Abstract
This discussion attempts to integrate the treatment of commitment across three theoretical streams: behavioral propensities, identities, and social networks. For that purpose, it is useful to develop principles relating interpersonal commitments to the array of other commitments that are part of individual actors’ daily lives. Within the individual, potentially competing commitments raise questions of dissonance, whereas mutually enhancing commitments suggest balance. What is competing or complementary is defined at least in part by existing networks of actors, each with their own commitments, allegiances, belief systems, and so forth. Within this context, we suggest an approach focused on the dynamics of forming, maintaining, or negating interpersonal commitments. First, we address possible meanings of commitment and attempt to provide an integrated definition.
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Leik, R.K., Owens, T.J., Tallman, I. (1999). Interpersonal Commitments. In: Adams, J.M., Jones, W.H. (eds) Handbook of Interpersonal Commitment and Relationship Stability. Perspectives on Individual Differences. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-4773-0_14
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-4773-0_14
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