• DOI:10.1146/ANNUREV.PS.29.020178.000555
• Corpus ID: 39273675

Interpersonal attraction and relationships.

@article{Huston1978InterpersonalAA,
  title={Interpersonal attraction and relationships.},
  author={Ted L. Huston and George Levinger},
  journal={Annual review of psychology},
  year={1978},
  volume={29},
  pages={
          115-56
        }
}

• T. Huston, G. Levinger
• Published 1978
• Psychology
• Annual review of psychology

This review focuses on interpersonal attraction and informal affective relationships between adults. Such relationships, as we conceive of them, are those which are generally thought to be voluntary and sustained largely because the partners find interaction pleasurable. The bondedness of "close affective relationships" is prosai­ cally illustrated in the following statement culled from an interview with a college student: " ... I adore her. When I'm with her, I look at her constantly .... We are united together." Three elements integral to describing close relationships are re­ flected in this young man's pronouncement: a favorable attitude ("I adore her"), as evidenced in affection, respect, liking, or love; behavioral involvement ("I look at her constantly"), as manifested in affiliative action; and joint belongingness ("We are united together"), a relational force indicative of perceived mutual identity. Weak involvement would be shown by indifference, a failure to seek out the other, and the absence of joint bonds. Interpersonal attraction, as defined by social psychologists, refers to the first of the three elements-attitudinal positivity. Although theory and research on "inter­ personal attraction" is a recent social psychological concern, the subject has given rise to a great deal of empirical work. Naturalistic settings were the locus for Moreno's (222) early ventures into sociometry, for Festinger, Schachter & Back's