Risk in Relationships

Risk in relationships can be considered in two distinct ways. From a psychological perspective, risk can be defined as a way of thinking about relationships (a cognitive schema) where choices to form and maintain intimate relationships are thought to involve unusually high levels of psychological/emotional investment combined with high uncertainty about outcomes and accompanied by a heightened anxiety about forming and maintaining relationships. These thoughts are likely to be the product of life-course experiences (e.g., divorce) that generate an increased desire for intimacy, but also a fear of negative consequences should a relationship become too close. From this perspective, risk is largely indistinguishable from other concepts such as anxious-ambivalent or fearful attachment styles, trust, and fear of intimacy.

Alternatively, risk can be defined in sociological terms as a perceived and/or actual characteristic of the social context within which relationships are formed and maintained. Rather than the outcome [Page 1383]of earlier life-course experiences of individuals, risk is conceptualized as a product of changing structural and cultural conditions experienced by all individuals sharing a common social environ-ment—specifically, a context of late modernity (e.g., contemporary North America and Northern Europe). In such a context, social institutions (e.g., families, communities, and churches) no longer control or provide guidelines for forming and maintaining relationships, individuals take on more responsibility for shaping their own identity and life outcomes, and there is an increased reliance on rational decision making and technology for controlling the physical and social environment, as well as individuals' personal lives. As a result, individuals must make relationship choices that were largely made for them in previous generations and must do so under conditions of expanded options, increased uncertainty, and a greater reliance on logical means-end reasoning about what they believe should be an inherently emotional experience. In addition, these relationship decisions have greater consequence for their identity, and individuals bear more personal responsibility for negative outcomes should their relationships fail. It is in this sense that risk is considered here.