Showing papers in "Journal of Social and Personal Relationships in 1995"

The Parental Stress Scale: Initial Psychometric Evidence

Abstract: The development of a measure of parental stress, the Parental Stress Scale, is presented. All participants (total N = 1276) completed the Parental Stress Scale and some also completed the Parenting Stress Index, a generic measure of stress called the Perceived Stress Scale, relevant measures of emotions and role satisfaction (e.g. loneliness, marital satisfaction, guilt, etc.), and one group completed the Parental Stress Scale twice. Analyses suggested that the Parental Stress Scale is highly reliable, both internally and over time, and related to the general measure of stress. Also, results were consistent across parents of differing parental characteristics, suggesting the stability of scale characteristics. The validity of Parental Stress Scale scores was supported by predicted correlations with measures of relevant emotions and role satisfaction and significant discrimination between mothers of children in treatment for emotional/behavioral problems and developmental disabilities vs mothers of childre...

Reciprocity Reconsidered: Gouldner's `Moral Norm of Reciprocity' and Social Support

Abstract: In a classic statement three decades ago, Gouldner (1960) made an important analytic distinction between reciprocity as a pattern of social exchange and reciprocity as a general moral belief. Gouldner argued that the moral norm of reciprocity constitutes an important `causal force' in social life. The reciprocity norm dictates that Ego should not end up gaining at the expense of Alter's beneficial acts towards him or her. In contrast to equity theory, which suggests that people will react equally negatively to under- and overbenefiting, the reciprocity norm suggests that people will, above all, attempt to avoid overbenefiting from their socially supportive interactions. While many studies of social support have incorporated the concepts of reciprocity and exchange, virtually none has examined the validity of Gouldner's distinction nor its potential implications for the dynamics of social support. This paper explores the evidence for Gouldner's claims from studies on support and reciprocity. Evidence is fo...

Similarity as the Basis for Children's Friendships: The Roles of Sociometric Status, Aggressive and Withdrawn Behavior, Academic Achievement and Demographic Characteristics

Abstract: The purpose of the present study was to examine similarity in demographic, behavioral, academic and social attributes as descriptors and predictors of children's friendships. The characteristics of all possible pairs of unique classroom dyads (N = 4725) were used to predict reciprocated school, home and best friendship choices among 554 third (M = 9.38 years old) and fourth (M = 10.47 years old) graders. Peer reports of aggressive and withdrawn behavior and sociometric status, teacher reports of poverty, and archival reports of sex, race and academic achievement were obtained. The main finding was that as similarity increased, the likelihood of being friends also increased. Specifically, patterns of gender, race, poverty, aggression, withdrawn behavior, achievement and sociometric status between dyad members were descriptive and predictive of children's friendships.

The Quality of Friendships at Work and Job Satisfaction

Abstract: 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.

Time Spent Together and Relationship Quality: Long-Distance Relationships as a Test Case

Abstract: Although many studies have shown associations between the amount of time spent together and relationship satisfaction, none has established the causal direction of the association. While time spent together may cause increased satisfaction, it is equally likely that greater satisfaction causes couples to spend more time together. Recent research that experimentally increased the amount of time couples spent together found no increase in relationship satisfaction. The present study looks at relationships that spend less time together—long-distance relationships (LDRs)—and examines their relationship quality compared to geographically proximal relationships (PRs). A multivariate analysis of variance compared self-reported levels of relationship satisfaction, intimacy, dyadic trust and the degree of relationship progress, between 194 individuals in premarital LDRs and 190 premarital PRs. The analysis found no significant differences. This suggests that the amount of time a couple spends together does not its...

Sexual Relationships on Holiday: A Case of Situational Disinhibition?:

Abstract: A survey of 1033 single tourists, aged 16-29 years, visiting a seaside resort in southwest England, indicated that self-reported sexual behaviour was related to various attitudes concerning the forming of new relationships and the differentiation of holiday from home environments. Whereas 43.2 percent reported having had no sexual contact since arriving on holiday, 32.6 percent reported having engaged in sexual activity but not intercourse, and 24.2 percent reported having had intercourse with one or more new partners. Males reported higher rates of contact and intercourse than females. These groups were compared on scores derived from a factor analysis of attitude statements concerning relationship formation and holiday activities. Higher levels of sexual activity were associated with approval of casual sex, with males scoring higher on this factor than females. Sexual activity was also related, especially among females, to higher scores on a factor representing situational disinhibition, e.g. feeling li...

The Social Construction of Love

Abstract: What does it mean to love someone? In particular, does it mean the same thing across time and space, or does its meaning change with context? Is the emotional experience of love, regardless of how people define love, always the same, or does the experience of love vary with context? In this article, we argue for a social-constructionist view of love, according to which both the definition and the emotional experience of love are contextually bound. We review both the social history and the psychological backdrop of love, concluding that we can understand love only in terms of cultural conceptions of (a) the beloved, (b) the feelings that accompany love, (c) the thoughts that accompany love, and (d) the actions, or the relations one has with the beloved.

Help Wanted: A Grand Theorist of Interpersonal Relationships, Sociologist or Anthropologist Preferred:

Abstract: Knowledge about interpersonal relationships is currently encapsulated within type of relationship (e.g. romantic, parental), with relationship type confounded with disciplinary approach, with the characteristics of the partners usually found in that type of relationship, as well as with the nature of the relationship phenomena examined. It is argued that a critical issue for the relationship field is whether a grand, overarching theory of relationships can be developed. Such a theory would directly address the principal relationship types, delineating the similarities and differences among them with respect to the causal conditions associated with various relationship phenomena. It is further argued that an important class of causal conditions that governs behavior in all relationships is the culturally defined norms, roles and expectations associated with type of relationship, and that these cultural prescriptions - as opposed to `individualistic' causal conditions - must play an important role in any un...

Relational Schemas and Cognition in Close Relationships

Abstract: There is a recent trend toward the development of a comprehensive model of relational cognition, examining how information about interpersonal experiences is perceived, interpreted, stored and recalled. I present illustrative examples from recent adult attachment research, and argue that a better understanding of cognition about interpersonal dynamics could help to integrate the various domains of relationships research.

Commitment to Dating Relationships and Cross-Sex Friendships in America and China

Abstract: A cross-sectional survey study examined commitment processes in the dating relationships and cross-sex friendships of young adults residing in the United States or Taiwan. Feelings of commitment were stronger in relationships with greater satisfaction, poorer quality alternatives, greater investment size and greater centrality of relationship. However, there was little evidence that commitment was influenced by normative support for a relationship. The relationship between commitment and satisfaction was stronger for dating relationships than for friendships, as was the relationship between commitment and alternatives. Dispositions appeared to affect commitment primarily in indirect ways. For example, self-esteem, psychological femininity and perspective-taking were associated with features of interdependence such as perceived alternative quality or willingness to invest, which in turn were related to feelings of commitment. Finally, Americans reported weaker commitment than would be expected given other ...

Accommodation and Attachment Representations in Young Couples

Abstract: In a prospective study, we examined the relationship between internal representations of attachment and accommodation. Participants consisted of both members of established young couples (N = 128; mean age = 24.4 years at time 1; mean relationship length = 47 months at time 1). Participants were administered the Peer Attachment Interview and a relationship satisfaction scale twice over 8 months. At time 2, participants completed the Accommodation Scale to assess responses to potentially destructive behavior by romantic partners. Current and previous attachment representations predicted the use of accommodation strategies. In particular, security was associated with the use of constructive accommodation strategies and fearfulness was associated with the use of destructive accommodation strategies. With few exceptions, the pattern of correlations between attachment ratings and accommodation responses was the same after the effects of relationship satisfaction were partialled out. The results suggest that ac...

Love as a Story

Abstract: This article advances the view that love is a story. The article discusses relationships as stories, what our stories are like, kinds of stories, where stories come from, how stories control the development of relationships, the difficulty of changing stories, the role of ideal stories, the cultural matrix of stories and relations to theories of love.

Attachment and Play: Convergence Across Components of Parent-Child Relationships and their Relations to Peer Competence

Abstract: Two components of the parent-child relationship, attachment and play, are associated with peer competence, but have not been related to one another. This study examines: (a) linkages between attachment security and physical play interactions in mother-child and father-child dyads, and (b) linkages between these parenting components and peer competence. A total of 54 preschoolers (27 girls) participated with their mothers and fathers. Parents completed the Attachment Q-set (Waters, 1987) and parent-child dyads were observed in a physical play session that was evaluated for play engagement and quality. Preschool teachers evaluated children's popularity and friendly-cooperative behavior. Mother-child dyads with more securely attached children had higher rates of play engagement. In father-child dyads with more securely attached children, fathers issued more directives and children made more suggestions and positive responses. Mother-child play quality and father-child attachment were most strongly associated...

Sex, Self-Esteem, Dependency and Extradyadic Sexual Experience as Related to Jealousy Responses

Abstract: A study of a heterogeneous sample of 250 mostly married individuals examined the impact of sex, self-esteem, emotional dependency and extradyadic sexual experience upon betrayal-anger, disappointment and self-doubt as responses to extradyadic sexual behavior of the partner. Women scored higher in self-doubt and disappointment than men, but not in betrayal-anger. When the other variables were included as independent variables, women showed still more self-doubt than men when their partner committed adultery, and this was especially true for women of low self-esteem. Emotional dependency and one's own extradyadic sexual experience reduced all jealousy responses, whereas previous experience with adultery of the partner had a mitigating effect upon disappointment, especially among women. It is concluded that in general neither men nor women can be said to be more jealous, but that among women self-doubt and adaptation to the partner's adultery is a quite common pattern.

`I do' Again: The Relational Dialectics of Renewing Marriage Vows

Abstract: This study provides descriptive insight into the dialectical themes of one public relationship ritual in modern US society, the renewal of marital vows between spouses. Interpretive analyses of in-depth interview data revealed that this ritual allows spouses to manage three underlying dialectical contra- dictions: private-public, stability-change and conventionality-uniqueness.

Exploratory Study Marital Interdependence and Social Networks

Abstract: In an exploratory study of 25 wives and their husbands we examine the associations of spouses with kin and friends as predictors of four marital qualities: love, maintenance, conflict and ambivalence. For husbands, contact with kin, and especially fathers, is tied to greater marital interdependence and lower conflict. For wives, contact with kin, and especially brothers-in-law, is consistently associated with greater marital distress in the form of lower love for her husband and reports of greater conflict and ambivalence on the part of both spouses. Husbands also report greater conflict and ambivalence when their wives interact frequently with friends. Overall, the findings suggest the effects of kin are heterogeneous, varying substantially by the type of role relation, and that the processes underlying relations with kin are distinctly different for wives and husbands.

The Three Faces of Friendship

Abstract: This article sets out to establish a clear distinction between having friends, the identity of one's friends and friendship quality in children and adolescents. Problems regarding identifying children's friends, the significance of having friends and the quality of friendships in relation to developmental outcome are examined. The author urges the adoption of sounder measures of multidimensional assessment and more comprehensive, longer-term longitudinal designs.

Individual and Partner Love Styles: Implications for the Quality of Romantic Involvements:

Abstract: The goal of this study was to explore the association between the love styles endorsed by respondents and their romantic partners on the one hand, and the quality of their romantic involvements on the other. A sample of 186 couples at a large southern university completed a questionnaire that included a shortened version of Hendrick & Hendrick's (1986) Love Attitudes Scale (LAS) designed to assess six love styles originally proposed by Lee (1973). Both the individual's and partner's scores on the six love scales (Eros, Ludus, Storge, Pragma, Mania, Agape) were then examined as predictors of the structural qualities of the couple's relationship specified by Rusbult's (1980a, 1983) investment model. The results of correlational and multiple regression analyses indicated that the respondent's own love style scores were the best predictors of relationship quality. In particular, the endorsement of Eros and Agape were associated with higher levels of rewards, satisfaction, investments and commitment, lower lev...

Talking Relationships into Being

Abstract: When the study of relationships focuses on the dyadic level of analysis, it must also take account of the social context in which relationships come into being. That context is strongly bordered by talk and the rhetorical basis of normal (and scientific) discourse. Discourse and other actions typically reproduce the relationship in its own image on successive occasions, though they do not have to do so. The appearance of stability in relationships is thus the result of perpetually constructive activity of partners, not the result of `the nature' of the relationship itself.

Marital Satisfaction and Passionate Love

Abstract: One hundred married individuals completed questionnaires measuring marital satisfaction, passionate love, social desirability and six relationship-relevant variables - global happiness, relationship excitement, relationship boredom, sex-minus-arguments frequency, amount of shared activities and kissing frequency. Consistent with previous research, marital satisfaction had moderate to large correlations with the six relationship-relevant variables; for most variables, these correlations remained after partialing out passionate love and social desirability. For women, passionate love was moderately correlated with marital satisfaction and with the six relationship-relevant variables; for most variables, these correlations remained after controlling for marital satisfaction and social desirability. However, for men there were no significant correlations with passionate love.

Fatal Attractions: Affection and Disaffection in Intimate Relationships:

Abstract: This research investigates the extent to which a quality that initially attracts one person to another in a romantic relationship is a positive dimension of the same overall characteristic that leads to subsequent disaffection - i.e. a `fatal attraction'. Three hundred and one college women and men were asked to think of the most recent romantic relationship they had that ended, and to list qualities that first attracted them to that partner and characteristics they later `least liked' about that partner. Results indicate that there were approximately 88 instances (in 29.2% of the breakups) of what appeared to be `fatal attractions'. Certain types of characteristics, such as exciting and different, were also more likely to be `fatal' than others. Additional findings point to sex differences in attracting qualities, with, for example, males reporting significantly more qualities than females in the Physical category. Implications of the results for dialectical relationship theories are discussed.

Feminist Scholarship and the Study of Relationships

Abstract: This article explores intersections between research on personal and social relationships, on the one hand, and feminist study, on the other. Focused on the means and effects of social constructions of gender, feminist enquiry clarifies how gender affects interaction processes and participants' and researchers' interpretations of them. This article outlines key facets of feminist scholarship and shows how they complement, extend and revise research on relationships.

Social Structural and Psychological Correlates of Interethnic Dating

Abstract: This study is designed to: (a) describe current interethnic dating behavior and related attitudes among southern Californians; and (b) examine social structural and psychological correlates of interethnic dating. Data were derived from a telephone survey conducted with a probability sample of African American, Latino and white residents of southern California. lnterethnic dating was reported by over half of all ethnic groups and both sexes and more frequently among men. Most reported that family members knew of their behavior and few families objected, although white women were most likely to report family criticism. Whites and Latinos who admitted to exclusions for intermarriage were most likely to exclude blacks, and black women and Latinas were most likely to exclude Asians. Logistic regression analyses indicated that interethnic dating was associated with being male, younger, having more education, being less lonely, the perception of having more mating opportunities and being African American or Lati...

The Effects of Relationship and Self-Esteem Threats on the Likelihood of Romantic Jealousy

Abstract: 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 co...

Socioemotional Behavior at the End of College Life

Abstract: 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.

Factor Structure of Social Relationships: An Examination of Relational Models and Resource Exchange Theories

Abstract: Although several accounts of elementary relational forms have been proposed, little empirical research has attempted to test, refine and compare them. Such research can strengthen claims that there are relational universals, and can provide a unifying framework and conceptual currency for further study. In the present study, the factor structure of 500 social relationships sampled from 50 undergraduate subjects was examined using items representing relational forms proposed by Fiske (1991) and Foa & Foa (1974). The results are interpreted in light of their implications for the internal organization of the two theories, the interrelations of the two theories, and the relations of both theories to common dimensions of social relationships. It is argued that theories of the basic forms of social relationship must be revised in light of the empirical associations of their elements, and that the time is now ripe for confirmatory tests of these forms.

Stories and Relationships

Abstract: How do the supposedly true stories we tell about the past influence our relationships in the present? What, in other words, is the rhetorical value of historical texts, written and oral? In this essay, I argue that more attention should be paid to how people socially create stories about `what really happened back then', to suit their own political interests; and how, in the process of doing so, they partition the world into cognitive territories known as `selves' and `others'.

Personal Relationships as a Skilled Accomplishment

Abstract: This article pursues some implications of viewing personal relationships as a skilled accomplishment. It suggests that the social skills through which people conduct their relationship can be an integrative focus for research, sketches an approach to social skills grounded in a functional analysis of personal relationships, and describes how this type of analysis can be coupled with a `doubly developmental' model of relationship change.

Research into Relationship Research Designs: Personal Relationships Under the Microscope:

Abstract: This article evaluates several characteristics of population sampling frames, sampling procedures and sample size as normally used in articles published in the JSPR. Limitations of the logic-in-use are discussed and several recommendations for future paths are suggested.