Measuring the Social Ecology of Relational Mobility: Challenges and Possible Solutions

Research taking into account socio-ecological factors to explain within- and between- culture variation in psychological processes has often assessed social ecologies on an individual level. In the case of relational mobility, many studies have shown participants’ perceptions of the ease of entering and exiting from relationships in their society correspond with many theoretically relevant variables of interest. However, as these perceptions are measured on an individual level, one concern is that these measures may reflect individual differences rather than objective aspects of the society in which participants are embedded. We present findings from a large-scale survey of adults in Japan and the United States, in which we compare perceptions of relational mobility in society, and well as perceptions of personal mobility. We find that individual difference variables, such as extraversion and openness, relate more strongly to personal mobility than to relational mobility. Furthermore, we find that participants who are at higher risk of exclusion from relationships report their personal mobility to be much lower than their perceptions of the mobility of others in their society. These data suggest that perceptions of relational mobility are distinct from personal mobility. We will discuss implications for theory, and directions for future research to investigate relational mobility using objective and behavioral measures of mobility.