Structural predictors of problematic friendship in later life

The purpose of this study was to examine the constraining and facilitating effects of social structural position (age, sex, race, class, financial sufficiency, and number of friends) on opportunities for friendship. We hypothesized that the greater the number of people who share a given social structural location and the more access they have to situations where it is possible to meet new people, the less likely they are to have problematic friendships. The sample comprised 53 male and female community residents aged 55 to 84 years who enjoyed fairly good health. Logistic and multiple regression procedures revealed outcomes opposite to our predictions: those who were supposedly more social structurally advantaged actually reported greater numbers of problematic friendships. Potential interpretations include the possibility that these people are more critical than others of their friend relationships or more willing to acknowledge problems, that the norms regarding commitment to friends are weaker among these individuals, or that they learn to acquire friends but not to avoid and solve problems in their relationships. Apparently, people with more friends are not more likely than others to terminate problematic friendships or to redefine them as mere associations.     

Gender‐of‐author differences in study design of older adult friendship surveys

This research extends literature documenting gender differences in choice of quantitative or qualitative methods by examining whether men and women make different decisions regarding study design within one type of quantitative method—survey research. The population consists of 117 surveys (1960–1999) of older adults about friendship. We find that the use of communal methods, especially by women scholars, increased over time, and researchers who are women are more likely to use “communal” survey methods than researchers who are men. The gender difference in use of communal methods is not necessarily explained by essential differences between men and women or even by gender differences in commitment to feminist research as previous scholars have argued; rather, it is possibly explained by structured differences in access to resources to do agentic research.     

AN INVESTIGATION OF FACTORS EXPECTED TO AFFECT FEEDBACK SEEKING: A LONGITUDINAL FIELD STUDY

This study of 137 helicopter pilot trainees investigated individual strategies used to obtain performance feedback during two consecutive phases of their training. Individual and situational factors cited in previous research were investigated as predictors of two feedback seeking behaviors: eliciting (asking directly for feedback) and monitoring (using indirect techniques, such as observing, to gain additional feedback). Both individual and situational factors were significant predictors of feedback seeking behaviors. Feedback seeking costs and the student pilots'external propensity (an individual difference measure assessing their desire for external feedback) were found to be the most consistent predictors of feedback eliciting and monitoring, both within and across the two training phases. In addition, the results point to higher feedback eliciting when performance was rated as low. The implications of this research are discussed, especially with respect to training.