We propose an Affective Relationships Scale (ARS), specifically constructed to
describe core and relatively stable social relationships among people of both
genders and of a wide range of ages, from adolescents to adults. The ARS assesses
the personal frameworks within which individuals organise their multiple social
relationships, by assigning psychological functions to significant others. In Study
1, the ARS among 279 female college students was examined for its factorial
validity, to confirm that it reflected normative trends of social relationships that
had been documented by previous research(e.g. affective needs toward friends would
be stronger than towards parents; “Giving nurture” would be
sought more strongly than “Seeking proximity”); and to classify
individual patterns of personal frameworks. Study 2 examined the ARS’s
convergent and discriminant validity by correlating its scores with those of other
psychological measures for 142 female college students. In Study 3, the examination
of ARS among a total of 1399 participants of both genders from adolescence to
middle-age showed its applicability to males and over a wide age range. Two salient
characteristics of the ARS, the delineation of individual patterns of social
relationships, and the applicability to different cultures, are discussed.
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