Attributional confidence, perceived similarity, and network involvement in Chinese and American romantic relationships

The development of interpersonal relationships, romantic relationships in particular, is a complex process and involves multiple dimensions. Many researchers in the past have provided different theories of relationship development (e.g., Berger & Calabrese, 1975; Sternberg, 1988; Olson, 1977; Hendrick, Hendrick, & Adler, 1988). There is, however, little research or theorizing on the development of romantic relationships across cultures (Dion, 1990; Dion & Dion, 1988). The scarcity in this research can be attributed to difficulties in conducting cross-cultural studies which involve constructs that not only are central to the issue being studied, but also possess conceptual equivalence in cultures under investigation. The purpose of the present study is to begin to fill the gap of comparative communication research on the development of romantic relationships. Specifically, several key constructs that are important in understanding and explaining stages of romantic relationships in China and the United States are identified and examined in the two cultures.

Relationship Constructs

Uncertainty reduction theory (e.g., Berger & Calabrese, 1975) is one of the few theories of communication that has been systematically applied to romantic relationships (e.g., Parks & Adelman, 1983) and tested cross-culturally (e.g., Gudykunst, Yang, & Nishida, 1985). Attributional confidence, perceived similarity, and network involvement are the key constructs from uncertainty reduction theory isolated in the present study. These three constructs were selected because they not only account for the dynamic nature of the relationship development, but also appear to embody culture-general meanings that are essential to any comparative analysis.

Attributional Confidence

Attributional confidence (the inverse of uncertainty) is the major dependent variable in uncertainty reduction theory (Berger & Calabrese, 1975). It refers to individuals' confidence in their ability to predict others' attitudes, feelings, and behavior (Clatterbuck, 1979). Gaining knowledge and understanding of ourselves and others (Berger & Bradac, 1982), as well as making accurate predictions about others (Miller & Steinberg, 1975), contribute to the development of any interpersonal relationship. Uncertainty tends to decrease as the relationship becomes more intimate (Gudykunst & Kim, 1992). According to Gudykunst and Kim, for example, there is less uncertainty in friendships than in acquaintance relationships. The ability to predict others' behaviors or attributional confidence thus is essential to the study of stages of romantic relationship development.

Attributional confidence has been identified as an important indicator...