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25 Examples of a Social Relationship

John Spacey, updated on May 22, 2024

A social relationship is a sustained series of social interactions between two or more people. These are important as they allow people to get to know each other, to cooperate and to fulfill social needs. Social relationships tend to be much more strongly bounded by norms than transactional social processes. For example, in a city where people are cold and relatively impolite towards strangers in the street they may be extraordinarily polite and considerate towards social relations such as neighbors, family and coworkers. The following are illustrative examples of a social relationship.

Acquaintances	Activity Partners
Bosses	Boyfriend / Girlfriend / Significant Other
Business Partners	Classmates / School Peers
Coaches	Common-law Marriage
Comrade	Coworkers
Customer / Client	Family
Friends	Godparent
Grandmother / Grandfather / Grandparent	Investors (in your business)
Life Partner	Marriage
Mentors	Mother / Father / Parent
Neighbors	Relatives
Romantic Relationships	Siblings
Teachers

Personal Relationships

Relationships that are important to your social needs that are a source of bonding, shared experience and social support. Personal relationships generally include your immediate family, extended family, romantic relationships and friendships.

Community Relationships

Relationships with people who live in your community such as neighbors or classmates. This can include professional relationships with local government or businesses and their citizens, clients, patrons or customers.

Professional Relationships

Relationships established with membership or interaction with an institution, business or organization. These may be social to a degree but may also be governed by the standards of professionalism that apply to each type of relationship. This may require that the relationship remain somewhat distant. For example, the professional expectation that you not share certain types of personal details with customers.

Personal Relationship vs Social Relationship

All relationships are social as is any interaction between people. A personal relationship is a relationship that is interdependent and closely tied to your social needs. Common examples include parents, grandparents, siblings, friends and romantic relationships such as a spouse.

Voluntary vs Involuntary

A voluntary social relationship is someone that you choose to spend time with such as a friend. An involuntary social relationship is created by circumstances such as where you live or work. For example, a coworker or a neighbor. You can choose to ignore a neighbor but they are still your neighbor and you depend on them in certain ways such as depending on their civility and good behavior as a neighbor.