Table 1 Cooperative functions of dyadic relationships, adapted from Bugental39.

From: How social relationships shape moral wrongness judgments

Cooperative function

Coordination problem to be solved

Care

Securing basic welfare needs through non-contingent provision (or acceptance) of help or support; maintaining safety; encouraging learning

Reciprocity

Coordinating behavior between individuals with functionally similar (or equal) status, power, authority, or claim on a resource

Hierarchy

Coordinating behavior between individuals with different (unequal) status, power, authority, or claim on a resource

Mating

Finding and maintaining sexual partners; ultimately, producing and ensuring the survival of offspring

  1. We note that the care function is based on the work of Clark and colleagues concerning “communal” relationships59; it conceptually overlaps with, and replaces, the “attachment” function in Bugental’s model. Because our model is focused on dyadic interactions, we also do not include Bugental’s group-level “coalition” function in this table (see Supplement Section 1.4.3. for data pertaining to the coalition function).
Back to article page