Families' Schemata of Social Relationships

Variation in views of the social environment held jointly by members of family units was examined from a theoretical perspective that specifies distinct kinds of variation among families in their beliefs about the fundamental nature of the social world. Associations compatible with theory were found between direct measures of family interaction and families' schemata of social relationships as assessed by using a felt figure technique. Additional evidence indicated that variation among families in the schemata displayed resulted from similar contributions by all individuals in a family studied. Findings support the existence of family social schemata — a family group's set of views about the organization of relationships in the social world — and indicate several dimensions by which these schemata vary from family to family.     

Plans and the Initiation of Social Relationships

Researchers interested in cognitive approaches to relational communication have typically sought explanations for how cognition influences the interpretation of social actions. Few attempts have been made to understand how cognitive structures guide action production. This study extends the work of such researchers by demonstrating the relationship of plans to two social outcomes, loneliness and shyness. College students described how they would request a date from a member of the opposite sex and how they would ingratiate themselves to a new roommate. Each plan was judged for its effectiveness (i.e., likelihood of success) and analyzed for the types of actions represented within it. As hypothesized, loneliness and shyness were inversely related to plan effectiveness in the date-requesting domain for males but not for females. Loneliness and shyness were inversely related to plan effectiveness in the roommate ingratiation situation for both sexes. Results are discussed in terms of their implications for theories of planning and action production in social interactions.     

Social Networks and the Development of Close Relationships

This study examines the linkage between dose heterosexual relationships and their social networks of dose friends and family members. The central proposition of this study states that relational development will be positively associated with each partner's involvement in the other's social network and the degree of overlap in the individual social networks of each partner. Generally, the findings were consistent with this proposition. Among the indicators of network involvement and overlap, the range of network involvement (i.e., number of known members in the partner's network) emerged as the most powerful predictor of relational development. Findings are reviewed in light of existing theories and research, and suggestions for future research are made.     

Social Acceptability of Hypothetical Married Couples and Their Relationships

The present experiment tested whether the physical attractiveness attributed to members of married couples would vary according to the social acceptability associated with their interconnected leader-follower roles. American college students rated female and male hypothetical stimulus persons who were described as married to each other. As predicted, both partners who were described as being in a traditional relationship with the husband as leader were stereotyped as being highly attractive. Partners in relationships that deviated from this pattern were stereotyped as being less attractive: Those enacting equal leadership roles were intermediate in attractiveness, and those with the wife as leader were least attractive. Gender identity also varied according to the social acceptability of the couple's roles, with the wife and husband in the traditional relationship being stereotyped as most highly sex typed. The personal attributes of self-esteem and social status were not affected by the social acceptability of the couple's relationship. Regardless of sex, these attributes varied according to the strength of the individual's leadership role. As a consequence, the husband's characteristics were either consistently positive or negative for the different leadership conditions; the wife's attributes were inconsistent.     

The Formation of Social Relationships A Longitudinal Study of Social Penetration

This study investigated three levels of self-disclosure (public, semiprivate, private-personal) in the social penetration process. The study addressed three questions. (1) What is the nature of changes in the three levels of disclosure over time? (2) Is self-disclosure reciprocated at the three levels of intimacy? (3) Does reciprocity vary over time and, if so, how does it vary? Same-sex zero-history dyads participated in a six-week longitudinal study. The half-hour taped conversations were submitted to interaction analysis. Polynomial trend analyses and Markov analyses were used to analyze the data. The results showed: (1) a convex quadratic trend for private-personal disclosures over time; (2) reciprocity at the same level of intimacy as an interactional norm (especially at the beginning and end of the relationship); (3) a cyclical fluctuation of reciprocal interacts over time. These results were interpreted as elaborating the social penetration process.     

Parenting Beliefs, Parental Stress, and Social Support Relationships

The present study built on prior research by examining the relationship of parental stress and social support to parenting beliefs and behaviors. A sample of 87 parents provided their views concerning the importance of parenting characteristics as well as their level of parental stress and perceived social support. These parents completed the Parent Behavior Importance Questionnaire-Revised, as well as the Parenting Stress Index-Short Form, and the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support. Results reveal that, in general, less parenting stress was related to more positive parenting perceptions and more parenting stress was related to less positive parenting perceptions. Perceived social support was not found to moderate the relationship between parenting stress and parenting perceptions. This study extends prior research regarding parenting in relation to stress by adding the dimension of social support. There are substantial implications for parent education, professional practice, and research.     

Marital Relationships: A Social Exchange Theory Perspective

The central thesis of this article is the treatment of the marital relationship within the context of social exchange theory. This article opens with a discussion of marital solidarity and marital power from a social exchange perspective. Next, the article addresses the differences between social exchange and economic exchange in order to provide insight in delineating marital relationships in a social exchange context. The conceptualization of couple therapy in terms of social exchange theory is next discussed. Finally, the article closes with a discussion of the deficiencies of social exchange theory as an attempt to delimit the scope of treating marital relationships as a social exchange system.     

Relationships Between Sex, Sex Role, and Social Influence

A study (N = 60) was conducted to investigate the relationship between sex, the Bern Sex-Role Inventory, and measures of social influence. These influence measures involved self-reports of influence strategies, peer evaluations after group discussions, the Marlowe-Crowne Social-Desirability Scale, and a conformity paradigm. It was found that regardless of the subject's sex, masculine and androgynous persons received more positive peer evaluations than feminine persons. Feminine people regardless of sex were more likely than masculine or androgynous people (p <0.05) to report using tears, emotional alteration, and subtlety in efforts to influence others. It was also found that sex-typed and androgynous persons had higher need for approval scores than cross-sex-typed individuals.     

Relationships Among Social Policy Factors,National Competitiveness,and Happiness

The aim of this study is to construct a causal relationship model explaining the relationships between social policy factors and national competitiveness and national happiness; and to analyse how the former affect the latter as final dependent variables. In doing this, the study employs data for OECD member countries. Research regarding the determinants affecting national competitiveness and people’s happiness has tended to focus mainly on personal or collective characteristics such as age, gender, economic infrastructure, etc. As a result, social policy factors, including welfare budget, unemployment support budget and income inequality, have rarely been addressed in the analysis of determinants affecting national competitiveness or happiness, which is regarded as the final policy aim to be achieved by government. In particular, there has been little academic research utilizing OECD database statistics on social policy indicators. Against this background, this study uses the Structural Equation Modeling approach (SEM) to identify the direct and indirect effects of social policy factors on national competitiveness and happiness, and puts forward policy suggestions for attaining these two great goals of social policy.     

Social Density,Interpersonal Relationships,and Residential Crowding Stress1

Research has suggested that tripled rooms may be characterized by a coalition of two roommate(s) and a third, left-out rommate (i.e., the isolate) who is more vulnerable to crowding and control-related problems. The present study sought (1) to confirm the existence of two person coalitions in tripled rooms and (2) to further explore the mediating effects of interpersonal relationships on crowding stress and related problems. Thirty intact groups of roommates from doubled rooms (n= 60) and 39 intact groups of roommates from tripled rooms (n= 117) completed a set of surveys concerned with residential experiences. Results suggested that crowding stress previously associated with tripled residential settings may be mediated by interpersonal relationships; tripled residents who had negative interpersonal relationships with their roommates reported being more bothered by crowding, at both the beginning and end of the semester, than doubled residents who expressed negativity towards their roommate. Satisfaction with privacy was also influenced not only by the number of people with whom a resident shared a room, but also by the nature of the resident's interpersonal relationships with his/her roommate(s). Data also suggest that control-related problems may be a direct outcome of poor interpersonal relationships among inhabitants. Results also indicated that only a small percentage of tripled rooms were characterized by reciprocal, two person coalitions.     

Relationships Between Selected Social Factors and Extent of High School Counseling

This research compares highly counseled and non-counseled secondary school students for differences in social status, attitudinal, and parental characteristics. The 2 guidance functions of career and non-career guidance were studied. Subjects were selected from a larger pool of seniors at 8 diverse high schools. The data revealed that subjects who received extensive career guidance (a) participated more actively in high status social and leadership activities in school, (b) reported their parents to be more active in community, social, and recreational activities, (c) had higher educational goals, and (d) that extensively counseled males were more other-directed, while highly counseled females were more inner-directed. Parental social status and academic achievement did not distinguish between highly counseled and non-counseled students. Few measures differentiated the 2 groups on amount of non-career guidance. These results were interpreted as indicating that utilization of secondary school guidance services may be determined to an important degree by factors extrinsic to the interpersonal process of the guidance situation.     

初中生的社会支持与人格的关系

采用问卷法对432名初中生主观感知的社会支持、外界提供的社会支持与人格之间的关系进行研究,结果表明：（1）在大多数维度上,主观感知的社会支持与外界提供的相应支持及人格有显著的正相关。（2）人格类型不同的初中生主观感知的社会支持有显著差异。（3）人格的谨慎性和开放性、外界提供的社会支持对主观感知的社会支持有显著的正向预测作用;谨慎性和外向性对外界提供的社会支持有显著的正向预测作用。     

Relationships Between Social Support, Social Coping and Life Events in the Relapse of Schizophrenic Patients

The vulnerability-stress model for schizophrenia posits that relapses are at least partly determined by interacting triggering and protecting psychosocial factors. This study examined social support and general coping style in 42 consecutively admitted DSM:III schizophrenic patients, who were followed prospectively for up to four years. In a second part of the study, a subgroup of the patients were interviewed using the Life Event and Difficulty Schedule 9 months after discharge or at relapse. Patients contented with low social integration had a higher relapse rate over four years than patients lacking of social provisions, but wanting more. We found an excess of life events three weeks before relapse compared to events reported in the non-relapsing group. Suggesting a buffering effect of social factors, time between life event and relapse was significantly extended among patients with a high availability of attachment and a coping strategy characterised of active support seeking.     

Overprotective Relationships: A Nonsupportive Side of Social Networks

Chronically ill adults who feel overprotected by family members tend to be more depressed. However, little is known about the source of these feelings of overly protective care. In this study, three explanations why family members may be seen by stroke patients as overprotective were tested: (a) a discrepancy between patients and caregivers in judging patient functioning; (b) caregiver protective behaviors, such as restricting the patient because of fear for the patient's safety; and (c) caregivers' negative attitudes toward the patient. Consistent with prior work, patients who felt overprotected were more depressed even when the severity of the stroke was controlled for. Caregivers with negative attitudes toward the patient were most likely to be seen as overprotective by the stroke patient. Ways in which negative, resentful attitudes of caregivers are translated into behaviors that engender feelings of overprotection are discussed.     

Relationship Between Social Relations and Mortality of Older Japanese People Living Alone

The association of social relations with mortality was studied over a 54-month period in 535 older Japanese people living alone. Sex-specific proportional hazard analyses indicated that finding it difficult to establish and maintain relationships with other people was significantly related to mortality, regardless of age, general health status, history of health management, psychological conditions, or economic status. The adjusted hazard ratio for finding relations with other people difficult was 4.61 [95% confidence interval (CI): 1.39–15.30] for men and 4.56 (95% CI: 2.19–9.48) for women. The adjusted hazard ratio for nonparticipation in social activities was 1.45 (95% CI: 0.42–4.97) for men and 1.72 (95% CI: 0.70–4.22) for women and did not reach statistical significance. On the other hand, there was a gender difference in the direction of the association between a low-level contact with children, siblings, or other relatives and mortality, for which the adjusted hazard ratio was 3.16 (95% CI: 0.94–10.62) for men and 0.51 (95% CI: 0.27–0.97) for women. These results suggest the need to create a different model for the relationship between social relations and mortality for men and for women living alone.     

Relationships between Early Social Experience and Adult Aggressive Behavior in Inbred Mice

Important methodological problems exist in the measurement of children's ethnic attitudes. Specifically, little information has been generated regarding both the convergent and discriminant validity of the ethnic attitude measures used in this area of research. The present study explores these aspects of validity by examining: (a) the relationships among three measures of ethnic attitude (the Doll Choice, the Preschool Racial Attitude Measure II, and the Katz-Zalk Projective Prejudice Test), and (b) the relationships between these measures and two measures of a second construct, egocentrism (the Role-Taking Task and the Perspective-Taking Task). Results indicated that only one of the three ethnic attitude measures revealed a pattern of correlations suggestive of both convergent and discriminant validity. The findings are interpreted as indicating the possibility that various ethnic attitude measures may be tapping different aspects of the same construct. In addition, the possibility is raised that the Doll Choice, and perhaps other ethnic attitude measures, may reflect aspects of ethnic attitude which are related to a child's more general cognitive role-taking skills.     

心理理论社会知觉成分与语言的关系

1　引言　　Premack等人在 1978年对黑猩猩的研究中首次提到心理理论 (theoryofmind)的概念。说一个个体有心理理论 ,意思是个体可以将心理状态归向自己和他人。人们一般认为心理理论有一定的先天生理基础 ,是不同于其他认知能力的特定认知领域 (domainspecific)。Tager-Flusberg&Sullivan(2 0 0 0 )从主体信息加工的角度出发首次提出了一个心理理论模型 ,认为心理理论包括两个成分 :社会知觉成分和社会认知成分。社会知觉成分属于人的知觉范畴 ,包括区分人和客体、对人们的面部表情和身体姿势所反映的心理状态进行在线的迅速的判断 ,这可…