The Internal Conditions of Relationship Stability: Respect Capacity, Expectation Distortion, and the Structure of Trust

Human relationships are formed and maintained through interaction, yet it is consistently observed that even under identical interactional conditions, the outcomes of relationships—whether maintained, transformed, or broken—differ across individuals. Existing theories of relationships have primarily explained this phenomenon through emotional factors or interactional structures, but they have failed to sufficiently account for why the same structure produces different relational outcomes. To address this problem, this paper focuses on the idea that the outcomes of relationships are determined not by the interaction structure itself, but by the internal conditions through which that structure is interpreted and processed by individuals. To this end, the paper distinguishes recognition from respect and analyzes respect as a non-automatic process that does not necessarily follow from recognition. It further introduces respect capacity as the ability to maintain the boundaries and rights of others, and systematically examines its components and variability. In addition, the paper formalizes the concept of expectation distortion by showing that expectations can be formed prior to interaction through projection processes and can be maintained and reinforced through cognitive distortion. Trust is defined not as an emotional state, but as the accumulated result of repeated choices, and is analyzed as a structure formed around predictability and the willingness to maintain the relationship, which can gradually collapse over time. Based on these discussions, the paper presents a sequential structure of recognition–respect–interaction–expectation–trust, emphasizing that this entire process is filtered through the internal conditions of individuals. Through this, it explains the mechanism by which relational outcomes diverge under identical interactional structures and proposes a theoretical framework for analyzing the formation, maintenance, and breakdown of human relationships at the level of individual differences.