bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Interplay between Attachment and Affiliation Systems in Adolescents' Same-Sex Friendships: The Role of Attachment Style
Authors: Mikulincer Mario , Selinger Michal
Published: March 2007

Three studies examined attachment-style differences in the interplay between attachment and affiliation systems within adolescents' same-sex friendships. In Study 1, adolescents completed attachment-style scales and reported on the rewards involved in a same-sex friendship, as well as on attachment features of this relationship. In Studies 2 and 3, adolescents completed attachment-style scales, visualized an interaction with their best same-sex friend under either attachment or affiliation contexts, and reported on the motives they pursued in such an interaction. Findings indicated that secure adolescents attached high importance to both attachment and affiliation goals in friendship, anxious-ambivalent adolescents overemphasized attachment goals, and avoidant adolescents gave low importance to the two types of goals. In addition, whereas secure adolescents were responsive to affiliation and attachment contexts, insecure adolescents showed less responsiveness to these contexts and their habitual working models guided their responses. Results were discussed in terms of Bowlby's `attachment-affiliation balance'.
'Parenting Voices': Solo Parent Identity and Co-Parent Identities in Married Parents' Narratives of Meaningful Parenting Experiences
Authors: Stueve Jeffrey L. , Pleck Joseph H.
Published: March 2007

A new qualitative method for investigating parental identity, the Parenting Narrative Interview (PNI), is introduced. Participants included 28 married couples (N = 56 individuals) with preschool children. Narratives of five meaningful temporally bounded parenting experiences (Marker Experiences) and meaningful experiences in five parenting domains (Domain Experiences) were coded for `parenting voice': I Only, I Context, We Complementary, We Compare, and We Joint. Across all narratives, We Joint and I Only voices were most frequently used. In Marker Experiences, no sex differences in voice usage were evident, but parents predominantly used We Joint voice in describing how they became parents, shifting to I Context and I Only for early experiences, and then to I Only for recent experiences as well as for anticipated future experiences. In Domain Experiences, fathers less often than mothers used I Voice in caregiving, promoting development, and arranging and planning narratives, and more often used We Joint in stories about their relationship with the child. With parenting voice interpreted as reflecting the balance within parental identity among self-as-solo-parent and varying kinds of co-parental selves, parental identity becomes progressively less co-parental and more solo-parental across narrative time. Compared to mothers, fathers construct their parental identity related to caregiving, promoting development, arranging and planning, and their relationship with the child as relatively more co-parental (i.e., more situated in the context of the relationship with the partner).
Research on Relationships as a Prelude to Action: Response to Commentaries
Authors: Bradbury Thomas N.
Published: March 2007

I respond to the three commentaries offered by Reis (2002), Muehihoff and Wood (2002), and Hendrick (2002) in reaction to my article, Research on Relationships as a Prelude to Action. The central theme in the original article was that greater emphasis on research conducted with the goal of improving relationships would yield great dividends to relationship science, particularly by overcoming conceptual and methodological limitations now evident in the field. These three comments bring into focus several factors that may temper enthusiasm for a change-oriented research agenda, including uncertainty about which research findings ultimately will prove useful in devising interventions, value judgments associated with determining which kinds of changes and outcomes are desirable, and concerns that change oriented research will undermine theory development. I argue that these factors may limit acceptance and complicate implementation of a change-oriented research agenda, yet they do not diminish the importance of such an agenda or the benefits it is likely to produce.
What Causes Mean: An Analysis of Children's Interpretations of the Causes of Social Experience
Authors: Sobol Michael P. , Earn Brian M.
Published: March 2007

Fourth, fifth and sixth-grade children, assigned to one of four sociometric groups - popular, controversial, isolated and rejected - rated the dimensional meaning of eight social attributions: other's motives, personality, behavioural sociability, mood, third-party intervention, personality interaction, luck and effort. Analysis of these ratings revealed that, in general, children use the locus and controllability dimensions in a manner which closely approximates Weiner's (1979) model of causal attributions. Stability ratings mirror the model only for personality, luck and mood. However, when social experience, reflected by sociometric ratings, is taken into account, a different pattern emerges. Popular and rejected children view the causes differently than do isolated and controversial children. These results are discussed in terms of social experience and the need to evaluate the idiosyncratic meaning of causes. Implications for enhancing social relationships are also presented.
Depression and Marital Disagreement: The Social Construction of Despair
Authors: Kahn Jana , Coyne James C. , Margolin Gayla
Published: March 2007

How do couples with and without a depressed spouse cope with conflict? Seven couples in which the husband was depressed, seven in which the wife was depressed and fourteen in which neither was depressed completed measures of marital adjustment and typical conflict behaviour. Following a laboratory discussion, they completed measures of their recall of their own and their spouse's participation and the impact of their spouses on them. Reports by depressed persons and their spouses agreed in indicating that they engaged in less constructive problem-solving and more destructive behaviour. After the discussion they were sad and angry and experienced each other as hostile, competitive, mistrusting, detached, less agreeable, less nurturant and less affiliative than couples without a depressed member. This study contradicts clinical folklore depicting depressed persons as lacking in outwardly-directed hostility.
Preschoolers' Reunion Responses in Day Care
Authors: Sheldon Elyse L. , Thompson Ross A. , Earl Glen B.
Published: March 2007

Although reunion responses are often used in studies of the effects of day care on parent-child relationships, little is known about the reliability of such behaviours in preschoolers. A fifteen-category Preschool Reunion Behavior Measure was developed to appraise the range of preschoolers' reunion responses in day care and their consistency across multiple observations. Twenty-two boys and girls were observed six times over a seven-week period during reunions with the same parent. Children showed the same type of reunion behaviour 50 percent of the time, which was significantly greater than chance expectation. Consistency in the general emotional tone of reunions was 72 percent. There were no differences in specific reunion behaviours - or in their consistency - between boys and girls, or when the mother or father was the retrieving parent. Taken together these findings indicate that preschoolers show a broad range of greeting behaviour, and the consistency of individual differences in reunion responses suggests that these behaviours may reflect some stable dimension of parent-child interaction.
Male Inexpressiveness and Relationships
Authors: Dosser David A. , Balswick Jack O. , Halverson Charles F.
Published: March 2007

Empirical support for the concept of the inexpressive male is reviewed and theoretical explanations for male inexpressiveness are presented. In addition, implications of male inexpressiveness for relationships are considered. The argument is advanced that in much of the research an overly simplistic view of male inexpressiveness has been taken. Suggestions are offered for future research including the need to consider male inexpressiveness as a communicative process which is influenced by individual choices, affected by situational variables and best understood within the context of social interaction.
Sex Role Identity, Role Performance and Marital Satisfaction of Newly-Wed Couples
Authors: Parmelee Patricia A.
Published: March 2007

This research examined sex role identity as a mediator of marital role performance and satisfaction in early marriage. Sex role identity (indexed by the Bem Sex Role Inventory), performance of instrumental and expressive marital roles, and marital satisfaction were assessed among 110 newly married couples. Results confirmed hypothesized congruence of sex role identity and instrumental role performance among men, but not women. Similar effects emerged for perceived segregation of marital roles. Sex role identity predicted marital satisfaction of both spouses; in general, feminine men and masculine women expressed greater satisfaction. Men appeared more satisfied if married to masculine women; wives' satisfaction was, however, independent of their husbands' sex role identities. Marital satisfaction was also positively related to mutuality of expressive behaviour and negatively to perceived segregation of expressive roles. Results were discussed in terms of sex differences in marital values and process. Divergence from previous research findings is attributed to possible developmental trends within marital relationships.
Resources in Older Adults' Old and New Friendships
Authors: Shea Laurie , Thompson Linda , Blieszner Rosemary
Published: March 2007

This research investigated the exchange of resources in old and new friendships with a sample of twenty-seven older adults who had recently relocated to a retirement community. Using quantitative measures, the study documented specific short-term changes in resource exchange (love, status, information and services) and measured related changes in affection. Open-ended interviews were used to tap the participants' views of the importance of resource exchange in developing and maintaining friendships, the role of each resource in each friendship, and the differences between old and new friendships. Old friendships remained stable in resource exchange and affection, while newly developing friendships increased in both dimensions. Supporting the quantitative results, participants' comments emphasized continuity as an essential quality of old friendships. Participants also spoke about the somewhat different meanings of love, status, information and services in old and new friendships.
The Social Environment and Psychopathology
Authors: Monroe Scott M.
Published: March 2007

The present paper describes a research program designed to investigate features of the social environment that may influence the development or maintenance of psychopathology. The guiding philosophy has been to understand the processes through which general social constructs, such as social support and life stress, may modulate vulnerability to psychological disorder. Over a number of years, the program has focused specifically upon depression and its episodic nature, attempting to explain the onset and remission of the disorder with respect to life stress and interpersonal environments. The concepts studied, however, are intimately tied to pathological functioning in diverse ways, only some of which are informative for developing descriptive models of the processes involved. The paper describes several strategies for controlling spurious influences (e.g. self-report biases in retrospective reporting of life stress and social relationships in depression). These strategies provide a foundation for uncovering the features of life stress and interpersonal relationships that may be important in the development, maintenance, remission and recurrence of depression. After reporting several studies devoted to these issues, the paper concludes with suggestions for deepening understanding of the interplay between life stress, social relationships and psychopathology.
Personal Relationships, Social Support, and Loneliness
Authors: de Jong-Gierveld Jenny
Published: March 2007

Trends in theory and in research in the field of personal and social relationships seem to go their separate ways. This article describes a research programme which explicitly tries to integrate these two fields. Attention is paid in particular to two programme facets: (1) ideas on concept analysis, the operationalization process, measuring models and measuring instruments, including a detailed example of the development of a loneliness measuring instrument according to the so-called Rasch model; and (2) the cumulative development of a causal explanatory loneliness model which is based on cognitive theory. On-going projects investigating certain aspects of the explanatory model are also dealt with.
Dialectical Contradictions in Relationship Development
Authors: Baxter Leslie A.
Published: March 2007

Three fundamental contradictions were examined in the stages of development identified retrospectively by 106 romantic relationship parties: autonomy-connection, openness-closedness, and predictability-novelty. The contradictions were reported to be present in approximately three-quarters of all identified stages. The openness closedness contradiction was more likely than the other two contradictions to be reported during the initial stage of development; autonomy connection and predictability-novelty contradictions were reported with increased frequency in subsequent developmental stages. Relationship parties reported that they managed the contradictions with six basic types of responses. These response forms were not reported with equal frequency across the contradictions and the stages of development. Current relationship satisfaction did not correlate significantly with the reported presence of the contradictions but did correlate with the ways in which the contradictions were managed.
A Linguist's Quest for Love
Authors: Kövecses Zoltán
Published: March 2007

So far, love has not been studied from an explicitly linguistic point of view. The paper attempts to provide a systematic linguistic examination of romantic love. The approach is based on Kövecses's (1986, 1990) view of emotion concepts, which maintains that emotion concepts in general, and the concept of love in particular, can be seen as comprising four parts: a system of metaphors, a system of metonymies, a set of related concepts and a set of cognitive models (with one or more prototypical models in the centre). First the love metaphors, then the love metonymies and concepts related to love are identified, followed by a description of the ideal model of romantic love, as it emerges from these linguistic expressions. Finally, five major issues in the study of love are addressed in the light of the analysis: (1) the definition of love, (2) the nature of love, (3) the issue of how many different types of love there are and what these are, (4) the role of language in the study of love, and (5) the relationships between `folk' and scientific theories of love.
Maintenance Strategies and Romantic Relationship Type, Gender and Relational Characteristics
Authors: Stafford Laura , Canary Daniel J.
Published: March 2007

This study examines the manner in which perceptions of relational maintenance strategies used in romantic dyads vary according to relationship type (married, engaged, seriously dating and dating) and gender. Additionally, this study investigates how perceptions of partners' maintenance behaviors differentially affect the relational characteristics of control mutuality, commitment, liking and satisfaction. Research assumptions were cast within a developmental framework. Five maintenance strategies were derived through factor analyses: positivity, assurances, openness, sharing tasks and social networks. Results indicate that relationship type moderately affected perceptions of partner maintenance strategies and gender weakly affected perceptions of maintenance behaviors. The findings also reveal that positivity, assurances and sharing tasks were consistent and strong predictors of control mutuality, commitment, liking and satisfaction.
Parents as Direct Facilitators of Children's Peer Relationships: Effects of Age of Child and Sex of Parent
Authors: Bhavnagri Navaz P. , Parke Ross D.
Published: March 2007

The goal of the study was to examine the impact of parental facilitation on children's play with an unfamiliar peer. Pairs of preschoolers and their parents (mothers and fathers on separate occasions) were videotaped under two conditions in an ABABA design. In one condition, (A) parents were instructed to remain passive, while in a second condition, (B) parents were asked to `help the children play together'. Children were rated as higher in social competence with their peers under conditions of parental facilitation than under conditions where parents were passive. Younger preschoolers benefited from parental assistance more than older preschoolers; younger children were less able to maintain peer interaction without parental assistance. There was little evidence that parental supervision facilitated peer interaction among older preschoolers. Fathers and mothers were equally competent facilitators in the lab. Interview data suggest that mothers are more likely to perform this direct facilitatory role in home settings. The implications of the findings for models of family-peer linkage are discussed.
Aids-Related Stigmatization and the Disruption of Social Relationships
Authors: Crandall Christian S. , Coleman Robert
Published: March 2007

This article describes the importance of stigma to understanding the experience of becoming infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), especially with respect to social relationships. Based on anonymous questionnaires from respondents who either have AIDS, AIDS-related complex or are infected but asymptomatic, we found that many of those infected with HIV do not feel stigmatized or show its effects. Those who do feel stigmatized also felt anxious, depressed and alienated from others. These feelings of anxiety, depression and alienation were independent of HIV diagnostic severity but were associated with disruptions in normal social relationships.
Domestic Affairs and Network Relations
Authors: Wellman Beverly , Wellman Barry
Published: March 2007

We examine how spouses and community members provide social support: companionship, emotional aid and services for dealing with domestic situations. Torontonians engage their networks from their homes; there is no Bottian tendency for networks to lure people away from their spouses. Spouses exchange a wide range of support, but most community members provide specialized support. We develop a typology based on the extent of support that people receive from spouses and networks. Networkers, with much spousal and network support, tend to be in their thirties, parents of preschoolers, with wives who are home much of the time, have larger networks and more contact with network members. Householders, with spousal support but little network support, tend to be in their forties, with both spouses doing paid work, have the smallest networks and do not have much contact with the members of their small networks. Self-Reliants, getting little support from spouses and networks, tend to have no children living at home, small networks and little contact with network members.
Perceptions of Conflict in the First Year of Marriage: How Important are Similarity and Understanding?
Authors: Acitelli Linda K. , Douvan Elizabeth , Veroff Joseph
Published: March 2007

Perceptions of self and spouse play a central role in marital relationships. Using data from 219 newlywed couples, we examined the relative importance (to marital well-being) of partners' similarity and understanding of conflict styles. These data include reports of behaviors of the self and spouse during their most recent disagreement. Behaviors were categorized as either constructive or destructive to resolving the conflict, and data from each category were analyzed separately. Measures of perceptions of similarity based on one spouse's report, actual similarity between spouses' separate reports and spouses' accuracy in reporting (or `understanding' of) each other's behaviors were derived from these reports. Consistent with earlier studies, perceived similarity was shown to be higher than actual similarity and was a stronger positive predictor of marital well-being. This finding highlights the importance of partners believing that they are similar. The strongest predictor of marital well-being for wives was wives' understanding of their husbands. For husbands, both spouses' self-reports of their own behaviors were the strongest predictors. These gender differences are discussed with regard to differences in orientation toward and power in relationships.
Equity, Normative Disapproval and Extramarital Relationships
Authors: Prins Karin S. , Buunk Bram P. , VanYperen Nico W.
Published: March 2007

This study examined the extent to which inequity, normative disapproval and marital dissatisfaction were related to involvement in extramarital sexual relationships. The study was conducted among 82 married men and 132 married women with a mean age of 41. Of the sample, 30 percent had been involved in extramarital relationships. The results showed that among men as well as women, normative disapproval, and to a lesser extent, relational dissatisfaction were related to the desire to become involved in extramarital sexual relationships and to actual involvement in such relationships. Fear of contracting AIDS was not an important factor in this context. Only among women was inequity associated with extramarital behaviour and inclinations. The effect of inequity was independent of the effects of relational dissatisfaction, sexual dissatisfaction, normative disapproval and exchange orientation.
Lovers as Friends
Authors: Hendrick Susan S. , Hendrick Clyde
Published: March 2007

Account-making has generated considerable interest among relationship researchers and was employed in the present research. In Study 1, 41 college student participants generated freeform accounts of a romantic love relationship. When coded for love themes, based on Lee's (1973) six love styles, the most frequent theme was Storge (friendship-love). Results were similar for Study II (n = 18), and in addition, there was good correspondence between love themes in the freeform accounts and love style scores on the Love Attitudes Scale. In Study III, 25 participants generated freeform accounts of their closest friendship relationship. Some 44 percent of the participants named their romantic partner as their closest friend. Results of the three studies confirm the importance of friendship as well as passion in young adults' romantic relationships. These results also suggest the importance of freeform accounts as methodology for studying the meaning of love.
Parenting Cognitions in Stepfamilies: Differences between Parents and Stepparents and Relations to Parenting Satisfaction
Authors: Fine Mark A. , Kurdek Lawrence A.
Published: March 2007

This study examined the parenting cognitions of both spouses of married couples recruited from the Stepfamily Association of America. Spouses in 115 of these couples were fathers/stepmothers of a 5-15-year-old target child and 100 were mothers/stepfathers of such a target child. Participants completed measures of cognitions (perceptions, assumptions and standards) related to their control and warmth parenting behaviors, as well as parenting satisfaction. Biological parents, in contrast to stepparents, generally reported that they more frequently engage in parenting behaviors (perceptions), that typical parents engage more frequently in parenting behaviors than typical stepparents (assumptions), and that they should engage more frequently in parenting behaviors (standards). After controlling for demographic variables, parents' appraisals of their parenting performance, but not interparent cognitive discrepancies, accounted for significant portions of variability in their parenting satisfaction.
Social Support: Global and Relationship-Based Levels of Analysis
Authors: Sarason Irwin G. , Sarason Barbara R. , Pierce Gregory R.
Published: March 2007

This article reviews the development of a program of research on social support. It began with the construction of an instrument to assess overall support and determination of its correlation with various indicators of adjustment and performance. This led to inquiries into how people at different support levels behave socially and how they perceive the behavior of others. The results of these studies led, in turn, to focusing attention on the relative contributions to outcomes of both global and relationship-specific perceived support. We provide examples of studies that characterize each phase of the research and discuss needs for future research, with special emphasis on the need for closer integrations of research on social support and personal relationships.
Measuring Friendship Quality During Pre- and Early Adolescence: The Development and Psychometric Properties of the Friendship Qualities Scale
Authors: Bukowski William M. , Hoza Betsy , Boivin Michel
Published: March 2007

The Friendship Qualities Scale is a theoretically grounded, multidimensional measurement instrument to assess the quality of children's and early adolescents' relationships with their best friends according to five conceptually meaningful aspects of the friendship relation. These dimensions are companionship, conflict, help/aid, security and closeness. A confirmatory factor analysis, used to evaluate the factor structure of this instrument, demonstrated that these scales represented distinct, but related, domains of friendship. Assessments of reliability indicated the high level of internal consistency within each dimension. The validity of the scale was indicated by the observation of higher ratings for (a) mutual friends than for non-mutual friends, and (b) for stable friends than for non-stable friends. These findings are discussed according to the theoretical and practical issues related to the measurement of friendship quality.
Support, Criticism, Emotion and Depressive Symptoms: Gender Differences in the Stress-Depression Relationship
Authors: Gruen Rand J. , Gwadz Marya , Morrobel Diana
Published: March 2007

It has been suggested that the level of support and criticism provided by significant others is associated with subjects' level of depressive symptoms. The present study was designed with two goals in mind: (1) to examine the relationship between partners' level of support and criticism during a conflict resolution task, and subjects' emotional response; and (2) to assess the relationship between subjects' emotional response, and their level of depressive symptoms. Subjects consisted of 34 community residing couples. Levels of emotional support provided by both males and females were significantly related to the extent to which both partners felt pleased and happy. The emotional-response of males was not significantly related to their level of symptoms. In contrast, the emotional response of females was significantly related to their level of depressive symptoms. Our findings provide preliminary support for a theoretical model in which emotional support affects the emotional response of female partners, which in turn, affects their level of depressive symptomatology.
The Effects of Relationship and Self-Esteem Threats on the Likelihood of Romantic Jealousy
Authors: Sharpsteen Don J.
Published: March 2007

Much of the psychological theory and research on romantic jealousy emphasizes the roles of threats to self-esteem and threats to the relationship (from a romantic rival) in generating jealous feelings. However, the causal effects of these threats on the occurrence of jealousy have not yet been examined. In the present study, subjects imagined themselves in four types of jealousy-provoking situations (relatively low and high threat to self-esteem crossed with relatively low and high threat to the relationship) and, in each one, estimated the likelihood that they would become jealous, angry, sad and fearful, and that they would seek proximity to their partner. Results showed that changes in the likelihood of jealousy and its concomitant emotions were a function of changes in the intensity of both types of threats, as expected. However, proximity-seeking increased among men only when relationship threat increased. Among women, the likelihood of seeking proximity increased (relative to the joint-low-threat condition)when either type of threat increased alone but not when both threats increased together. The relevance of these findings to recent formulations of jealousy processes from an attachment perspective and to previous research on jealousy and relationships is discussed.
The Quality of Friendships at Work and Job Satisfaction
Authors: Winstead Barbara A. , Derlega Valerian J. , Montgomery Melinda J. , Pilkington Constance
Published: March 2007

The study examines the relationship between quality of a friendship at work and job satisfaction. Faculty and staff (N = 722) at two universities completed measures of the qualities of their best friendship at work and of job satisfaction. Multiple regressions for faculty and staff and for subjects whose best friend was a peer, supervisor or subordinate revealed that the quality of one's best friendship in the workplace is predictive of job satisfaction. A negative aspect of friendship, maintenance difficulty, was related to lower satisfaction for staff (but not faculty) and for workers whose best friend at work was a peer or supervisor. Wishing to spend free time with a best friend at work (voluntary interdependence) and an exchange orientation toward the friend were also negatively related to aspects of job satisfaction. The relationships between feelings about one's best friend at work and feelings about one's job are discussed.
Socioemotional Behavior at the End of College Life
Authors: Fredrickson Barbara L.
Published: March 2007

This study examined daily patterns of social interaction before the anticipated social departure marked by the end of residential college life. Sixty-six college students, 19 of whom faced social and/or geographical relocation associated with college graduation, kept daily accounts of their social activities for 21 consecutive days. Compared with students not facing a social departure, graduating seniors reported greater emotional involvement with close friends relative to acquaintances. Seniors did not differ from other students in their relative balance of close friends and acquaintances within each day or in amount of time spent with each type of social partner per day. These findings suggest that people's construals of future social opportunities - or lack thereof—influence their emotional investments in social contact, and support Carstensen's socioemotional selectivity theory.
Uncertainty and Confidence in Interpersonal Projects: Consequences for Social Relationships and Well-Being
Authors: Salmela-Aro Katariina , Nurmi Jari-Erik
Published: March 2007

To examine the extent to which the appraisal of interpersonal projects influences people's social relationships and well-being, 202 female students were asked to complete the Personal Projects Analysis (PPA), the revised Beck's Depression Inventory (BDI) and Rosenberg's Self-Esteem Scale, and to answer several self-report measures of social relationships. Then, one year later, they completed the UCLA Loneliness scale, the Perceived Stress scale, the revised BDI and several self-report measures of social relationships. Two groups of students were identified on the basis of their PPA ratings: (1) the socially confident group, with positive and confident appraisals ( n = 74) of their interpersonal projects, and (2) the socially uncertain group, with negative and uncertain appraisals (n = 35). The results showed that the women in the socially uncertain group reported more negative interactions with their parents and with their boyfriend/spouse, and also fewer new acquaintances, than the socially confident women. Moreover, they showed higher levels of depression, stress and loneliness, but lower levels of self-esteem.
Comparing the Structure and Stability of Network Ties Using the Social Support Questionnaire and the Social Network List
Authors: Bass Lee Ann , Stein Catherine H.
Published: March 2007

To compare the structure and stability of personal networks elicited by two popular network assessment instruments, 102 undergraduates completed the Social Support Questionnaire (SSQ) and the Social Network List (SNL) twice over a 4-week interval. At both times of measurement, respondents delineated significantly larger networks using the SNL than using the SSQ, with a larger average number of friends being elicited by the SNL. Respondents averaged significantly higher global network satisfaction ratings for SSQ networks relative to SNL networks at both times of measurement. More of the same individual network members' names were repeated at the second time of measurement and more new network members were added at the second time of measurement on the SNL than on the SSQ. Implications for network research are discussed.
Attachment, Perceptions of Interaction, and Relationship Adjustment
Authors: Morrison Thomas L. , Urquiza Anthony J. , Goodlin-Jones Beth L.
Published: March 2007

This study examined the hypothesis that perceptions of interaction in intimate relationships would mediate the association between attachment organization and relationship satisfaction. A multi-ethnic group of 159 male and 226 female community college students completed questionnaires regarding attachment organization and aspects of their intimate relationships. Greater attachment security and less activation of the attachment system were associated with perceptions of more affiliative interaction (R = .45, p<.001) and less distress (R = .43, p<.001) in the relationship. Perceptions of more affiliative interaction were strongly associated with less relationship distress (R = .69, p<.001). When attachment factors and interaction factors were entered jointly in the regression for relationship distress, the association between attachment and relationship distress was substantially reduced. This analysis supported the hypothesis of a mediation effect. The mediation effect was less complete for women than for men. The association of attachment factors with relationship distress was more direct in relationships that were at relatively early stages of development. Over all comparisons, the inclusion of subjects with a conventionalized response set inflated Rs2 by an average of 3 percent.
Validation of the Fear of Intimacy Scale with a Lesbian and Gay Male Population
Authors: Greenfield Shannon , Thelen Mark
Published: March 2007

The present study investigated the validity of the Fear of Intimacy Scale (FIS) with lesbians and gay men. In addition, the relationship between fear of intimacy and adult attachment style was explored. The sample consisted of 40 lesbians and 57 gay men. The FIS evidenced high internal consistency. As with primarily heterosexual populations, fear of intimacy was shown to be negatively related to self-disclosure, comfort with emotional closeness, and relationship satisfaction; the FIS was positively related to loneliness and trait anxiety. In addition, fear of intimacy was significantly related to measures of adult attachment style. Overall, the FIS was shown to be a valid, reliable, and useful measure of fear of intimacy with lesbians and gay men.
The Symbolic Meaning of Relationships: Implications for Psychological Distress Following Relationship Loss
Authors: Umberson Debra , Torling Toni
Published: March 2007

Previous studies have argued that the symbolic meaning of relationships affects individuals' psychological well-being and that the particular symbolic meanings attached to relationships may affect how individuals respond to the loss of those relationships. However, previous research has not directly studied the symbolic content of relationships and how that content is linked to well-being. In this study, we focus on the adult child/parent relationship because it is often viewed as a social relationship with significant symbolic value. We analyze both qualitative and quantitative data to: (1) identify symbolic meanings that relationships with parents hold for adult children; (2) consider how particular symbolic meanings are related to more traditional measures of relationship quality; and (3) examine how symbolic meanings are associated with adults' psychological reactions following the death of the parent. We provide theoretical and empirical support for the argument that the symbolic meanings of relationships should be considered in addition to more traditional measures of relationship quality in assessing the impact of relationships and relationship loss on individual well-being.
Personal Relationships and Social Change: The `Realpolitik' of Cross-Cultural Research in Transient Cultures
Authors: Goodwin Robin B.
Published: March 2007

This paper describes a programme of research conducted over the past few years in Eastern Europe, investigating the impacts of social and political change on personal relationships. I begin by providing the theoretical rationale for this work, describing some of the key theoretical and methodological issues we confronted, including the definition of `change', the selection of cultures and samples, and the use of multiple methodologies. I then turn to what I term the `realpolitik' of conducting such work, identifying some of the problems we faced in obtaining funding, selecting a sample and motivating respondents, as well as considering the potential impacts of such research on both the research team and our respondents. In doing so, I not only identify some of the pitfalls involved in doing research into changing cultures and some ways to avoid these, but also convey some of the real insights and excitement that such research can generate.
Dating with HIV: A Content Analysis of Gay Male HIV-Positive and HIV-Negative Personal Advertisements
Authors: Hatala Mark Nicholas , Baack Daniel W. , Parmenter Ryan
Published: March 2007

One hundred personal advertisements from homosexual men who disclosed their HIV-status were analyzed for content. Results supported the hypotheses that HIV-negative men would be more likely to specify positive characteristics for their partners, prescribe a seriousness for the relationship, be older and write longer ads. HIV-positive men were more likely to discuss health issues in their ads. Results are interpreted in light of case study and survey research on HIV-positive gay men. The use of personal advertisements as an alternative ecological methodology is also discussed.
Decision-Making in College Students' Heterosexual Dating Relationships: Ambivalence about Engaging in Sexual Activity
Authors: O'Sullivan Lucia F. , Gaines Michelle E.
Published: March 2007

Researchers have examined decision-making related to participating in sexual activity and resisting sexual advances. However, ambivalence about sexual participation has received little research attention. A sample of 194 US college students (96 men, 98 women) completed surveys designed to examine uncertainty about engaging in sexual activity with a dating partner, the factors that influence eventual decisions regarding participation, and the perceived emotional and relational consequences of these decisions. The majority of students (81%) reported at least one episode of ambivalence in the recent past. In over half the cases (53%), respondents reported eventually rejecting their partners' sexual invitations, usually because of relationship or intimacy concerns. Those who eventually accepted their partner's sexual invitation typically attributed their decision to becoming more aroused or wanting to promote intimacy in their relationship. Overall, ambivalence about participating in sexual activity seems to have few deleterious consequences for individuals and their relationships. However, the findings emphasize the need to promote clearer communication about sexual intentions and desires between dating couples.
Memories of Feeling Misunderstood, and a Schema of Partner Empathic Responding: New Scales for Marital Research
Authors: Sanford Keith
Published: March 2007

Two instruments were created to assess cognitions in marital relationships: these were a 4-minute speeded test to assess Memory Accessibility for Partner Not Understanding (MAPNU), and a 20-item Likert-type questionnaire to assess Schema of Partner Empathic Responses to Anger (SOPERA). Seventy-four married individuals (37 couples, ranging from happily married to mildly distressed) completed both cognitive measures, the Dyadic Adjustment Scale and the Areas of Change questionnaire. The cognitive measures produced high reliability coefficients and a high convergent validity coefficient. SOPERA was related to, but not redundant with, general marital adjustment, and these two constructs best fit a two-dimensional as compared to a one-dimensional confirmatory factor analysis model. MAPNU was not correlated with length of marriage nor with a measure of general response production. Having a partner who demonstrated accurate understanding on the Areas of Change questionnaire was related to scores on both MAPNU and SOPERA, and path analysis supported a model in which SOPERA mediates the relationship between partner accurate understanding and relationship satisfaction.
Risk in Intimacy as a Chronically Accessible Schema
Authors: Pilkington Constance J. , Woods Steven P.
Published: March 2007

The cognitive underpinnings of perceptions of risk in intimacy (RII) were investigated in two studies. Using response times to measure schema accessibility, we found partial support for the hypothesis that, although most people have risk-in-intimacy schemas available in memory, those schemas are more accessible to high-RII individuals. In Study 1, high-RII women responded to relationship events more quickly and rated those events as representing greater risk than did low-RII women. In Study 2, high-RII individuals interpreted ambiguous social situations more negatively and did so more quickly than low-RII individuals. In some cases, however, high-RII individuals responded more slowly than low-RII individuals. Possible explanations for these findings are discussed.
Family Portraits: Stories As Standards for Family Relationships
Authors: Vangelisti Anita L. , Crumley Linda P. , Baker Jennifer L.
Published: March 2007

Two studies were conducted to investigate the link between the themes of stories individuals feel describe their family and the way people evaluate their family relationships. Individuals described a story characterizing their own family and then re-told that story so that it reflected an ‘ideal’ family. The themes that emerged from these stories, as well as the discrepancies between the themes portrayed in the two stories, were examined. Findings indicated that the themes typifying people’s stories about their own family were associated with individuals’ family satisfaction. Stories reflecting care, togetherness, adaptability, reconstruction, and humorwere positively linked to satisfaction, whereas those portraying disregard, hostility, chaos, divergent values, and personality attributeswere negatively related to individuals’ feelings about their family. The themes characterizing people’s stories about what they saw as the ‘ideal’ family, by contrast, were unrelated to satisfaction. But, as expected, the discrepancies between many of the themes represented in people’s own family stories and those portrayed in their ‘ideal’ stories were associated with the way individuals felt about their family relationships. Furthermore, the way people perceived their own family stories was linked to their beliefs that, at some point, their own stories would change to become more like their ‘ideal’ stories.
The Question of Ownness: Influence of Relationship Context on Parental Socialization Strategies
Authors: Dawber Tess , Kuczynski Leon
Published: March 2007

A relational perspective on socialization explores how the distinctive parent-child relationship context affects the dynamics of parent-child interactions. Forty mothers responded to hypothetical transgressions involving short-term and long-term socialization issues in three different relationship contexts: their own child, their child's best friend, and an unfamiliar child. Mothers reported different affective reactions, socialization goals, and discipline strategies depending on the nature of the relationship and also depending on the nature of the socialization issue. Mothers reported that they would experience more emotional upset, have more future oriented goals, and employ more power assertion, teaching and reasoning strategies for their own child compared with unrelated children. They also used these strategies more frequently for transgressions involving long-term issues. The discussion explored how various dimensions of relationships (past history, future course, interdependence) are represented in how mothers handle disciplinary interactions with their children.
Attachment Style and Memory for Attachment-Related Events
Authors: Miller Judi Beinstein
Published: March 2007

Previous research has demonstrated attachment-schematic processing of attachment-related stories when attachment-related memories are activated before exposure to a story. This study investigated the possibility of obtaining attachment-schematic processing without the activation of attachment-related memories. Undergraduate participants provided attachment style self-ratings and several weeks later read either a positive or negative version of a friendship story. After a distractor task, they took a recall test about the story. Secure and fearful attachment ratings were positively associated with recall of focal story events, relative to peripheral story details, when participants read the negative story. However, secure attachment was associated with recall of focal events involving the friends' joint activities, whereas fearful attachment was associated with recall of those involving their separate activities. These and other results are discussed in terms of attachment-related models of self and other.
Managing Audience Participation
Authors: Carpentier Nico
Published: March 2007

In this article the theoretical notions of power developed by Giddens and Foucault are combined to serve as a framework for the analysis of the participation of 20 `ordinary people' in Jan Publiek, an audience discussion programme on north Belgian public service television (VRT). In this analysis the positive/generative and negative/repressive aspects of power - united in the Giddean `dialectics of control' - and especially the management of the participants in the pre-broadcast, broadcast and post-broadcasting phase and the resistance this management provokes, are brought into focus. The conclusion returns to the Foucauldian question of the (local) overall effect and the production of discourses on participation and `ordinary people'. Although the `ordinary people' actually deliver a major contribution to the realization of the programme Jan Publiek, they are also confronted with the management of the production team, putting their participation into perspective.
A Theory of Evaluative Discourse: Towards a Graph Theory of Journalistic Texts
Authors: van Cuilenburg Jan J. , Kleinnijenhuis Jan , de Ridder Jan A.
Published: March 2007

Charles E. Osgood and his colleagues developed a technique for content analysis called `Evaluative Assertion Analysis' (Osgood, 1956). An elaboration of the technique will be presented here. Sentences are split up into nuclear sentences, which are predicating something about the relation between meaning objects. Meaning objects might be political actors, empirical variables, attributes or abstract philosophical notions such as `the good' or `the world'. By uttering nuclear sentences, meaning objects are associated or disassociated. A computer program, CETA, has been developed which applies graph theory for combining these nuclear sentences in order to detect the structure of discourse.