Relational schemas: The universal grammar of relationships

Relational schemas, basic knowledge structures about interpersonal relationships stored in long term memory, include beliefs, expectations, attributions, and evaluations of relationships and relational partners (Fletcher, 1993). Relational schemas play important roles in social functioning by helping individuals to initiate their own behaviors and to make sense of the behavior of others. Consequently, relational schemas should also play an important role in message processing. This research investigates the role of four relational schemas (i.e., communal sharing, authority ranking, equality matching, and market pricing) proposed by Fiske (1991, 1992) in relationships with members of socially marginalized groups and in the processing of pro-social messages. A series of 4 experiments was conducted that included self-report measures, card-sort tasks, reaction time measures, and tests of different types of persuasive messages. Results from these experiments: (1) establish the existence of the 4 relational schemas as cognitive structures; (2) empirically validate the conceptualizations of relational schemas and help reformulate them in light of empirical findings; (3) allow the development of an instrument to reliably measure relational schemas; and (4) establish the importance of relational schemas for message processing.;Evidence for the existence of relational schemas is demonstrated by the ability to reliably measure them in three samples and across four relational contexts. Additional evidence for the existence and use of relational schemas comes from their observed influence on response latencies to the items measuring them, from their use as a defining facet by participants classifying different types of social behaviors, and from their influence on message processing. Developing an instrument to measure relational schemas leads not only to a simple way of assessing relational schemas, but also to a better understanding of their scope. In addition, the finding that schemas are used by individuals in the formation and evaluation of social behaviors suggests that relational schemas contain both structural and procedural knowledge.;The influence of relational schemas on message processing is demonstrated by their effect on persons' attitudes and on their perceptions of messages, message appeals, and message sources. This effect is greater than the influence of involvement, social desirability, and several personality traits commonly associated with message processing. Significant differences between messages containing appeals based on the four relational schemas are found for seven measures of message effectiveness, including attitude valence, appeal quality, and source attributions. The implications of these findings for our understanding of social cognition in general and relational schemas in particular are discussed. Finally, goals for future research are identified, and research questions and strategies for the short and the long term are developed.