Beyond Good or Bad: The Four Evaluative Quadrants of Relationships

Academic Abstract

Traditionally, theoretical and empirical accounts have considered relationship evaluations along one single dimension ranging from positive to negative. However, in this theoretical work, we stress the importance of using a bi-dimensional conceptualization of relationship evaluations in which positive and negative dimensions can vary independently. In doing so, we describe the four evaluative quadrants experienced in relationships and outline their unique interpersonal processes and outcomes, both from the perspective of the person experiencing them (i.e., actor effects) and from the perspective of the recipient of such evaluations (i.e., partner effects) and considering both explicit (i.e., deliberative) and implicit (i.e., automatic) processes. We also provide a framework that predicts how relationship properties are likely to influence relationships evaluations, and we introduce the Trajectories of Relationship Evaluation Model (TREM) that describes changes in evaluations over time and the factors that influence such changes. 

Public Abstract

The way we evaluate other people has important implications for how we relate to others and for our psychological and physical health. However, previous research has mostly focused on positive or negative evaluations in relationships. But there are two other types of evaluations that people commonly experience in relationships: ambivalence and indifference. In this work, we argue that it is important to study all four different evaluative types in relationships (i.e., mostly positive, mostly negative, ambivalence, and indifference) because they each uniquely predict certain relationship dynamics and processes. We discuss the consequences of these different types of evaluations for the person who holds the evaluation and for the person who is the target of such evaluation, and we discuss how these evaluations affect both deliberative and automatic processes. Finally, we propose a model (TREM) of how relationship evaluations evolve over time and of the factors that influence the changes in evaluations.