Chapter 7 Developing and Maintaining Relationships 187Psychological Health
Fewer mood swings
Less risk of depression
Lowered levels of stress
hormonesPhysical Health
Lowered risk of diseases
like diabetes and heart
diseaseHealing
Stronger immune system
and quicker healingFIGURE 7.1
EFFECTS OF
RELATIONSHIP HARMONY
This figure represents some
of the benefits that happy
relationships might expect.
Source: Parker-Pope, 2010a.ambiguity about their path or the future of the relationship are more at risk for
negative relational outcomes (Willoughby, Carroll, & Busby, 2012).
Online Relationships
Tens of thousands of people around the world play and connect via online
games like World of Warcraft and Eve Online. In fact, the game company Bliz-
zard hosts an in-person gaming convention that draws people from all fifty U.S.
states and over forty countries. Although the gamers are certainly drawn to the
costume and dance contests and the announcements of new products, they are
perhaps even more drawn to the interactions they can have with other gamers.
They hang around hotel lobbies talking long after the event is over, illustrat-
ing the importance of the relationships they have formed within these online
worlds (Schiesel, 2011).
For years, online relationships were considered impersonal, lacking the rich-
ness of nonverbal cues found in face-to-face relationships (Tidwell & Walther,
2002). But mediated communicators actually take advantage of the lack of these
cues to gain greater control over both their messages and their presentation of
self. Social information processing theory (SIP) (Walther, 1996; Walther &
Parks, 2002) argues that communicators use unique language and stylistic cues
in their online messages to develop relationships that are just as close as those
that develop face to face—but often take more time to become intimate. Online
communicators can develop hyperpersonal communication, communication
that is even more personal and intimate than face-to-face interaction. Freed from
the less controllable nonverbal cues (such as appearances or nervous fidgeting),
online communicators can carefully craft their messages and cultivate ideal-
ized perceptions of each other (Walther & Ramirez, 2009). Indeed, relational
partners often feel less constrained in the online environment (Caplan, 2001),
Do you have any relation-
ships that exist strictly online?
Do you consider these rela-
tionships different from other
ones in your life? Are they
more intimate or less?AND YOU?