Source status: research-context term used across learning, developmental and relationship sciences.
Relational learning is the way repeated experiences with other people shape expectations about availability, distance, repair, asking, receiving and what contact is likely to cost.
Those expectations can persist without becoming destiny. They may vary across relationships, and new experiences can add evidence without erasing what happened before.
Different from: attachment. Attachment is a specific theoretical and research tradition concerning important bonds. Relational learning is the broader process through which interaction becomes expectation.
Related: Attachment; Attunement; Contact; Present Evidence.
