Transition to Interpersonal Commitment

Abstract

The character of propositions in Homans’s writings on interpersonal relationships is such that the mathematicians can make a mathematical treatment a logical and straightforward extension. In stochastic process terms, the notion of interpersonal commitment sounds very much like an absorbing state. If people move into and out of exchanges as a result of comparing current with alternative reward-cost ratios, then a state in which no alternatives are monitored is never challenged. The essential fact for current purposes is that they corrected the deficient diagonal problem by postulating two distinct transition matrices applicable to two discrete types of workers. Obviously some interpersonal commitments are rescinded, as evidenced by divorce or the termination of close friendship. The model of interpersonal involvement development presented has been relatively limited, but it has generated a number of hypotheses about transitions among and duration in various states of interpersonal involvement.