The Development of Online and Offline Romantic Relationships: A Turning Point Study by Sophia W. McDowell
Hypothesis 3 posited that the change in reported level of commitment in online romantic relationships will be faster than that in offline relationships at the beginning of relational development but that this rate of commitment change in online relationships would taper off, allowing the rate in offline romances to catch up. To test this hypothesis, curves representing an average relationship trajectory were drawn for the online and offline groups. To calculate the average graph for each group, the commitment scores for each respondent at the beginning of each month were calculated. This was done by extrapolating the level of commitment at each month using the slope of the line connecting the immediately preceding and subsequent turning points. For example, if a the first turning point occurred at month 1 and at a commitment level of 10%, and the second turning point occurred at month 3 with a commitment level of 30%, the investigator assumed linearity and extrapolated that at month 2, the level of commitment was 20%. These monthly commitment scores were then averaged for each group and plotted on a graph to form the average curves. To maximize accuracy, any data from participants who generated less than two turning points were excluded. The two average curves generated are displayed in Figure 4.
To figure out where significant mean differences between online and offline groups in levels of commitment lay, t-tests were done for commitment levels at each month. Results are shown in Table Five (part one,part two).
