FACTOR STRUCTURE OF SOCIAL RELATIONSHIPS - AN EXAMINATION OF RELATIONAL MODELS AND RESOURCE EXCHANGE THEORIES

Although several accounts of elementary relational forms have been pro posed, little empirical research has attempted to test, refine and com pare them. Such research can strengthen claims that there are relation al universals, and can provide a unifying framework and conceptual cur rency for further study. In the present study, the factor structure of 500 social relationships sampled from 50 undergraduate subjects was e xamined using items representing relational forms proposed by Fiske (1 991) and Foa and Foa (1974). The results are interpreted in light of t heir implications for the internal organization of the two theories, t he interrelations of the two theories, and the relations of both theor ies to common dimensions of social relationships. It is argued that th eories of the basic forms of social relationship must be revised in li ght of the empirical associations of their elements, and that the time is now ripe for confirmatory tests of these forms.