In recent years, a small but growing number of psychologists have begun to examine how the quality and stability of people's romantic relationships can be influenced by people outside of those relationships. Couples' friendships with those in their social networks appear to be particularly relevant determinants of what makes for a happy and lasting relationship. However, previous studies only have indirectly addressed underlying psychological mechanisms that may explain why friendships are beneficial for couples or how such friendships arise in the first place. This dissertation examines how friendships between couples form and potential implications for within-couple processes (e.g., the effects of friendships between couples on relationship quality within a couple). Pairs of unacquainted heterosexual couples in committed dating relationships were randomly assigned to one of two conditions where they engaged in a 45-minute interaction. In one condition, couples carried out self-disclosure tasks that gradually escalated in intensity; in the other condition, couples engaged in non-emotional small talk discussions. The procedure used was a modified version of the closeness induction task developed by Aron and colleagues (Aron, Melinat, Aron, Vallone, & Bator, 1997) to generate interpersonal closeness between individual strangers--in this case modified to generate closeness between couples. One day later and one month later, participants were asked to complete brief online follow-up measures to assess long-term effects of the experimental manipulation on perceptions of the other couple, feelings of closeness toward romantic partners, and whether or not they had contacted the other couple. Those in the high-disclosure condition felt closer to the couples they interacted with and closer to their own partners after the interaction compared to those in the small talk condition. Further, couples in the high-disclosure condition were significantly more likely than those in the small talk condition to contact and meet up with the other couple they had met in the study. Mediation analyses suggested several possible processes underlying these effects. Implications for studying the interplay of social networks and romantic relationships are discussed.

Researchers on close relationships presupposed marriage as a central measure of successful commitment and identified a mix of structural and personal motives underlying commitment. Debate on how to measure and predict commitment has been prompted by its conceptual complexity and the importance of its role in relationship maintenance. This study focused on five couples together for at least 13 years outside the institutional grooves and prescribed roles of marriage. Johnson's (1991a) social-psychological model of commitment types embedded within a social structure guided the research. The couples defined commitment, discussed a challenging time in the maintenance of their relationship, and responded to specific questions. Data analysis resulted in development of a three dimensional model of commitment phenomenology. Dimensions include types of commitment from Johnson's model (1991a); commitment contexts of time and society expanded from Johnson's model; and the expression of commitment (awareness, salience, plans, or behavior) implied in Johnson's model but made explicit in this model. / Master of Science

Women who have experienced depression are vulnerable to future depressive episodes as well as emotional, cognitive, and interpersonal difficulties. Several theoretical models have explored the link between maladaptive anger expression and women's depression (Jack, 1991; Davanloo, 1980; Cox, Bruckner, & Stabb, 2003), but the existing research examining this relationship has primarily relied on self-report methods. A growing area of research has begun assessing women's communication styles in the context of interactions with their romantic partners. This field of observational research has studied communication patterns in couples with marital conflict, but no studies have yet examined anger expression in women with a history of depression. Therefore, the present study examined anger expression in 26 formerly-depressed (FD) and 30 never-depressed (ND) women and their partners. Couples were a part of a larger community study investigating cognitive and interpersonal factors in depression. Participants completed the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV (SCID; Spitzer et al., 1988) on the telephone to screen for eligibility and determine FD/ND group status. Women and their partners completed self-report measures of depressive symptoms, emotional expression, relationship conflict, and relationship intimacy. Couples also completed an observational interaction task to assess patterns of communication. An observational coding system was developed in collaboration with Deborah Jacobvitz, Ph.D. at the University of Texas at Austin to assess couples' direct anger expression, hostility, and emotional attunement. The results indicated that contrary to predictions, women expressed more direct anger but similar levels of hostility compared to their male partners. Second, findings supported the prediction that self-reported emotional expression would be associated with relationship intimacy and inversely related to relationship conflict. However, the observational patterns of direct anger, hostility, and emotional attunement were not associated with the relationship outcomes. Results also indicated that FD and ND women did not differ in their patterns of direct anger and hostility expression during the observational interaction task. Exploratory analyses found that individuals' behaviors exhibited during the interaction task were consistent with self-reported ratings of these behaviors. Finally, exploratory analyses also indicated that individuals' patterns of behavior such as hostility impacted their partners' perceptions of the quality of their relationships. / text