ABSTRACT
Social bonds among humans form quite easily, even in the absence of specific circumstances that might make these bonds particularly advantageous. The belongingness hypothesis is appealing for a couple of reasons. For one thing, the need to belong can explain a variety of important psychological phenomena. For another, the need to belong explains the tendency both to seek and maintain relationships of breadth as well as depth. However, people may be attracted to relationships because they meet multiple psychological needs. In reality, most people spend their lives in a heavily populated social context. Sociologist George Caspar Homans (1961) proposed a number of fairly straightforward principles with regard to the connection between social interaction and relationships. Intimate relationships can take on many different forms, but most Americans who are asked to describe the prototypical intimate relationship will probably respond by naming the heterosexual, married couple.
