When maintaining a relationship, any behavior that is positive and promotes deepening trust and closeness between people is a prosocial maintenance behavior. The more prosocial behavior is evident in a relationship, the more likely for strong bonds to be formed, and the relationship to prosper and continue. Low levels of Prosocial maintenance behavior gives less reinforcement in the relationship, and thus more a weak foundation often leads to the relationships deterioration, or at least non-progression.Guerrero, L. K., Andersen, P. A., & Afifi, W. A. (2007). Close encounters: communication in relationships (2nd ed.). Los Angeles: Sage Publications. Canary and Stafford created measures of five communication strategies: 1. Positivity, 2. Openness, 3. Assurances, 4. Social Networks, and 5. Sharing Tasks. Each of these qualities equates to spending time together, and interacting either physically or emotionally. Positivity refers to having a jolly attitude, even when not necessarily feeling like doing so. This often means not participating in condemnation and negativity. Canary and Stafford mentions openness in a way that encourages discussion in a relationship that is filled with direction and goals. Social networks include having friends and family in your inner circle to help balance out the relationship. Subsequent research has found that maintenance strategies strongly predict important relational characteristics, such as commitment, relational satisfaction, stability, liking, and loving others. Prosocial maintenance behavior does not value one source of positivity more than the other, although the individual might. Verbalizing fondness for a partner through positive speech might be what they crave in a relationship, while another partner might find more affection in a willingness to help with household chores together . This type of task sharing is also a part of what is known as routine maintenance, and a relatively equal effort by each party is a prosocial function that greatly adds to relationship satisfaction. As a contrast to prosocial behavior that is used to strengthen bonds and reinforce a relationship, anti-social maintenance behavior is another strategic behavior pattern that can be used to maintain a current relationship. Its use of continuing a relationship at its current level, would be to decline invitations to opportunities to create new levels of a relationship. By declining these opportunities , this exemplifies an Antisocial behavior, which is generally deliberate in its implementation. Friend Relationships A recent study on Italians living as couples has shown that friendship relationships, beyond those within an individual's family, are an important source of support. Here, we used data from Aspects of Daily Life, the Italian National Statistical Institute's 2012 multipurpose survey,  to analyze the relation between friendship ties and life satisfaction. Our results show that friendship, in terms of intensity (measured by the frequency with which individuals see their friends) and quality (measured by the satisfaction with friendship relationships), is positively associated to life satisfaction. In the first study of its kind, a University of Kansas professor has defined the amount of time necessary to make a friend as well as how long it typically takes to move through the deepening stages of friendship. In a new report published in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, Associate Professor of Communication Studies Jeffrey Hall found that it takes roughly 50 hours of time together to move from mere acquaintance to casual friend, 90 hours to go from that stage to simple "friend" status and more than 200 hours before you can consider someone your close friend. Just as time and energy is put into creating a friendship, so is nurturing and maintaining that friendship. Maintaining a friendship can take several forms, such as access to useful information, company (e.g., personal and intimate relationships, time spent talking together, and shared amusement time or meals), and emotional (e.g., advice about a serious personal or family matter) and instrumental (e.g., economic aid, administrative procedures, house-keeping) support. Romantic and close personal relationships use more openness and assurance maintenance behaviors and these are easier to communicate in person. But even these close connections are relying on more computer mediated communication today. Texting can have many uses, from coordinating task sharing to simply letting someone know you are thinking about them . People may use Facebook to plan activities with others, announce new relationships, and provide support and encouragement to those in need. Even the birthday card has migrated online. Although technology cannot replace face-to-face communication in these cases, it can supplement and reinforce the importance of the relationship. A strategic maintenance behavior is an action that is strategically carried out to help maintain a relationship. When you phone somebody to congratulate them on a birthday or anniversary , it is a deliberate action that clearly shows you taking the time to show your affection for someone you have a relationshipwith . These are clear strategic behaviors designed to give positive reinforcement. A routine maintenance behavior is less strategic and has more to do with the everyday tasks in life. For example, if a wife is cleaning up from dinner, and her husband decides to take out the trash . This would be considered a Routine Maintenance Behavior . They are used without the express purposes of maintaining a relationship, yet they still help people preserve their bonds with one another. Romantic relationships have an extra element that is not found in friendship relationships. In romantic relationships, there is the intimacy element that is added. This is physical intimacy and a deeper emotional intimacy than a friendship would have. There are four relationship stages when it comes to romantic relationships:Stafford, L., & Canary, D. (1991). Maintenance strategies and romantic relationship type, gender and relational characteristics. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 217-242. Casually dating Seriously dating Engaged Married . Escalation stages Initiating – This stage is the shortest and is composed of noticing and forming first impressions based on verbal and non-verbal communication. This stage usually involves small talk. Also often heavily based on physical appearance such as characteristics, clothing, and general presentation. Experimenting – Finding a common ground by sharing interests and hobbies or other activities. Commonly asking questions such as "What do you do for fun" or "What do you study in school" are used to establish common grounds. This stage is usually a determining stage in deciding to move forward with the relationship or not. Intensifying – Intensifying involves increased physical touch, especially in public. Much more time in private life is spent with the significant other. Individuals begin to look for more commitment. Feelings are beginning to be disclosed as intimate relationship forms. Integrating – At this stage, the bond becomes closer into possible labels of boyfriend and girlfriend. People begin to see the dyad as a single unit. Relationship becomes very close and intimate. Words like "I" or "me" become "ours." Bonding – Last is the bonding stage, which involves the declaration of your status in a formal manner . You legally become bonded as one. Commitments are made and you are there for each other through difficult times. The relationship can only be broken through death or formal agreements. Contrary to the escalation stages are the termination stages. Termination can be sensed even before it happens through non-verbal cues such as a decrease in physical touch, eye contact, etc. Termination stages Differentiation – The stage is the beginning of the termination process beginning with a decrease in physical contact or the closeness that you had when in the escalation stages. A shift from shared identity changes over to individual identities. Distance grows between partners and pressure begins to build. Circumscribing – Communication begins to become less frequent and transparent as boundaries are created. The decrease in communication is caused because of unwanted arguments. Rather than sharing problems, talk revolves around mundane topics. Lack of interest in this stage is still hard to pick up from outsider views. Space begins to grow and the relationship declines. Stagnating – Relationship becomes shallow and boring with routines. Even as you go through the routines, you do not care much for the outcome of the relationship. Your lack of interest begins to show to friends and family through lack of communication both verbal and non-verbal. Much work needs to be done to recover to a healthy point if the relationship is to continue. Avoiding – You begin to avoid each other completely instead of bearing through the routines. Partners restrict themselves from contact not just in person, but also via electronic communication. Termination – This is the final point in de-escalation known as terminating. Partners end their relationship formally and an agreement is reached, usually divorce for marriage situations. Conversations following the terminating stage are of practical matters such as how to divide property or legal matters. The terminating stage can be positive or negative. New beginnings can result after this stage. After the termination stages runs its course, relationships often return to the friendship status or complete avoidance. If relationships started in the friendship stage and comes to an end in a positive note, friendship status is more likely to be achieved.
When maintaining a relationship, any behavior that is positive and promotes deepening trust and closeness between people is a prosocial maintenance behavior. The more prosocial behavior is evident in a relationship, the more likely for strong bonds to be formed, and the relationship to prosper and continue. Low levels of prosocial maintenance behavior give less reinforcement in the relationship, and thus more a weak foundation often leads to the relationships deterioration, or at least non-progression.Guerrero, L. K., Andersen, P. A., & Afifi, W. A. (2007). Close encounters: communication in relationships (2nd ed.). Los Angeles: Sage Publications. Canary and Stafford described five communication strategies: 1. Positivity, 2. Openness, 3. Assurances, 4. Social Networks, and 5. Sharing Tasks. Each of these qualities equates to spending time together, and interacting either physically or emotionally. Positivity refers to having a positive attitude, even when not necessarily feeling like doing so. This often means not participating in condemnation and negativity. Canary and Stafford mentions openness in a way that encourages discussion in a relationship that is filled with direction and goals. Social networks include having friends and family to help balance out the relationship. Subsequent research has found that maintenance strategies strongly predict important relational characteristics, such as commitment, relational satisfaction, stability, liking, and loving others. Prosocial maintenance behavior does not value one source of positivity more than the other, although the individual might. Verbalizing fondness through positive speech might be what one partner craves in a relationship, while another might find more affection in a willingness to help with household chores . This type of task sharing is also a part of what is known as routine maintenance, and a relatively equal effort by each party is a prosocial function that greatly adds to relationship satisfaction. As a contrast to prosocial behavior that is used to strengthen bonds and reinforce a relationship, anti-social maintenance behavior is another strategic behavior pattern that can be used to maintain a current relationship. Its use of continuing a relationship at its current level, would be to decline invitations to opportunities to create new levels of a relationship. Declining these opportunities exemplifies antisocial behavior, which is generally deliberate in its implementation. Friend Relationships A recent study on Italians living as couples has shown that friendship relationships, beyond those within an individual's family, are an important source of support. Data from Aspects of Daily Life, the Italian National Statistical Institute's 2012 multipurpose survey, was used to analyze the relation between friendship ties and life satisfaction. Results show that friendship, in terms of intensity (measured by the frequency with which individuals see their friends) and quality (measured by the satisfaction with friendship relationships), is positively associated to life satisfaction. In the first study of its kind, a University of Kansas professor defined the amount of time necessary to make a friend as well as how long it typically takes to move through the deepening stages of friendship. In a new report published in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, Associate Professor of Communication Studies Jeffrey Hall found that it takes roughly 50 hours of time together to move from mere acquaintance to casual friend, 90 hours to go from that stage to simple "friend" status and more than 200 hours before someone can be considered a close friend. Just as time and energy is put into creating a friendship, so is nurturing and maintaining that friendship. Maintaining a friendship can take several forms, such as access to useful information, company (e.g., personal and intimate relationships, time spent talking together, and shared amusement time or meals), and emotional (e.g., advice about a serious personal or family matter) and instrumental (e.g., economic aid, administrative procedures, house-keeping) support. Romantic and close personal relationships use more openness and assurance maintenance behaviors and these are easier to communicate in person. But even these close connections are relying on more computer mediated communication today. Texting can have many uses, from coordinating task sharing to simply letting someone know they are being thought of . People may use Facebook to plan activities with others, announce new relationships, and provide support and encouragement to those in need. Even the birthday card has migrated online. Although technology cannot replace face-to-face communication in these cases, it can supplement and reinforce the importance of the relationship. A strategic maintenance behavior is an action that is strategically carried out to help maintain a relationship. Phoning somebody to congratulate them on a birthday or anniversary is a deliberate action that shows affection for the other party in a relationship . These are clear strategic behaviors designed to give positive reinforcement. A routine maintenance behavior is less strategic and has more to do with the everyday tasks in life. For example, if a wife is cleaning up from dinner, and her husband decides to take out the trash , this would be considered a routine maintenance behavior . They are used without the express purposes of maintaining a relationship, yet they still help people preserve their bonds with one another. Romantic relationships have an extra element that is not found in friendship relationships. In romantic relationships, there is the intimacy element that is added. This is physical intimacy and a deeper emotional intimacy than a friendship would have. There are four relationship stages when it comes to romantic relationships:Stafford, L., & Canary, D. (1991). Maintenance strategies and romantic relationship type, gender and relational characteristics. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 217-242. Casually dating Seriously dating Engaged Married Escalation stages Initiating – This stage is the shortest and is composed of noticing and forming first impressions based on verbal and non-verbal communication. This stage usually involves small talk. Also often heavily based on physical appearance such as characteristics, clothing, and general presentation. Experimenting – Finding a common ground by sharing interests and hobbies or other activities. Commonly asking questions such as "What do you do for fun" or "What do you study in school" are used to establish common grounds. This stage is usually a determining stage in deciding to move forward with the relationship or not. Intensifying – Intensifying involves increased physical touch, especially in public. Much more time in private life is spent with the significant other. Individuals begin to look for more commitment. Feelings are beginning to be disclosed as intimate relationship forms. Integrating – At this stage, the bond becomes closer into possible labels of boyfriend and girlfriend. People begin to see the dyad as a single unit. Relationship becomes very close and intimate. Words like "I" or "me" become "ours." Bonding – Last is the bonding stage, which involves the declaration of status in a formal manner , such as legally becoming bonded as one. Commitments are made and the partners support each other through difficult times. The relationship can only be broken through death or formal agreements. Contrary to the escalation stages are the termination stages. Termination can be sensed even before it happens through non-verbal cues such as a decrease in physical touch, eye contact, etc. Termination stages Differentiation – The stage is the beginning of the termination process beginning with a decrease in physical contact or the closeness of the escalation stages. A shift from shared identity changes over to individual identities. Distance grows between partners and pressure begins to build. Circumscribing – Communication begins to become less frequent and transparent as boundaries are created. The decrease in communication is caused because of unwanted arguments. Rather than sharing problems, talk revolves around mundane topics. Lack of interest in this stage is still hard to pick up from outsider views. Space begins to grow and the relationship declines. Stagnating – Relationship becomes shallow and boring with routines. Partners go through the routines, but do not care much for the outcome of the relationship. The lack of interest begins to show to friends and family through lack of communication both verbal and non-verbal. Much work needs to be done to recover to a healthy point if the relationship is to continue. Avoiding – The partners begin to avoid each other completely , restricting themselves from contact not just in person, but also via electronic communication. Termination – This is the final point in de-escalation known as terminating. Partners end their relationship formally and an agreement is reached, usually divorce for marriage situations. Conversations following the terminating stage are of practical matters such as how to divide property or legal matters. The terminating stage can be positive or negative. New beginnings can result after this stage. After the termination stages runs its course, relationships often return to the friendship status or complete avoidance. If relationships started in the friendship stage and comes to an end in a positive note, friendship status is more likely to be achieved.
R
Prosocial maintenance behavior gives
prosocial maintenance behavior give
R
created measures of
described
R
jolly
positive
D
in your inner circle
D
for a partner
R
they crave
one partner craves
D
partner
D
together
R
By declining these opportunities , this exemplifies an Antisocial
Declining these opportunities exemplifies antisocial
R
Here, we used data
Data
A
was used
R
Our results
Results
D
has
R
you can consider someone your
someone can be considered a
R
you are thinking about them
they are being thought of
R
When you phone
Phoning
D
, it
R
clearly shows you taking the time to show your affection for someone you have a relationshipwith
shows affection for the other party in a relationship
R
. This
, this
R
Routine Maintenance Behavior
routine maintenance behavior
D
.
D
your
R
. You legally become
, such as legally becoming
R
you are there for
the partners support
R
that you had when in
of
R
Even as you
Partners
R
you
but
R
Your
The
R
You
The partners
R
instead of bearing through the routines. Partners restrict
, restricting