Interpersonal relationship

About: Interpersonal relationship is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 22392 publications have been published within this topic receiving 937957 citations. The topic is also known as: interpersonal status & relationship.

Experience of social stigma by people with schizophrenia in Hong Kong.

Abstract: Background Research on stigma often focuses on general public attitudes and overlooks patients9 subjective experiences of everyday stigma arising from significant others. Aims To document and compare the interpersonal experiences of stigma in patients with schizophrenia and patients with diabetes mellitus in Hong Kong. Method Four focus groups were conducted to generate a self-report questionnaire. Data were collected from out-patients with schizophrenia ( n =320) and diabetes ( n =160). Results Significantly more patients with schizophrenia (>40%) than diabetes (average 15%) experienced stigma from family members, partners, friends and colleagues. Over 50% anticipated stigma and about 55% concealed their illness. Dysphoria occurred in over half. Conclusions Interpersonal (especially intrafamilial) stigma was pervasive, hard to avoid and devastating to patients with schizophrenia. Family support had to be realised rather than assumed, despite the emphasis on relationship bonds in Chinese society. Programmes that build the family as a rehabilitative resource should start early to reduce the development and adverse impacts of stigma.

A study of upward influence in organizations.

Abstract: ? 1982 by Cornell University. 0001 -839218212702-03041$00.75 This study examines the process of upward influence in organizations from the perspectives of both the subordinate and the supervisor. The study provides a list of categories and supporting data for the agents and methods of influence, the perceived causes of success and failure, and the perceived outcomes in upward-influence episodes. The results suggestthat subordinates and supervisors report (1) similar agents and methods of influence used by subordinates in both successful and unsuccessful attempts; (2) similar outcomes of attempts to influence; and (3) similar causes of success in upward influence attempts. Subordinates and supervisors, however, report different causes of failure. This study also examines the structural, individual, and situational factors that are associated with success and failure in upward influence activity.

The structure of empathy during middle childhood and its relationship to prosocial behavior

Abstract: This study was an investigation of the structure and development of dispositional empathy during middle childhood and its relationship to altruism. A sample of 478 students from 2nd, 4th, and 6th grades completed an altruism questionnaire and a social desirability scale, both created for this study, and the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (Davis, 1980), adapted for this study. Teachers also rated the students on prosocial behaviors, such as sharing. In addition, as an experimental part of the study, the children could make monetary donations and volunteer time to raise funds. Results of a confirmatory factor analysis on the Interpersonal Reactivity Index supported Davis's (1980) findings that empathy comprises four components: perspective taking, fantasy, empathic concern, and personal distress. Factor intercorrelations, however, were not the same as those reported by Davis. MANOVAs were used to examine gender and age effects on empathy. Girls were more empathic in general than boys, and older children showed more empathic concern than younger children. Only empathic concern and perspective taking were significant predictors of prosocial behavior.

Remarriage, Unmarried Cohabitation, Living Apart Together: Partner Relationships Following Bereavement or Divorce

Abstract: Substantial proportions of people enter into new partner relationships after bereavement or divorce. Nowadays in Europe, unmarried cohabitation and living-apart-together relationships are frequently opted for at repartnering. Drawing on the Netherlands' Living Arrangements and Social Networks survey of men and women aged 55 to 89 years (N = 4,494), this article explicates the determinants that lead widowed or divorced people to enter into old and new types of partner relationships. Cox proportional hazard regression analyses revealed that age at most recent union dissolution, the number of partner dissolutions, working during and after the most recent union dissolution, and other demographic variables are important in weighing the pros and cons of different types of living arrangements. Key Words: cohabitation, coresidence, older adults, remarriage. For those still in first marriage, the increase in life expectancy results in a longer duration of the partner bond through aging together. A growing percentage of divorced adults (Wu & Penning, 1997) face the possibility of long periods of living alone. Some divorced and widowed people remarry, but unmarried cohabitation, and so-called living-apart-together relationships-where partners maintain separate households and finances and share living quarters on an intermittent or temporary basis-are becoming more common in Northern and Western Europe (Bumpass, Sweet, & Martin, 1990; Chevan, 1996; Davidson, 2002; de Jong Gierveld & Peelers, 2003; Karllson & Borell, 2002; Stevens, 2002; Waite, 1995; Wu & Balakrishnan, 1994). Elderly people's strategies to maintain an optimal level of social well-being are addressed in socioemotional selectivity theory (Carstensen, 1992). In this theory, the primacy of social goals is expected to be related to time constraints. When time is perceived to be limited, as is the case for many older adults, emotional goals assume primacy over the acquisition of knowledge. Empirical research has shown that older adults prefer familiar social relationships, and "older couples regulate emotion in a way that should help preserve what is a very important late-life relationship-marriage" (Carstensen, 1995, p. 155). The theory emphasizes preserving familiar close relationships (Carstensen, Isaacowitz, & Charles, 1999). Until now, however, the formation of new emotionally close relationships among older adults has not been widely examined within the theory (Lang, 2001). In this article, I investigate the incidence of repartnering and the determinants that lead adults to enter into a new partner relationship. In doing so, I differentiate between those who remarry, start a consensual union, or begin a living-apart-together relationship. BACKGROUND New Partner Relationships in Later Life: Goals, Opportunities, and Restrictions Living alone in later life after widowhood or divorce increases the risks of loneliness, but living with a partner might be helpful in increasing well-being (de Jong Gierveld, 1998; van Baarsen & Broese van Groenou, 2001). Men in particular appear to adapt less easily to the loss of their partners (Lee, Willets, & Seccombe, 1998), and benefit more than women from partner relationships (Antonucci, 1994; Bograd & Spilka, 1996; Cooney & Dunne, 2001). Finding a new partner may be an attractive option for older adults, especially men (Dykstra, 1990) who feel deprived of the taken-for-granted attentive activities that were carried out for them by their former wives (Mason, 1996). Others, particularly widows, might hesitate to give up the freedom and independence they enjoyed after coming to terms with bereavement (Lopata, 1996; Pyke, 1994). In opting for either living alone or sharing a household with a new partner, one has to weigh the pros and cons of both options. Sharing a household-that is to say, living as a couplemay provide people with personal care, reciprocal attention and support, companionship, and the division of household tasks. …