Relationship maintenance

Relationship maintenance (or relational maintenance) refers to a variety of behaviors exhibited by relational partners in an effort to maintain that relationship. Relational maintenance is defined by scholars in four different ways: Relationship maintenance (or relational maintenance) refers to a variety of behaviors exhibited by relational partners in an effort to maintain that relationship. Relational maintenance is defined by scholars in four different ways: First, in order to keep a relationship in existence (for example, adult friends that contact each other infrequently, but adequately to maintain the friendship), means the relationship continues without termination. Second, in order to keep a relationship in a specified state or condition, human communication professors Kathryn Dindia and Daniel Canary 'refers to sustaining the present level of certain dimensions or qualities thought to be important in relationship development.' There are three elements of a stable relationship: Dindia and Canary's third definition of relational maintenance refers to keeping a relationship in a satisfactory condition or to maintain satisfaction within the relationship. 'For example, this third definition implies that no one can be in a stable, but dissatisfying relationship.' Fourthly, to keep a relationship in repair means to keep the relationship in good, sound, or working condition and to repair a relationship that has come apart. Repair of the relationship means 'changing a relationship from its present condition and restoring it to a previous (more advanced) state after decline or decay.' 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. Specific prosocial maintenance behaviors that could be exhibited by prosocial standards are positivity, openness, assurances, social networking, task sharing, supportiveness, romance, humor, and joint activities. Each of these qualities equates to spending time together, and interacting either physically or emotionally. Prosocial maintenance behavior does not value one source of positivity more than the other, although the individual might. Verbalizing your fondness for your partner through positive speech might be what your partner specifically craves in your relationship, while another partner might find more affection in your 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. Modes of communication vary from spoken to written, verbal to nonverbal, and face-to-face to computer-mediated. Depending on the mode of communication, the same message can be interpreted in a different way. Therefore, different types of relationships can be maintained through different types of communication. Face-to-face communication affords the greatest opportunity for precise communication because immediate feedback from the receiver can tell whether the message has been understood accurately. Technology today provides limited face-to-face communication to everyone, even those separated by long distance. Businesses have used video conferencing for many years but programs like Skype now allow a personal face-to-face conversation with anyone in the world. With the technological advancements that have taken place over the past decade, communication has also evolved from handwritten letters to emails and text messaging and significantly shortened response times.