation showed lower intimacy with their partner on days with conflict compared to days without conflict; the effect was attenuated for partners lower in exchange orientation. This result held even while adjusting for daily negative affect. We conclude that close monitoring of costs and benefits in a relationship, a characteristic of partners with high exchange orientation, may lead partners to overreact to simple daily conflicts, to the detriment of relationship evaluations.