Laypeople's conceptions of commitment.

The author conducted 8 studies to elucidate the content and structure of lay conceptions of commitment. Studies 1 to 5 revealed that laypeople regard commitment to close relationships (e.g., friends, family, spouse) as central to the concept, whereas they consider nonclose (e.g., commitment to a neighbor) and noninterpersonal varieties (e.g., one's occupation) peripheral. This prototype structure influenced information processing in predictable ways. Studies 6 to 8 focused on the vertical structure of commitment categories. Results suggest that types of commitment are organized as fuzzy rather than true class-inclusion hierarchies. Study 8 also examined relationship implications of conceptions of commitment. People who held a relational conception of commitment had more positive perceptions, thoughts, and feelings about their dating relationship than did those who held a nonrelational conception.