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.

Just Girls: Hidden Literacies and Life in Junior High

Abstract: This text provides a portrait of adolescent girls in middle school - the "social queens" and the "tough cookies". The author, Margaret Finders, follows the girls, focusing on what they read and write - not just school-sanctioned activities but also the important "hidden literacies" - signing yearbooks, writing notes, bathroom graffiti and reading teen magazines. She spends time interviewing and interacting with the girls in and out of the classroom, on sleepovers, mall visits nd other recreational visits. What she sees raises questions about what is known about girls' lives. Highlighting the social importance of friendship, family and social networks in girls' sense of themselves, she suggests that literacy plays an important role in maintaining friendship groups and in the construction of the self. The study questions many common assumptions about early adolescence, mostly importantly the "good girl" role so often assigned to and reinforced in female students.

Adult attachment style. I: Its relationship to clinical depression.

Abstract: Background Although there are an increasing number of studies showing an association of adult attachment style to depressive disorder, such studies have rarely utilised epidemiological approaches with large community-based series and have relied heavily on brief self-report measurement of both attachment style and symptoms. The result is a wide inconsistency in the type of insecure style shown to relate to disorder. The present study examined adult attachment style in a high-risk community sample of women in relation to clinical depression. It utilised an interview measure of adult attachment which allowed for an assessment of both type of attachment style and the degree of insecurity of attachment. A companion paper examines its relationship with other depressive-vulnerability (Bifulco et al. 2002). Method Two hundred and twenty-two high-risk and 80 comparison women were selected from questionnaire screenings of London GP patient lists and intensively interviewed. A global scale of attachment style based on supportive relationships (with partner and very close others) together with attitudes to support-seeking, derived the four styles paralleling those from self-report attachment assessments (Secure, Enmeshed, Fearful, Avoidant). In order to additionally reflect hostility in the scheme, the Avoidant category was subdivided into “Angry-dismissive” and “Withdrawn”. The degree to which attitudes and behaviour within such styles were dysfunctional (“non-standard”) was also assessed. Attachment style was examined in relation to clinical depression in a 12-month period. For a third of the series this was examined prospectively to new onset of disorder. Results The presence of any insecure style was significantly related to 12-month depression. However, when controls were made for depressive symptomatology at interview, only the “non-standard” levels of Enmeshed, Fearful or Angry-dismissive styles related to disorder. Withdrawn-avoidance was not significantly related to disorder. Conclusion The relationship of attachment style to clinical depression is increased by differentiating the degree of insecurity of style and differentiating hostile and non-hostile avoidance.

Social and interpersonal factors relating to adolescent suicidality: a review of the literature

Abstract: This article reviews the empirical literature concerning social and interpersonal variables as risk factors for adolescent suicidality (suicidal ideation, suicidal behavior, death by suicide). It also describes major social constructs in theories of suicide and the extent to which studies support their importance to adolescent suicidality. PsychINFO and PubMed searches were conducted for empirical studies focused on family and friend support, social isolation, peer victimization, physical/sexual abuse, or emotional neglect as these relate to adolescent suicidality. Empirical findings converge in documenting the importance of multiple social and interpersonal factors to adolescent suicidality. Research support for the social constructs in several major theories of suicide is summarized and research challenges are discussed.

Distance Matters: Physical Space and Social Impact

Abstract: Studies of college students and citizens of south Florida, United States, students in Shanghai, China, and an international sample of social psychologists show that social influence, measured by the frequency of memorable interactions, is heavily determined by distance. In all three cases, although there was a great deal of interaction with distant persons, the relationship between distance and interaction frequency was well described by an inverse power function with a slope of approximately -1, consistent with the expectation that social impact is proportional to the inverse square of the distance separating two persons. This result confirms one principle from Latane's 1981 theory of social impact and helps explain the ability of opinion minorities to cluster and survive in the face of majority influence.