The Cambridge Handbook of Personal Relationships

The Cambridge Handbook of Personal Relationships serves as a benchmark of the current state of scholarship in this dynamic field synthesizing the extant theoretical and empirical literature, tracing its historical roots, and making recommendations for future directions. The volume addresses a broad range of established and emerging topics including: theoretical and methodological issues that influence the study of personal relationships; research and theory on relationship development, the nature and functions of personal relationships across the lifespan; individual differences and their influences on relationships; relationship processes such as cognition, emotion, and communication; relational qualities such as satisfaction and commitment; environmental influences on personal relationships; and maintenance and repair of relationships. The authors are experts from a variety of disciplines including several subfields of psychology, communication, family studies and sociology who have made major contributions to the understanding of relationships. Contents
Part I: 1. Introduction
Part II. Foundations for Studying Relationships: 2. The Seven Seas of the study of personal relationships: from The Thousand Islands to interconnected waterways
3. Theoretical perspectives in the study of close relationships
4. Research methods for the study of personal relationships
5. Advances in data analytic methods for relationships research: the broad utility of Hierarchical linear modeling
6. Relationship typologies
Part III. Development of Relationships: 7. From courtship to universal properties: research on dating and mate selection, 1950 to 2003
8. Marital development
9. Divorce and post-divorce relationships
Part IV. Relationships across the Lifespan: 10. Relationships in early and middle childhood
11. Relationships in adolescence and early adulthood
12. Close relationships in middle and late adulthood
Part V. Individual Differences: 13. Personality and relationships: a temperament perspective
14. Attachment theory, individual psychodynamics, and relationship functioning
15. His and her relationships?: a review of the empirical evidence
16. Intimate same-sex relationships of sexual minorities
17. Family relationships and depression
Part VI. Basic Processes: 18. Communication: basic properties and their relevance to relationship research
19. Social cognition in intimate relationships
20. Emotion in theories of close relationships
21. Ive got you under my skin: physiology and interpersonal relationships
Part VII. Interactive Processes: 22. Self-disclosure in personal relationships
23. Close relationships and social support: implications for the measurement of social support
24. Understanding couple conflict
25. Sexuality in close relationships
Part VIII. Threats to Relationships: 26. Loneliness and social isolation
27. Stress in couples: the process of dyadic coping
28. Lying and deception in close relationships
29. Temptations and threat: extradyadic relations and jealousy
30. Violence and abuse in personal relationships: conflict, terror, and resistance in intimate partnerships
Part IX. Relational Qualities: 31. Relationship satisfaction
32. Romantic love
33. Commitment processes
34. Intimacy
Part X. Context: 35. Social networks and personal communities
36. Relationships in home and community environments: a transactional and dialectic analysis
37. Relationships, culture, and social change
38. Personal relationships: on and off the internet
Part XI. Maintenance and Repair of Relationships: 39. Maintaining relationships
40. The treatment of relationship distress: theoretical perspectives and empirical findings
Part XII. Conclusion: 41.Bringing it all together: a theoretical approach.

Author/Editor Details
Edited by: Anita L. Vangelisti, University of Texas, Austin
Edited by: Daniel Perlman, University of British Columbia, Vancouver