ABSTRACT
A variety of definitions of relational maintenance and relational repair exists. Whereas relational maintenance is often conceptualized as attempts to preserve the relationship in its current state, relational repair involves partners engaging in behaviors to restore the relationship to its former condition, which assumes that something has disrupted the relationship. Transgressions can take the form of a social transgression or a relational transgression. Social transgressions involve the violation of some socially accepted rule, convention, or practice. For example, not accepting someone's hand to shake when it is extended in a greeting represents a social transgression. Transgressions have been described using an abundance of terminologies, including uncertainty arousing events, negative events, negative relational turning points, betrayals, face threats, relational expectancy violations, and problematic events, to name a few. Emotional responses to the transgression also vary, depending on whether the transgression was social or relational in nature.
