THE MEANING OF SOCIAL INTERACTIONS IN THE TRANSITION FROM ACQUAINTANCESHIP TO FRIENDSHIP

The transition from acquaintanceship (nonunit) to friendship (unit) wa s conceptualized in terms of a preunit relationship. The authors theor ized that in transitional relationships, discrete interactions are imb ued with surplus meaning. Using a mental simulation procedure in 3 stu dies, participants randomly assigned to focus their attention on an ex emplar from their social worlds representing unit, preunit, or nonunit same-sex relationships responded to social exchange scenarios. Preuni ts intended to act like a friend and not an acquaintance, yet they exp erienced more discomfort following a communal script than those in a u nit relation. Content analyses of open-ended responses revealed that p reunits were more likely than units or nonunits to see a nice gesture by the other person as having some social meaning. Failure to reciproc ate a favor by either party was deemed more important to preunit than unit or nonunit relations. In Study 4, in which actual interaction rec ords were used, the quality of individual discrete interactions was mo re highly correlated with momentary, on-line perceptions of relationsh ip closeness for preunit interactions than unit or nonunit interaction s.