Positive psychology of relationships is a subfield of

positive psychology Positive psychology is the scientific study of conditions and processes that contribute to positive psychological states (e.g., contentment, joy), well-being, Positive psychology of relationships, positive relationships, and positive institutio ...

that focuses on understanding, cultivating, and enhancing the positive aspects of

interpersonal relationship In social psychology, an interpersonal relation (or interpersonal relationship) describes a social association, connection, or affiliation between two or more people. It overlaps significantly with the concept of social relations, which a ...

s. Examples include positive

intimate relationship An intimate relationship is an interpersonal relationship that involves emotional or physical closeness between people and may include sexual intimacy and feelings of romance or love. Intimate relationships are interdependent, and the member ...

workplace relationship Workplace relationships are unique interpersonal relationships with important implications for the individuals in those relationships, and the organizations in which the relationships exist and develop. Workplace relationships directly affect a ...

s, and relationships across different stages of life – from youth through adolescence to older adulthood.

Theoretical frameworks

Capitalization

Langston introduced the concept of capitalization in 1994, referring to the process of taking advantage of positive events by sharing them with close others. This has shown to improve relationships through increased intimacy and lower emotional distress. According to Peters, the process of capitalization is not only beneficial for the individual sharing the good news, but also for the person to whom they tell their news. Shelly Gable identified four types of capitalization responses: active-constructive (e.g., enthusiastic support), passive-constructive (e.g., quiet, understated support), active-destructive (e.g., demeaning the event), and passive-destructive (e.g., ignoring the event). Gable uses the following example to illustrate these responses:

Maria comes home from her job as an associate in a law firm and excitedly tells her husband, Robert, that the senior partners called her into a meeting today and assigned her to be the lead lawyer for an important case filed on behalf of their most prestigious client. An active–constructive response from Robert might be, "Wow, this is great news! Your skills and hard work are definitely paying off; I am certain that your goal to make partner will happen in no time. What is the case about?" A passive–constructive response could be a warm smile followed by a simple, "That’s nice, dear." An active–destructive response might be, "Wow, I bet the case will be complicated; are you sure you can handle it? It sounds like it might be a lot of work; maybe no one else wanted the case. You will probably have to work even longer hours this month." A passive–destructive response might be, "You won’t believe what happened to me today," or "What do you want to do for dinner?"

Gable and colleagues found that the active-constructive response in close relationships were associated with higher relationship well-being (e.g., intimacy, daily marital satisfaction).

Research

Social networks

social network A social network is a social structure consisting of a set of social actors (such as individuals or organizations), networks of Dyad (sociology), dyadic ties, and other Social relation, social interactions between actors. The social network per ...

impacts the psychological well-being of a person. Research among 222 students showed that the 10% happiest students spent less time alone and were more satisfied in their relationships than the 10% least happy students. A

meta-analysis Meta-analysis is a method of synthesis of quantitative data from multiple independent studies addressing a common research question. An important part of this method involves computing a combined effect size across all of the studies. As such, th ...

also confirms that larger social networks correlate with higher psychological well-being. Using network analysis tools, Fowler and Christakis conducted a study to examine how happiness spreads through social connections. They measured the happiness effects between friends (one degree of separation), friends of friends (two degrees), and friends of friends of friends (three degrees). The results indicated that having a happy friend increases the likelihood of a person being happy by 15.3%, while the effect was 9.8% for second-degree connections and 5.6% for third-degree connections.

Friendship

Several studies have found that the quality of

friendships Friendship is a relationship of mutual affection between people. It is a stronger form of interpersonal bond than an "acquaintance" or an "association", such as a classmate, neighbor, coworker, or colleague. Although there are many forms of f ...

contributes more to well-being than the quantity of friendships. A study of 280 college students examined friendship quality and well-being. Students ranked their friends, rating relationships on companionship, intimacy, reliability, and affection. Results showed that only the quality of the best friendship significantly predicted well-being.

References

{{reflist Happiness Well-being