PPT Slide
The swiftly-growing field of Personal Relationships has repeatedly tackled the question of how relationships develop. Many theories address the processes and stages involved in relationship development in adulthood from such perspectives as social exchange(Thibaut & Kelley, 1959) and social penetration (e.g., Murstein, 1976, 1986; Lewis, 1972, 1973) theories.
Understanding the ways in which relationships develop is important given that such foundational processes influence the quality of later relationship experiences . A personal parallel to these scholarly theories are individuals’ own theories of how relationships develop. Indeed, an important developmental task is developing such personal theories.