When is received social support related to perceived support and well-being? When it is needed

How do perceptions of being supported relate to the amount of social support received? Received and perceived support have generally been found to be only moderately related. Previous research has however focused on the amount of support received regardless of whether it was needed. We hypothesized that a measure of support received when needed would predict perceived support and well-being better than would an unqualified measure of received support. Study 1 found that correlations between received support and perceived support measures were, on average, twice as high when received support was measured as the proportion of times support was received when needed (average r = .54) than when it was measured as the number of times support was received (average r = .28). Similar results were found for correlations between received support and mental health which rose from r = .04 to r = .31 when need for support was considered. Study 2 replicated the strong relationship between support received when needed and both perceived support and mental health. Received support measures should be adapted to take the need for support into consideration in future investigation of these relationships. Social support interventions may only be beneficial if the recipient’s support needs are not already being met.     

Perceptions of wisdom: What is it and who has it?

One hundred fifty-five men and 233 women, aged 20 to 79 years, were asked to name both the most wise and the most interpersonally wise persons they knew personally and to give the age and sex of each. Participants were also asked for the areas in which their nominees were particularly wise. Overall, men and women responded similarly. The subjects tended to nominate individuals who were older than they were; the difference between their own age and their nominees' age decreased with increasing age. Subjects nominated males more often than females as wise and this tendency increased with the subjects' age. With the exception of older women, participants nominated females more often than males as interpersonally wise. When asked to report the areas in which their wise nominees were particularly wise, subjects tended to mention specific skill areas (e.g., business or science) for male nominees and interpersonal skill areas for female nominees.Please note that Nancy W. Denney is deceased.     

Women and men in love: who really feels it and says it first?

A widely held belief exists that women are more romantic and tend to fall in love faster than men. Responses from 172 college students indicated that although both men and women believe that women will fall in love and say "I love you" first in a relationship, men reported falling in love earlier and expressing it earlier than women reported. Analyses also showed no sex differences in attitudinal responses to items about love and romance. These results indicate that women may not be the greater "fools for love" that society assumes and are consistent with the notion that a pragmatic and cautious view of love has adaptive significance for women.     

Propositional unity: what’s the problem, who has it and who solves it?

At least since Russell’s influential discussion in The Principles of Mathematics, many philosophers have held there is a problem that they call the problem of the unity of the proposition. In a recent paper, I argued that there is no single problem that alone deserves the epithet the problem of the unity of the proposition. I there distinguished three problems or questions, each of which had some right to be called a problem regarding the unity of the proposition; and I showed how the account of propositions formulated in my book The Nature and Structure of Content [2007 Oxford University Press] solves each of these problems. In the present paper, I take up two of these problems/questions yet again. For I want to consider other accounts of propositions and compare their solutions to these problems, or lack thereof, to mine. I argue that my account provides the best solutions to the unity problems.     

Prospective relations between social support and depression: differential direction of effects for parent and peer support?

The authors tested whether deficits in perceived social support predicted subsequent increases in depression and whether depression predicted subsequent decreases in social support with longitudinal data from adolescent girls (N = 496). Deficits in parental support but not peer support predicted future increases in depressive symptoms and onset of major depression. In contrast, initial depressive symptoms and major depression predicted future decreases in peer support but not parental support. Results are consistent with the theory that support decreases the risk for depression but suggest that this effect may be specific to parental support during early adolescence. Results are also consonant with the claim that depression promotes support erosion but imply that this effect may only occur with peer support during this period.     

Gender and social support: Taking the bad with the good?

In examining past research, a paradox can be found in the relationships between gender, social support, and depression. Although women report higher levels of depression than men, they also generally report more social support—a factor found to reduce depressive symptoms. In efforts to explain this seeming inconsistency, it was hypothesized that women report both more support and more depression because they are more likely than men to experience both positive and negative aspects of social relationships. Based on a community sample of predominantly Caucasian respondents, findings indicate that greater perceived support among women can be explained by more frequent contact with network members and a tendency to possess relationships characterized by greater intimacy, emotional disclosure, and empathy. However, women also report more frequent negative interactions with network members and are more adversely affected by marital conflict than are men. While negative interactions and conflict cannot account for gender differences in depression, they do help to explain how women can experience both more support and more depression. Among women, the health-enhancing effects of support on depression may be balanced by the detrimental effect of conflict.     

Primary health care for women: What is it and who provides it?

Recent federal policy has highlighted historically underrecognized women's health issues. Women comprise the majority of the population, especially the elderly. Women's health care needs, utilization patterns, and outcomes vary from those of men, and often among each other. Primary health care services for women are multidisciplinary and emphasize prevention, education, and early intervention as well as treatment. Psychologists and other primary health care providers can collaborate to provide their services in a cost-effective manner that optimizes quality of care and comprehensive health care.     

Optimism and social support: The providers’ perspective

It has been presumed that the beneficial health effects of optimism are mediated by social support provided by the social environment. To further analyze this assumption, in two experiments (N?=?240 and N?=?120) social responses toward optimists, pessimists, and realists were examined. Participants listened to tape-recorded conversations in which optimistic, pessimistic and realistic targets reported how they were dealing with a stressful situation before completing a questionnaire assessing (a) their evaluation of the target's behavior and personality, (b) their attraction to the target, and (c) their willingness to provide the target with social support. Optimistic and realistic targets were viewed more favorably than pessimistic targets, while the behavior of realists was regarded as being more adequate than that of optimists. However, the more positive evaluation of optimists and realists compared to pessimists was not accompanied by a greater willingness to provide them with social support.     

Collectivize social support? Elements for reconsidering the social dimension in the study of social support

Psychological models of mental disorders play an important role in the explanation of psychological deterioration. Researchers from this area usually study several cognitive and behavioral variables to account for the onset and maintenance of depression. However, many authors have detected the need to include a "social dimension" in the explanation of deterioration. In this sense, social support has become a crucial aspect in the study of mental health, and the psychological literature on this topic has generated an intense debate about several facets of the positive impact of social networks on psychological well-being. In this article, the author defends that this increasing centrality of the concept has been accompanied by a psychological reductionism that is making the role of "social aspects" to explain psychological well-being more problematic. Implications of this reductionism are discussed, and an alternative proposal is made to overcome some theoretical and empirical problems related to social support research.     

Lexis and Culture: Bound and Determined?

Although never validated by either quantitative or qualitative research, the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis continues to be a dominant position from which to consider the relationship between language and culture. This paper challenges the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis, and attempts to show that lexis and culture are not as inextricably bound to each other as is commonly supposed. After considering numerous examples from Spanish, English and Japanese, the model of cultural prototypes is offered as an alternative to the present psycholinguistic paradigm.     

Unification: What is it,how do we Reach and why do we Want it?

This article has three aims. The first is to give a partial explication of the concept of unification. My explication will be partial because I confine myself to unification of particular events, because I do not consider events of a quantitative nature, and discuss only deductive cases. The second aim is to analyze how unification can be reached. My third aim is to show that unification is an intellectual benefit. Instead of being an intellectual benefit unification could be an intellectual harm, i.e., a state of mind we should try to avoid by all means. By calling unification an intellectual benefit, we claim that this form of understanding has an intrinsic value for us. I argue that unification really has this alleged intrinsic value. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Narrative inquiry in sport and exercise psychology: What can it mean,and why might we do it?

ObjectivesNarrative inquiry is one form of qualitative research that is burgeoning within the human sciences. However, in sport and exercise psychology little attention has been given to this approach. In this article, we seek to rectify this situation by offering an understanding of what narrative inquiry can be.ResultsIn order to begin to better understand what narrative inquiry as a methodology can be, and gain some theoretical purchase on a difficult field without aiming for a final answer, we first define narrative. Next, a distillation of guiding assumptions and characteristics are offered. Finally, some reasons as to why narratives may be of benefit for the field of sport and exercise psychology are highlighted.ConclusionNarrative inquiry is a useful and important way of theorising and doing research in the domain of sport and exercise psychology. It should not, however, be taken up or practised simply because it is new or fashionable. Informed, principled, and responsible choices must be made by researchers and applied professionals about why and when they might engage with narrative inquiry should they wish to do so.     

General and relationship-based perceptions of social support: are two constructs better than one?

Two hypotheses derived from a theory of perceived social support were investigated: (a) relationship-based perceptions of social support are distinct from general perceptions of support, and (b) measures of each construct contribute uniquely to the prediction of loneliness. Ninety-four male and 116 female undergraduates completed measures of loneliness and general perceived social support and the Quality of Relationships Inventory, a new instrument to assess relationship-based perceptions of social support, conflict, and depth in specific relationships. General and relationship-based perceptions of social support were found to be related, but empirically distinct, constructs. Relationship-based perceptions of support and conflict from mothers and friends each added to the prediction of loneliness after considering the contribution of general perceived social support. Implications of these findings for understanding the perceived social support construct are discussed.     

The schism between experimental and applied behavior analysis: Is it real and who cares?

This paper addresses the relationship between the experimental analysis of behavior and applied behavior analysis. Citation data indicate that across time the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, and other experimental sources, have been referenced increasingly infrequently in the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, Behavior Therapy, and Behavior Research and Therapy. Such sources are now rarely cited in these journals, and never have been regularly referenced in Behavior Modification. Although their proper interpretation is far from certain, these data partially support recent suggestions that the experimental analysis of behavior and applied behavior analysis are largely separate, insular fields. A questionnaire, mailed to the editorial staffs of the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior and the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, was intended to gather further information about the alleged schism between the fields. Few respondents regularly read both journals, publish in both journals, or find both journals useful in their current research efforts. The majority of editors of both journals indicated that the fields were growing apart, although there was no consensus that this is harmful for behavior analysis. Most editors of the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis reported that research published in the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior has decreased in value to applied researchers across time; most editors of the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior indicated that research published there has not changed in applied value. Several respondents commented at length concerning the relationship of experimental and applied behavior analysis. These comments, many of which appear in the article, reveal a marked plurality of views.     

Gaze following: why (not) learn it?

We propose a computational model of the emergence of gaze following skills in infant-caregiver interactions. The model is based on the idea that infants learn that monitoring their caregiver's direction of gaze allows them to predict the locations of interesting objects or events in their environment (Moore & Corkum, 1994). Elaborating on this theory, we demonstrate that a specific Basic Set of structures and mechanisms is sufficient for gaze following to emerge. This Basic Set includes the infant's perceptual skills and preferences, habituation and reward-driven learning, and a structured social environment featuring a caregiver who tends to look at things the infant will find interesting. We review evidence that all elements of the Basic Set are established well before the relevant gaze following skills emerge. We evaluate the model in a series of simulations and show that it can account for typical development. We also demonstrate that plausible alterations of model parameters, motivated by findings on two different developmental disorders - autism and Williams syndrome - produce delays or deficits in the emergence of gaze following. The model makes a number of testable predictions. In addition, it opens a new perspective for theorizing about cross-species differences in gaze following.