Effects of social networks on individuals’ responses to conflicts in friendship

Many students of intimate relationships have become interested in describing the interface between dyadic relationships and the social networks in which they are embedded (Bott, 1971; Duck, 1982; Hinde, 1981;LaGaipa, 1981; Milardo, 1983, 1986, 1987; Ridley & Avery, 1979). The potential impact of a network on the relations between a pair of its members can be appreciated by considering what keeps two people together. Scholars have observed that relationship stability can be attributed to the positive forces of attraction and to disengagement barriers (Johnson, 1973; Kelley, 1983; Levinger, 1976; Ryder, Kafka, & Olson, 1971). Attraction in a relationship is a function of the rewards and costs derived therefrom. Barriers include those social, economic, and moral considerations that impede an individual from leaving the relationship. Thus, two friends or lovers may remain together because they want to (i.e., are attracted to each other) or because they have to (i.e., are prevented from ending the relationship by extra-dyadic constraints).