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Cell phones and the Internet have become cornerstones in the daily lives of most Americans. Researchers have rigorously studied numerous dimensions of electronically mediated communication (EMC). Yet, very little research has explored the context and consequences of negotiating multiple forms of EMC within everyday life. The purpose of this study was to explore the impact of everyday forms of electronically mediated communication (EvEMC) – cell phone talk, text messages, instant messages, and email – on self-work, particularly within personal relationships. Results of OLS regression analyses of survey data collected from 617 college students and qualitative data analysis of three subsequent focus groups suggested that negotiating personal relationships with and within EvEMC produces a sense of interstitial copresence, which is an awareness of the convergence of perpetual copresence within a digital environment and presence or copresence within a physical environment. The findings suggested that interstitial copresence is inherently Janus-faced. EvEMC provided people with a strong sense of freedom and control. However, negotiating personal relationships within interstitial copresence resulted in dissolution of relational boundaries. Consequently, deceptive tactics were commonly used to negotiate self-presentation within interstitial copresence, which had consequences for people’s self-appraisals as well. Since important others were expected to be accessible virtually anytime and anywhere, people with a strong sense of interstitial copresence often had an adverse emotional reaction when important others did not answer their calls or quickly reply to their messages or call or send messages regularly. As personal relationships negotiated within interstitial copresence move toward totality, the consequences for both the self and the relationships become more pronounced. Ultimately, the study concludes that self-work with and within interstitial copresence produces an interstitial self – a relational self that is, at all times, situated within a physical environment and a digital environment, yet never completely in either environment.

People engage in a multitude of different relationships. Relatives, spouses, and friends are modestly to moderately similar in various characteristics, e.g., personality characteristics, interests, appearance. The role of psychological (e.g., skills, global appraisal) and social (e.g., gender, familial status) similarities in personal relationships and the association with relationship quality (emotional closeness and reciprocity of support) were examined in four independent studies. Young adults (N = 456; M = 27 years) and middle-aged couples from four different family types (N = 171 couples, M = 38 years) gave answer to a computer-aided questionnaire regarding their ego-centered networks. A subsample of 175 middle-aged adults (77 couples and 21 individuals) participated in a one-year follow-up questioning. Two experimental studies (N = 470; N = 802), both including two assessments with an interval of five weeks, were conducted to examine causal relationships among similarity, closeness, and reciprocity expectations. Results underline the role of psychological and social similarities as covariates of emotional closeness and reciprocity of support on the between-relationship level, but indicate a relatively weak effect within established relationships. In specific relationships, such as parent-child relationships and friendships, psychological similarity partly alleviates the effects of missing genetic relatedness. Individual differences moderate these between-relationship effects. In all, results combine evolutionary and social psychological perspectives on similarity in personal relationships and extend previous findings by means of a network approach and an experimental manipulation of existing relationships. The findings further show that psychological and social similarity have different implications for the study of personal relationships depending on the phase in the developmental process of relationships. / Verwandte, Partner und Freunde ähneln sich in einer Vielzahl von Merkmalen wie z.B. Persönlichkeitseigenschaften, Einstellungen oder Aussehen. Die Bedeutung von Ähnlichkeit in psychologischen und demografischen Eigenschaften von Beziehungspartnern und die Zusammenhänge mit der Qualität der Beziehung wurden in vier unabhängigen Studien untersucht. Junge Erwachsene (N = 456; M = 27 Jahre) und Paare aus vier verschiedenen Familienformen (N = 171 Paare, M = 38 Jahre) beurteilten in einem PC-gestützten Fragebogen die sozialen Beziehungen in ihrem ego-zentrierten Netzwerk hinsichtlich wahrgenommener Ähnlichkeit, emotionaler Nähe und Reziprozität der Unterstützung. Ein Teil der Paare (77 Paare und 21 Einzelpersonen) nahm an der Ein-Jahres-Längsschnittstudie teil. In zwei Experimenten (N = 470; N = 802) wurde die Wahrnehmung von Ähnlichkeit manipuliert, um die Kausalwirkung auf die emotionale Nähe und die Erwartung von reziprokem Verhalten in Beziehungen zu prüfen. Die Studien zeigten, dass innerhalb eines sozialen Netzwerkes ähnliche Beziehungspartner auch emotional näher beurteilt wurden, es jedoch kaum wechselseitige Beeinflussungen innerhalb bestehender Beziehungen gab. In spezifischen Beziehungen, wie Eltern-Kind- oder Freundschaftsbeziehungen, konnte psychologische Ähnlichkeit den Effekt der fehlenden genetischen Verwandtschaft teilweise aufheben. Merkmale der Person moderierten diese Zusammenhänge auf der Beziehungsebene. Die Ergebnisse verknüpfen die evolutionspsychologische und die sozialpsychologische Perspektive der Ähnlichkeitsforschung und ergänzen bisherige Befunde durch den Einsatz des Sozialen Netzwerkansatzes und der experimentellen Manipulation von bestehenden Beziehungen. Zudem zeigen die Befunde, dass psychologische und demografische Ähnlichkeit unterschiedliche Implikationen für die Beziehungsforschung haben, in Abhängigkeit von der Entwicklungsphase der Beziehung.