ABSTRACT
Fitzpatrick developed the Relational Dimensions Instrument (RDI) in an effort to organize marital interaction research and to create a typology of relationships. She argued that Kantor and Lehr’s Access and Target dimensions are central to definitions of relational life and she used these dimensions as a framework for this measure. To develop the RDI, Fitzpatrick first drew 200 access-target and autonomy-interdependence items from the work of Kantor and Lehr. Various studies found evidence of construct validity of the RDI. For example, Fitzpatrick, interested in expressive and instrumental communication of couples, found that traditionals are more frank in their communication with one another and also communicate vulnerability more frequently than do either independents or separates. Although the RDI was designed to study married couples, Fitzpatrick proposed that it has measurement utility in premarital romantic relationships as well.
