Social support from weak ties: Insight from the literature on minimal social interactions

When people face difficult life events, such as cancer or bereavement, they fare better when they receive support. These “experiencers” are likely to seek and receive support from a wide range of people, from close others to acquaintances. Indeed, the social support literature has long acknowledged the value of having a diverse support network. Research suggests that experiencers often perceive “weak ties” (i.e., acquaintances) as sources of support, and that experiencers sometimes prefer to get support from weak ties rather than strong ties. Providing support can be challenging for all kinds of supporters, however weak ties may be more likely than strong ties to allow worries about their inability to provide effective support to stop them from providing any support at all, thus depriving experiencers of opportunities for additional support. In this paper, we focus on the fact that often the provision of support occurs via a social interaction. We draw on the social psychology literature on minimal social interactions to suggest reasons why potential weak tie supporters might doubt their ability to provide effective support, and to generate advice to encourage potential supporters to reach out. Finally, we suggest future areas of research, with the ultimate goal of helping to expand the support that is available for people experiencing difficult life events.     

The predictive power of combined neuropsychological measures for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder in children.

The present study explores the predictive power of seven neuropsychological assessment tools used in combination in classifying children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Twenty-one ADHD boys and 22 community control children participated. Group differences were significant on the continuous performance test only; however, battery analysis did increase overall predictive power, which was moderate. This study highlights the difficulty in identifying consistent mean differences on tests of frontal/executive functioning across studies, as well as the need to assess the predictive validity of these tests in classifying children with ADHD. The study suggests that these tests may provide greater predictive validity when used in combination. Inconsistencies in the literature are discussed, with consideration of research methodology, the heterogeneity of the ADHD population, and comorbid diagnoses.     

The Predictive Power of Combined Neuropsychological Measures for Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder in Children

The present study explores the predictive power of seven neuropsychological assessment tools used in combination in classifying children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Twenty-one ADHD boys and 22 community control children participated. Group differences were significant on the continuous performance test only; however, battery analysis did increase overall predictive power, which was moderate. This study highlights the difficulty in identifying consistent mean differences on tests of frontal/executive functioning across studies, as well as the need to assess the predictive validity of these tests in classifying children with ADHD. The study suggests that these tests may provide greater predictive validity when used in combination. Inconsistencies in the literature are discussed, with consideration of research methodology, the heterogeneity of the ADHD population, and comorbid diagnoses.     

A Comparison of Personal Project Motives in Three Age Groups

This study examined the extent to which adolescents systematically perceive a discrepancy between private and group norms about the acceptability of bullying and examined the association between norm estimation and actual bystander behavior. Ninety-one 8th graders (42 male and 49 female) described their personal attitudes about bullies and victims as well as their perceptions of their classmates' attitudes. Teachers rated adolescents' participant roles during bullying episodes at school. Results provided support for the premise that teens systematically perceive their peers to hold less prosocial views (e.g., to be more tolerant of bullies, less empathic toward victims, and less inclined to believe they have a responsibility to protect victims) than they themselves do. This tendency to perceive oneself as “out of step” with the group (i.e., pluralistic ignorance) was particularly salient among girls. In addition, there was a significant association between perceived self–other discrepancy in attitudes toward bullying and adolescents' actual bystander behavior when confronted by peer harassment. The more students viewed themselves as out-of-step with group norms about bullying, the higher their teacher-rated scores on passive bystander behavior. Potential implications of these findings and future directions are discussed.     

The Virtue Blind Spot: Do Affective Forecasting Errors Undermine Virtuous Behavior?

Why is it difficult to be virtuous? Although cultural wisdom teaches that cultivating virtue brings happiness—and empirical studies have demonstrated the long‐term benefits of acting virtuously—many people seem to behave as though exercising virtues is difficult, or even painful. When it comes to virtue, any benefits for the self may seem distant: short‐term pain for long‐term gain. We propose, however, that behaving virtuously often provides affective benefits even in the short term, but these benefits are obscured by systematic affective forecasting errors. Using five virtues (humanity, wisdom, courage, temperance, and transcendence), we demonstrate that people tend to feel happier after acting virtuously. We also show that people do not realize that these short‐term emotional benefits will occur; when asked to predict how they will feel, people make inaccurate affective forecasts. We argue that these affective forecasting errors drive people away from the exercise of virtue.     

Testing the GRIP: An Empirical Examination of the Gender Roles Inhibiting Prosociality Model

Although men and women help others, there are systematic gender differences in the type of helping they perform. Consistent with traditional gender roles and stereotypes, men typically help in agentic ways, and women typically help in communal ways. Drawing on the Theory of Planned Behavior, the Gender Roles Inhibiting Prosociality model predicts that gender stereotypes about gender-inconsistent helping create negative attitudes, restrictive subjective norms, and low self-efficacy that undermine helping intentions, which, in turn, reduce engagement in gender-inconsistent helping contexts. Across three studies (N?=?1,355), we find empirical support for the hypothesized model: When asked to imagine engaging in a gender-inconsistent (vs. gender-consistent) helping scenario, participants anticipated feeling worse, expected others to judge them more negatively, and reported decreased self-efficacy beliefs, and these factors predicted lower intentions to engage in gender-inconsistent helping. Critically, behavioral intentions explained some of the variance in gender-inconsistent helping during the following month. Internal meta-analyses of the differences between gender-consistent and -inconsistent helping on attitudes, subjective norms, self-efficacy, and behavioral intentions across studies revealed small-to-medium average effect sizes (ds?=?0.16—0.47). These results have the potential to inform interventions aimed at increasing helping in all its forms.

     

Pitfalls of the Peer World: How Children Cope with Common Rejection Experiences

This study examines the reliability and validity of a newly developed self-report measure designed to assess children's coping strategies in response to everyday rejection experiences. The Survey for Coping with Rejection Experiences (SCORE) was administered to 225 children and factor analysis of responses resulted in the conceptually meaningful subscales of active, aggressive, denial, and ruminative coping. A subset of 95 children also completed a battery of self- (depression, social anxiety), parent- (internalizing and externalizing problems), and peer- (social preference, aggression, withdrawal) ratings of socioemotional adjustment. Children's coping strategies were meaningfully associated with adjustment measures, although these associations differed for boys and girls in several instances. Importantly, both aggressive and ruminative coping strategies were positively associated with internalizing problems even after controlling for the effect of children's actual sociometric status. In addition, denial coping emerged as a significant moderator of the relation between status and adjustment.     

An approach to prediction of performance using behavioral and physiological variables

10 male, middle-distance runners selected for their potential or actual success in running 1500 metres were subjected to laboratory tests of VO2 max and run time at 85% VO2 max. Using the Eysenck Personality Inventory (Eysenck, 1962), data were collected from the runners from which they were given a score on the Extraversion/Introversion dimension of personality. Pearson product-moment correlations were computed between 1500 m. run times and VO2 max, 85% utilization of VO2 max, and Extraversion scores. The highest correlation was between Extraversion and the 1500-m. run (r = .75). The multiple correlation between times for the 1500-m. run and Extraversion with VO2 max was .77. The results support the value of building comprehensive profiles for the athlete which include not only physiological and anatomical variables but behavioral measures as well.     

Defensive self-esteem and aggression in childhood

Research examining the association between self-esteem (SE) and aggressive behavior in childhood has produced mixed findings. Some of the confusion may stem from the fact that researchers have relied on explicit measures of SE, thus conflating two distinct types of positive self-regard: secure SE (characterized by high levels of explicit and implicit SE), and defensive SE (characterized by high levels of explicit but low levels of implicit SE). The current study tested the hypothesis that children with high levels of defensive, but not secure, SE would engage in higher levels of aggressive behavior. Ninety-three children completed measures of both explicit and implicit SE. Teachers assessed children’s level of physical and relational aggression in the school setting. As predicted, there was a positive association between explicit SE and aggression when levels of implicit SE were low, but not when levels of implicit SE were high.