Building Trust in a Relationship

Trust is defined as one party’s confidence in the other relationship member’s reliability, durability & integrity. It is each party's

belief that its actions are in the best interest of & will produce positive outcomes for the trusting party.

The basic units for measurement of trust can be divided into two components; rational (credibility & reliability) & non-rational (intimacy & orientation). The trust equation can be expressed as: Trust = (C+R+I)/S. Where “C” is for credibility or truthfulness, “R” is for reliability or predictability, “I” is for intimacy or integrity, and “S” is for self-orientation or self-consciousness.