Search

This qualitative study investigates how drama education influences the socioemotional learning and leadership development among Black adolescent females. Existing research has highlighted the benefits of drama education for personal and social development, yet there is a lack of focus on the experiences of Black adolescent females within this domain. This study aims to fill this gap by exploring the ways in which drama education affects socioemotional learning and leadership development among this demographic. Utilizing a phenomenological approach, participants were selected through convenience and purposeful sampling methods and in-depth interviews, to capture their subjective experiences. Through thematic analysis, four themes emerged from each research question shedding light on the transformative role of drama education in understanding emotions, forming identity, improving mental health, and enhancing socialization and interpersonal skills with peers. It also contributed to their development as leaders by communicating and collaborating with others, working effectively and efficiently on teams, learning organization, planning and time management skills and adaptability. The findings of this study highlight the overall significance of incorporating arts education into the curriculum, particularly Black adolescent females. These insights have important implications for educators, policymakers, and practitioners seeking to promote holistic development and equity in educational settings.

A significant body of literature examines team processes as they relate to the team as a collective unit (Eys et al., 2019). However, smaller units present within a team, such as cliques or subgroups, warrant further scientific exploration and dissemination (Wagstaff & Martin, 2018). Existent literature on cliques in an athletic setting established that intra-team groups are inevitable, while also highlighting their emergence and formation, and their relative consequences at the team level (Martin, 2020; Wagstaff & Martin, 2018). Despite the scientific advancement at the group level, research concerning cliques is scarce. Therefore, the purpose of this qualitative study was to explore retired collegiate athletes' experiences with cliques. Themes constructed via thematic analysis showcase individual athletes’ cognitions, emotions, behaviors, status and roles, individual performance, and personal growth throughout their clique experience. In regard to cognitions, emotions, and behaviors, athletes shared both positive and negative implications (e.g. pride in their clique, support for fellow clique members, unmotivated to participate, and self-esteem). The findings of this study expand the understanding of athletes’ experiences with cliques by highlighting the facilitative and debilitative effects, which present an inevitable challenge to be balanced by athletic stakeholders within their teams.

The purpose of this ethnographic study was to understand how deaf and hard of hearing individuals use Instagram to interact with and develop interpersonal relationships with hearing individuals. The researcher used her personal experience as a member of the deaf and hard of hearing community to connect with members of the researched population on a personal level. The theories guiding this study were Elihu Katz’s uses and gratifications theory, Joseph B. Walther’s social information processing theory (SIPT), and Sandra Ball-Rokeach and Melvin DeFleur’s media dependency theory. These theories were applied to help the researcher gain a better understanding of the motives for why deaf and hard of hearing individuals choose to use or not use Instagram as a communication tool and to consider whether Instagram nurtures or hinders their interpersonal relationships with the hearing world. After analyzing the qualitative data, the researcher also included new medium theory as a lens to explain how participants shared common interests and supplemented FtF communication. 16 open-ended ethnographical interviews lasting no more than 1 hour each were conducted over Zoom. Interviews were recorded from those participants who gave consent and then hand-coded using textual and structural descriptions. Participants were also required to provide the researcher with .html downloads of their Instagram data where their comments and messages were read, coded, and analyzed. Data were collected from the interviews and the Instagram data files to allow the researcher to interpret and report on participants’ experiences with Instagram in a way that was as thorough and accurate as possible. The findings of this research study showed that Instagram did not have a significant impact on the interpersonal relationships between deaf and hard of hearing individuals and the hearing world. Deaf and hard of hearing individuals prefer to use Instagram to engage with the hearing loss community, educate themselves and others about their hearing loss, and advocate for their needs as deaf and hard of hearing individuals.

Financial activities, such as the exchange of money between individuals, have long been considered a crucial aspect of how people build and maintain their interpersonal relationships (i.e., a strong, deep, or close association/acquaintance between two or more people) with individuals they know because money is a sensitive social construct. In particular, over the past decade, how to conduct, manage, and experience money exchanges and processes between individuals has been dramatically transformed due to the increasing popularity of digital peer-to-peer (P2P) payment services (i.e., performing one to one online money transactions via a digital device). In this sense, digital P2P payments have shown the potential to affect how people pay and interact with each other regarding money, an important impact factor on various forms of interpersonal relationships, by facilitating direct money transactions between individuals through computer-mediated channels. Therefore, this dissertation research is motivated to leverage a sociotechnical approach to conduct an in-depth investigation of the nuanced human experiences of personal money exchanges mediated by digital P2P payments between people who know each other and the unique role of digital P2P payments in shaping these individuals' social connections with each other online and offline. In doing so, this dissertation research aims to (i) reveal and elaborate the multidimensional influences of digital P2P payments on interpersonal relationships between people who already know each other in terms of both experiences of money exchanges and everyday social interactions; ii) advance our knowledge and understanding of how digital P2P payments systems can be redesigned to better support people's social connections with individuals they know; and iii) envision the future landscape of digital P2P payments in our increasingly networked digital society. This dissertation research involves four studies. Grounded in 158 social media posts and 8 interviews, Study 1 explores how people perceive the increasing trend of integrating digital P2P payments with social media services (e.g., Facebook Messenger payment) and why they decide not to use this service in their daily lives. Study 2 reports findings of a qualitative study of 31 in-depth semi-structured interviews to investigate the influences of using digital P2P payments on people's offline interpersonal relationships. Study 3 reports results of a large-scale anonymous online survey with 218 valid responses to measure the specific immediate social consequences and lasting impacts of using digital P2P payments on people's interpersonal relationships. Study 4 adopts the research through design (RtD) approach with a specific emphasis on participatory design activities to both elicit and qualitatively investigate user needs and user-generated design solutions for digital P2P payment services that can better support people's social connections. This dissertation research thus contributes to innovating financial technologies in the perspective of Human-Computer Interaction and Human-Centered Computing by better understanding new and more complicated social phenomena and dynamics emerging in today's digital economy. First, this dissertation research offers one of the first empirical evidence to unpack and explicate the multidimensional influences of digital P2P payments on both financial experiences/processes and everyday social connections between known contacts, which is understudied in prior scholarship. In doing so, we provide new perspectives on today's technology-mediated financial life and shed light on the intertwining financial and social relationships through technology. These insights also help re-conceptualize computer-mediated interpersonal relationships in today's networked society. Second, we identify and further reflect on user-generated design recommendations and develop prototypes that highlight the importance of taking the interplay of financial and social engagement, in addition to security and privacy, into consideration when redesigning digital P2P payments platforms. Through this RtD approach, we thus rethink and envision the future landscape of digital P2P payments where such technologies can be designed, developed, and used in a more comfortable, innovative, and emotionally satisfactory way. As we are entering a post COVID-19 pandemic age, there is an increasing interest to make digital financial technologies not only secure but also more human-centered, interaction-centric, and culturally sensitive, which can be used to better support and maintain human connections through daily financial activities with or without face-to-face interaction. Therefore, in a broader sense, this dissertation research on the social values of digital P2P payments also contributes to building a more robust and inclusive digital economy in today's changing society.

In utilizing cognitive dissonance theory (CDT) as postulated by Festinger (1957), this research sought to identify how European American (EA) superiors Paul Stafford and Vivian Mitchell were influenced by EA coworkers while interacting with African American (AA) subordinates Katherine Johnson and Dorothy Vaughan, respectively, within the film Hidden Figures. Based upon a thorough review of the literature on CDT and its relationships with racism and sexism, this research examined specific scenes in which the pair interacted individually and around coworkers before determining the impact of external interpersonal relationships upon the central biracial relationships. Conclusions demonstrated the key principle of dissonance resolution, as proposed by Festinger, in relation to multiracial working relationships.

Emotion regulation is a process that involves attempts to modify or sustain emotional experiences and often involves utilizing other people in attempts to effectively do so. Interpersonal emotion regulation (IER) has been defined as seeking out other individuals to regulate one’s own emotional experience (Zaki & Williams, 2013). While emotion regulation has been extensively examined in psychopathology, the social context and interpersonal nature of emotion regulation have largely been ignored, with the focus of most emotion regulation research being on intrapersonal emotion regulation strategies (e.g., suppression or reappraisal). Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is particularly relevant to the study of emotion regulation and is likely to be an important model to aid in understanding IER in light of the extensive emotional and interpersonal difficulties associated with the disorder. There were two primary aims to the current study: 1) to better characterize IER in the context of current relationships and 2) to characterize the relations among BPD features, IER partner characteristics, and IER effectiveness. Participants, 149 MTurk workers, completed a social network assessment of important relationships in their lives. They also indicated which, if any, of those partners they utilize for IER. IER partners were characterized by greater closeness and centrality in the network compared to partners who do not serve an IER function. Closeness and centrality were positively related to the frequency of going to a partner for IER. Partners with whom participants had greater relationship quality and who were perceived as being more willing to assist in IER were rated as more effective in helping to regulate participants’ emotions. Furthermore, BPD features were unrelated to the frequency of using IER but were negatively related to the perceived efficacy of IER and willingness of partners to assist in IER. There was also evidence that those higher in BPD features may make fewer discriminations in IER partner choice. BPD features attenuated the association between closeness and both the likelihood of being an IER partner and the frequency of going to that partner for IER. Further, centrality was unrelated to the likelihood of being an IER partner at higher levels of BPD features, but these variables were positively associated at lower levels of BPD features. Finally, there was an inverse relation between relationship quality and frequency of IER at higher levels of BPD features, whereas there was no association between relationship quality and IER frequency at lower levels of BPD features. Investigating qualities of the social context in which IER occurs helps elucidate the conditions in which IER has the potential to be adaptive or maladaptive for the individual. Differences in the both the frequency with and choice of IER partners among those higher in BPD features bolsters our understanding of the intersection of interpersonal and emotional functioning in the disorder and may provide future avenues for intervention.

Introduction: Sport is a domain that can promote physical, psychological, social, and cognitive development in children. There are three main factors that can influence children’s developmental outcomes: distal ecological system (e.g., community, culture, policy), sport program design (e.g., personal and social life skill building activities), and positive youth development climate created by children’s relationships with peers (e.g., teammates), adults (e.g., coaching staff), and parents. A great number of studies have investigated the influences and processes of key relationships within youth sport. However, previous studies have usually investigated those relationships in dyads (e.g., coach-athlete relationship), and not in triads (e.g., athlete-coach-parent). To further our understanding of interpersonal relationships in youth sport and their impact on youth athlete development the key relationships should be investigated as triads. This approach would provide a holistic understanding of the relationships associated in youth sport. Research question and aim: This study was conducted based on research question: what is the nature of the athlete-parent-coach triad relationship in junior tennis? Accordingly, the aim of this study was to identify the themes and commonalities that characterise the nature of the triad relationship in junior tennis. Methodology: The current study employed a qualitative methodology and methods to collect and analyse the data. Interpretive Description was selected as the methodological orientation in designing the study, and the collection and analysis of data. Individual semi-structured interviews were conducted to collect the data. Six competitive junior tennis players aged between 12-15, six parents, and seven coaches were invited to participate in the interview. All interviews were audio recorded and transcribed verbatim. Thematic analysis was employed to generate the common themes across interview data. Results: Three overarching themes were developed: communication, sacrifice, and boundaries, as well as, six themes specific to dyad relationships: fun, mentorship, creating a team, interactions at tournaments, tennis tips from the parent, and adjusting the involvement were identified. Conclusion: It appeared that maintaining open communication channels between each member of the triad is an important nature of the athlete-parent-coach triad relationship. Especially, non-tennis related coach-athlete communication subjects (e.g., hobbies) were identified to contribute in creating a fun climate within the coach-athlete relationship. Coaches and parents were found to establish boundaries between members of the triad to maintain appropriate closeness between the members. However, there was a gap in perceived closeness between the coach and athlete. Coaches appeared to maintain professional relationship with their players while players appeared to perceive their coach as a mentor. Coaches and parents were identified to make time and financial sacrifices in supporting the junior tennis player. The findings of current study can be included when educating sport coaches and parents regarding how to better manage relationships in youth sport.

Presence / Absence is a visual and conceptual l exploration of language and issues surrounding experiences of interpersonal relationships. In it I look at various approaches in which artists and writers have approached the subject of intimacy and coexistence as both a context and foundation for my own work addressing relationships. This body of work is specifically looks at experiences of the personally revolutionary presence of an other and the impact of their absence.

One way individuals can create social connections is through providing and receiving social support (i.e., enacted support). Although both social support and emotion regulation (ER) have been linked to mental health outcomes, the application of an ER framework to the construct of enacted support is relatively unexplored. The current study advances our understanding by examining dyadic reports of the use of ER strategies on symptoms of psychopathology, relationship closeness, and relationship influence in female friend pairs. 121 pairs of undergraduate female friends (Mage = 19 years, SD = 1.32) completed questionnaires assessing their perception of the habitual use of ER strategies with their friend and their friend’s habitual use of ER strategies with them (Gross & John, 2003; Treynor et al., 2003), symptoms of psychopathology (Fairburn & Beglin, 1994; Radloff, 1977; Mattick & Clarke, 1998; Spitzer et al., 2006), relationship closeness (Aron, Aron,& Smollan, 1992), and relationship influence (Berscheid et al., 1989). Actor-Partner Interdependence Models (APIM; Cook & Kenny, 2005) were conducted, entering provision and receipt of brooding rumination, expressive suppression, and reappraisal as predictors, and a composite psychopathology score, relationship closeness, and relationship influence as outcomes. I found that an individual’s perceptions of providing and receiving brooding rumination and suppression were positively associated with her symptoms of psychopathology (β = .14-.39, all ps < .03). Furthermore, an individual providing brooding rumination to her friend was positively associated with her friend’s level of psychopathology (β = .14, p =.02). An individual providing (β = -.17, p = .01) and receiving (β = -.21, p

Teacher emotional-social competencies may bare some connection to student perceptions of the quality of relationships with their teachers. Student perceptions of these relationships with teachers may in turn influence student affective and cognitive outcomes in meaningful ways. Teachers with emotional-social deficiencies face challenges in establishing a desirable and productive learning environment for their students. The strength of the relationships between a teacher and the students within their classroom has been identified as being one of the single most influential contributors towards student cognitive and affective outcomes.The purpose of this study was to investigate the correlations that exist amongst teacher emotional-social competencies using the EQi 2.0 and student perceptions of teacher behavior along two dimensions of the Model for Interpersonal Teacher Behavior (MITB). These dimensions (Influence and Proximity) map student perceptions of their relationships with teachers. This study sought to identify a set of teacher EQi scales that best predict student perceptions of teacher Influence and Proximity.The results of the study indicated that all five EQi composite (Self-Perception, Self-Expression, Interpersonal, Decision Making, and Stress Management) and nine subscales (Self-Regard, Emotional Self-Expression, Assertiveness, Interpersonal Relationships, Social Responsibility, Problem Solving, Flexibility, Stress Tolerance, and Optimism) revealed statistically significant positive relationships with teacher Influence. The EQi composite scale of Interpersonal significantly predicts teacher Influence as did the subscale of Social Responsibility.

In a form of mental “time travel”, people often imagine the many ways the past might have been better, if only they had done something differently. This cognitive process, upward counterfactual thinking, commonly occurs after negative events, across a broad range of contexts. The present research examines the affective, motivational, and behavioral outcomes of counterfactual thinking in one particularly understudied context: conflict in close relationships. Study 1 participants recalled a close relationship conflict in which both they and the significant other played a role in the conflict, and then generated either self-focused upward counterfactual statements about the conflict, or self-focused factual statements about a neutral memory. Those who thought counterfactually about the conflict reported increased state guilt and, resultantly, were both more motivated and more likely to apologize to their relationship partners. Incorporating additional control conditions, Studies 2 and 3 provided evidence that these relationship-reparatory effects derive from counterfactual thinking as a broad, content-neutral pathway (as opposed to a content-specific pathway in which those thoughts must focus on the conflict in order for its consequences to help rectify that relationship). Finally, results from Study 4 illuminated potential differences between self-focused counterfactual thinking versus attributions of self-responsibility, particularly regarding the role of conflict resolution status and defensiveness. An internal meta-analysis across Studies 1 to 4 provides summative evidence that counterfactual thoughts about one’s role in a relationship conflict both induced more guilt and more attempts to apologize, relative to thinking factually about a neutral event.

Humans need to feel connected to one another. With each new technology we create and re-create ways to connect with others we care about. Thanks to the ubiquity of powerful mobile technology in certain parts of the world, we have nearly immediate access to those remote others. Despite these advances our shared experiences are diminishing, and the ways we most often connect with our remote framily members seem to be superficial and at the expense of more meaningful interaction with collocated family members. People are not likely to give up the convenience and entertainment afforded by their mobile technology, but might those same technologies be capable of supporting interactions that help the users be the selves they wish they were, rather than the consumers their technologies were designed to support? To investigate the space of technological support for people's feelings of togetherness I conducted three studies. The first study was a diary study over 14 days where I asked about the current practices of middle schoolers for communicating with friends out side of school and for listening to music. In the second study, I conducted a design charrette where participants designed a technology to support co-listening, and then tried my first prototype. CoListen is a streaming music player that supports a listener in listening to the same music at the same time as a friend or family member. CoListen is designed with the explicit intent of requiring as little of the listener's attention as possible. In the third study, I deployed Colisten v1.0 in the wild and conducted a 14-day diary study asking participants about their experiences. I found that many of the participants from my target population listen to music and communicate with their friends, and that phatic communication (as opposed to goal-oriented communication) was prominent. I also found participants to be interested in the idea of technology to support co-listening and intrigued by how few little the barrier to co-listening can be, and how little attention is required. In study 3 I found that people enjoyed the experience of remote co-listening and did listen to music as a background activity. Many participatns reported feeling more together with their framily members with whom they co-listened.

Biologists and social scientists have long tried to understand why some societies have more fluid and open interpersonal relationships and how those differences influence culture. This study measures relational mobility, a socioecological variable quantifying voluntary (high relational mobility) vs. fixed (low relational mobility) interpersonal relationships. We measure relational mobility in 39 societies and test whether it predicts social behavior. People in societies with higher relational mobility report more proactive interpersonal behaviors (e.g., self-disclosure and social support) and psychological tendencies that help them build and retain relationships (e.g., general trust, intimacy, self-esteem). Finally, we explore ecological factors that could explain relational mobility differences across societies. Relational mobility was lower in societies that practiced settled, interdependent subsistence styles, such as rice farming, and in societies that had stronger ecological and historical threats.

The stories in this collection portray individuals who are essentially lost, dissociative, and isolated. Some suffer from alienation, others displacement, but all are struggling to confront a deep-rooted element of their personal identity contributing to this crisis of location. In stories such as “The Novelist” and “My Mother, the Translator,” that element exists externally, though it is no less integral in defining who the protagonist is. By contrast, “Among the Lost” and “That Secret Place in Tennessee” present an inverted dichotomy whereby characters must turn inward to face the source of their unease. Characters exist within the welter of postmodernity. Their movements and behaviors are facilitated or frustrated by various kinds of technologies, and oftentimes seemingly arduous and protracted actions culminate in minimal progress.

Recent shifts in the perceptions of and expectations for dating, cohabitation, and marriage call for an evaluation of the characteristics associated with how these relationships function. The current research offers insight regarding the common cognitive structures that members of a social group use in defining these romantic relationship stages. Through the delineation and testing of a cultural model, this research expands the literature regarding knowledge structures of romantic relationships and explores the influence of interpersonal and mediated representations.Study 1 identifies the characteristics that individuals associate with typical dating relationships, cohabiting relationships, and marriages from the perspective of interpersonal and mediated representations. Characteristics were collected via a cognitive thought-listing task and then examined by a similar population in a member checking rating task. A qualitative analysis of the characteristics put forth by participants (n = 125) in the cognitive thought-listing task revealed common categories of characteristics for each stage. Additionally, a quantitative analysis revealed that participants listed more characteristics for each stage within the interpersonal condition when compared to the mediated condition; cohabitation was found to have the fewest characteristics listed by participants in both conditions. Once the categories of characteristics were established, participants (n = 24) in the member checking portion of this study rated each characteristic in terms of the typicality to the relationship stage. The results of a hierarchical cluster analysis revealed a two-cluster structure for each stage that identified characteristics rated as highly typical. The characteristics in the cluster with higher typicality ratings were retained to test for cultural model formation, consensus, and consonance. Study 2 identifies and evaluates the structure of interpersonal and mediated cultural models of dating, cohabitation, and marriage as well as examines the impact of media use on agreement with the model characteristics. In the first part of the study, participants (n = 26) were asked to complete a card sorting task to determine the similarity of model characteristics. Multidimensional scaling was used to determine the model structure for each relationship stage within the two conditions; a three-dimensional model structure was found for all six models. A hierarchical cluster analysis was conducted to aid in examining how the characteristics were organized within this multidimensional space. Once the model structure was identified, participants (n = 398) were asked to complete an attribute rating task to identify cultural consensus on the model dimensions. Participants assessed the characteristics of each model on five attributes: good, important, satisfying, realistic, and desirable. Results showed significant fit for all attributes, except for the realistic attribute within mediated dating; however, attribute ratings were highly correlated and only explained a low to moderate degree of the model variance. Therefore, the attribute of best fit for each model was chosen for analysis of participant consonance (i.e., agreement) with the model. Consonance was examined by analyzing each participant’s consensus rating in conjunction with self-reported data regarding general and romantically-themed media use. Results showed that general and romantically-themed media use did not predict agreement with the cultural model for any romantic relationship stage.

Striving for personal growth is an inherent human tendency, but this tendency can be derailed by various life challenges. People high in growth seeking pursue learning and growth even in the face of challenges. The current studies examined the precursors and sequelae of growth seeking in interpersonal relationships. Study 1 showed that general compassionate goals are associated with growth seeking. Study 2 replicated this association in specific relationships and showed that perceived mutual support statistically mediated the association. Study 3 replicated the mediation model in a 10-week longitudinal study and showed that growth seeking fostered by compassionate goals predicted increased academic growth goals, which in turn predicted increased academic self-regulation. These findings suggest that people with benevolent intentions toward others establish mutually supportive relationships with others, which provides the basis for them to strive for growth in the face of challenges and thrive through them.

The consumer behaviour of sending positive word of mouth (WOM) messages about products to other consumers is known to have a considerable impact on the receiver’s decision making and hence on the financial well-being of product providers. Therefore, marketing professionals and theoreticians have long sought to explore ways to predict and stimulate this behaviour. However, despite previous attempts made in pursuance of this goal, predicting and influencing this behaviour remains a challenge. After reviewing and discussing such attempts, this thesis proposes a new theoretical framework for the dissemination of positive WOM. The framework adopts a new conceptualisation of this phenomenon by contextualising it into three distinct categories with each category having a different set of predictors. These categories are: dissemination of unsolicited pre-consumption positive WOM, dissemination of unsolicited post-consumption positive WOM, and dissemination of solicited positive WOM. Further, the framework is posited to be applicable to the dissemination of both offline and online positive WOM. Furthermore, it is argued in the framework that salience in predicting the two unsolicited WOM category shifts from one predictor to another according to the typological congruence between a predictor and a conditioning variable. This typological congruence is based on the experiential and analytical systems of thinking. Empirical testing covered only the prediction of unsolicited post-consumption positive WOM using multiple and hierarchical regressions and self-reported data from four hundred and eight respondents. This WOM category was predicted by the two variables of exceeding expectations and wanting to help and conditioned by three types of consumption (hedonic, utilitarian, and utilidonic). As hypothesised, it was found that in utilitarian consumption, wanting to help was a stronger predictor of the outcome variable than exceeding expectations; whereas in hedonic consumption, exceeding expectations was the stronger predictor. In utilidonic consumption however, wanting to help emerged as the stronger predictor; this was opposite to what was hypothesised. Finally, implications, both theoretical and practical and future research opportunities are identified.

Borderline personality disorder is characterised by marked impairment in affective, cognitive, behavioural and interpersonal functioning. Recognising the growing need to understand personality pathology on a continuum, the present dissertation sought to examine the impact of borderline personality traits on romantic relationship commitment in a general population, with consideration of attachment styles. In particular, the study utilised the well-established investment model framework to achieve this aim.

Compassionate goals are associated with a series of intrapersonal and interpersonal benefits. However, few studies have examined how people can develop high compassionate goals. In three studies, I found that compassionate goals can be increased through the behavior of giving social support. In Study 1, people had more compassionate goals in relationships where they gave more social support. In Study 2, giving social support predicted increases in compassionate goals within weeks, across weeks, and across the first semester of college. Study 3 provided experimental evidence that giving support to a stranger engaged in a stressful task increases compassionate goals compared to control conditions. These results indicated that social support given had both short-term and long-term effects on compassionate goals. I ruled out social support received and responsiveness as alternative explanations. In addition, I found that both trust and positive emotions, such as feeling connected and cooperative, both explained the association between social support given and compassionate goals.

The present study examined how various interpersonal traits and social anxiety relate to the presence and quality of supportive communication behaviors. A sample of undergraduates (n = 143) completed measures of social anxiety, submissiveness, hostility, and prosocial tendencies. Participants then completed an analogue letter-writing task to directly assess supportive communication. Participants were instructed to write a letter of support electronically in response to a presumed anonymous peer who had sought support regarding a distressing situation. The letter-writing task was coded for emotional and informational categories from the Social Support Behavior Code as well as an overall impression code (agentic, communal). Results indicated a lack of relationship between all coded social support behaviors with social anxiety, hostility, submissiveness, and prosocial tendencies. However, social anxiety was positively associated with hostility, submissiveness and prosocial tendencies. Cluster analyses provided evidence for two interpersonal subtypes of socially anxious individuals: low hostility - high submissiveness (Cluster 1) and high hostility - high submissiveness (Cluster 2). Cluster 2 provided more agentic supportive behaviors (i.e., lower quality support) than Cluster 1. Together, results suggest a lack of relationship between both social anxiety and interpersonal traits with supportive communication. Several reasons are proposed for why interpersonal characteristics were not mediated by this narrow context of social behavior. Findings may have implications for the classification and treatment of social anxiety.

The purpose of this study was to examine and describe the process entailed in commissioning a new work for a high school music ensemble with a focus on the interpersonal relationships that exist among the student performers, their director, and the composer during a composer residency. With a multiple case study design, I examined the commissioned works projects of five cohorts that included one composer, three student performers, and one commissioning conductor. Each of the composers and commissioning conductors selected for participation in the study possessed extensive experience with commissioned works projects in school settings enabling them to draw on their past experience, as well as their experience working together on a commissioned work. The student performers were selected for the study based on their participation in a commissioned work project that included a composer residency with the commissioning conductor and commissioned composer associated with each cohort. Data was collected through interviews with the members of each cohort. Interview questions focused on understanding how each agent (student performer, music teacher, composer) contributes to the process of producing a new work through commission, how the interpersonal relationships between the agents function throughout the process, and how the outcomes of the process impact the agents’ experiences. The data gathered in the interviews was analyzed in light of these three foci and then re-examined to uncover themes common to multiple agents. Finally, the data was evaluated to determine how this information might shape future commissioning projects. I believe that the results of my investigation point to a greater understanding of the processes involved with the commissioning of a work, as well as the interpersonal relationships that exist within those processes. The results of my investigation formed a foundation for the construction of a concluding narrative providing step-by-step details that might be informative for music educators considering embarkation upon a commissioned work project.

As one of the most important emotional goals pertaining to humankind, achieving happiness has been the central focus of scientists, philosophers, and the general population alike since the beginning of recorded history. This study strove to examine the association of body image satisfaction and relationship quality as it relates to happiness. Four hundred college-age participants completed the Subjective Happiness Scale, the Multidimensional Body-Self Relations Questionnaire (Appearance Scales), and the Network of Relationships Inventory (Relationships Quality Version) for close friendships of the same-sex and opposite-sex. Statistical analysis indicated that while body image satisfaction was significantly correlated with happiness, quality of interpersonal relationships was not. The results of this study emphasize the importance of one’s satisfaction with one’s body in the cultivation and maintenance of subjective well-being and the need to examine other potential predictors of happiness.

This dissertation compiles three papers that focus on the social context of chronic pain. Chapter 1 presents a conceptual framework of hypothesized risk factors for adult children of parents with chronic pain. The proposed framework is based on prior literature and theoretical models that highlight the interpersonal effects of chronic illness and pain on family relationships. The following two chapters explore older adults' social networks beyond the family context, and focus explicitly on decision making about pain treatment. The study presented in Chapter 2 employed in-depth interviews to investigate the social and decisional preferences of ethnically diverse (Hispanic and non-Hispanic White) individuals with chronic pain conditions. Qualitative content analysis was used to identify key themes in participants' responses. Results revealed that, when making treatment decisions, older adults prefer to involve emotionally reassuring social partners and peers with similar pain conditions or treatment experiences. Overall, participants' perceptions of their treatment decision making processes were more positive when the support they received matched the support they desired. The study presented in Chapter 3 employed survey methods to investigate the types (informational, emotional, instrumental) and sources (e.g. physician, relative) of decision support that individuals desire and receive when considering total joint replacement (TJR). Guided by theoretical frameworks from psychology and social gerontology, I examined the social structural (relationship to the patient) and experiential characteristics (having had TJR) that influence decision support preferences among TJR candidates. In parallel, I hypothesized that there would be an age-graded preference for emotional rather than informational support. Finally, I investigated whether higher congruence in desired and received support is linked with respondents' decisional conflict and certainty. Multilevel models showed that healthcare providers, family members, and individuals who had undergone prior TJR were key sources of decision support. There were no age differences regarding the types of support individuals desired and received. Overall, greater congruence in emotional support desired and received was associated with reduced decisional conflict, whereas greater congruence in practical support desired and received was associated with greater willingness to undergo surgery. The final chapter draws connections between the three papers and proposes directions for future research.

The past five years have witnessed a surge of interdisciplinary research aimed at understanding and improving consumer financial decision making. Scholars in this area attempt to enhance consumer welfare by uncovering and altering situational and contextual factors that drive individuals to make financially suboptimal decisions. Naturally, most research in this nascent field has focused on how individuals approach financial decisions. However, financial decisions are often subject to social influence and are made within the context of existing relationships (e.g., between spouses). Moreover, the outcomes of such decisions can be important determinants of relationship satisfaction. Thus, my dissertation provides a more complete understanding of consumer financial decision making by examining how financial decisions influence the development of relationships (Essay 1) and how relationship dynamics influence financial decisions (Essay 2). I find that others’ chronic spending habits shape the inferences we draw about them (e.g., their perceived general self-control), which ultimately influences initial romantic and physical attraction. I also find that couples make more optimal debt repayment decisions working together than individual couple members working on their own. Unlike stranger-pairs who lack information about each other’s relative strengths and weaknesses, established couples benefit from placing greater weight on the preferences of the partner with greater financial expertise. Theoretical implications and future directions are discussed.

What factors determine how people decide whether a behavior is right or wrong, good or bad, moral or immoral? Over the past decade-and-a-half, moral psychologists have increasingly identified various psychosocial processes that help answer this question. However, virtually all of this research involves asking people to reason about the behavior of unrelated strangers. Although informative, this approach runs the risk of failing to account for the influence that interpersonal relationships have on judgment and decision-making. Over the course of four experiments, the current research extends relationship science into the moral domain by examining how relational distance (i.e., psychological closeness to the person one is reasoning about) and self-distance (i.e., psychological closeness to one’s self) influence moral reasoning. I hypothesized that as either type of distance increases, relationally partial (e.g., loyal) decisions would decrease and morally impartial (e.g., honest) decisions would increase. The findings from the four experiments supported this prediction. Specifically, I found that close relational construals negatively influenced honesty and that this effect was mitigated by the activation of abstract-ethical construals through self-distancing. This research integrates three generative streams of research: morality, close relationships and self-control, to demonstrate both the flexibility and regulation of intrarelational moral reasoning.

People include other people in their self-concept. Research has examined the causes and effects of including liked, but not disliked others into the self-concept. Liked others are included because of a motivation to affiliate and get closer to the other person. The current investigation examined whether disliked others are included as a result of a motivation to differentiate and distinguish oneself from the other person. It also examined how self-concept inclusion of disliked others affects self-concept clarity. First, I tested whether people include disliked others into their self-concepts by showing a memory bias for disliked others similar to that of liked others (Study 1). Liked others, but not disliked others or acquaintances, showed this memory bias. Next, I tested whether people were motivated to differentiate themselves from disliked others by measuring whether they had slower reaction times when characterizing the self with traits similar to those of disliked others (Study 2). I did not find this effect. Finally, neither study showed a mediating effect of self-concept clarity. These results failed to show support for the hypothesis that disliked others are included in the self-concept and that including others in the self affects self-concept clarity.

Humor is generally seen as adaptive. Research has found it is related to overall positive mood and psychological health (Martin, 2001). However, some types of humor, such as aggressive humor, can also be used to ridicule or belittle others (Martin et al., 2003). Aggressive humor has yet to be examined in different contexts in order to determine if there are positive consequences. The present study examines the role of context (friendship and non-friendship) in the perception of aggressive humor. Participants completed measures of mood, social intelligence, humor use, social dominance orientation and self-determination prior to viewing video clips of aggressive humor within friendship and non-friendship contexts and evaluating the perpetrator of the humor. Results showed that aggressive humor was viewed as more rude and hurtful when used in a non-friendship context. However, those who use aggressive humor in a friendship, rather than non-friendship, context were evaluated as having more social skills and awareness. Additionally, females who use aggressive humor were viewed as more rude than males, and males and females did not differ on this evaluation. Based on these findings, humor research should consider relationship context and gender of those engaging in the humor.

The current study explored the theoretical underpinnings of the Relationship Attachment Model, an alternative model to understanding closeness in relationships, using deductive qualitative analysis (DQA; Gilgun, 2010). Qualitative data from married couples was used to explore whether the five bonding dynamics (i.e. know, trust, rely, commit, and sex), proposed by the RAM, existed in their marital relationships. Additionally, this study examined whether the RAM could explain fluctuations in closeness and distance in the couple’s marriage and how married couples described and talked about love in their relationship. The findings of this research indicated that the five bonding dynamics put forth by the RAM did exist in marital relationships of these couples and that the complicated dynamics that occur in marital relationships could be captured on the RAM. This research supported findings from past research on close relationships and added to the literature by proposing another model to understanding and conceptualizing close relationship dynamics. The findings of this study are discussed in terms of implications for therapists who work with couples and relationship researchers.

Suicide is the eleventh leading cause of death in the United States. As such, it has been described as a major health problem. In the United States the male to female suicide ratio is approximately 4:1. Comparative analyses of suicide between men and women are needed to provide a more complete understanding of the suicide phenomenon. The current study built upon the literature related to gender and the role of relationships in suicidality. Through the analysis of suicide notes written by individuals who completed suicide, this study provides new insight into the role of gender and interpersonal dynamics in suicide and supplements information obtained from the suicide notes with coroner's records, providing for a more complete picture. The overall sample included 167 cases of completed suicide occurring between 2000 and 2009 in which a suicide note was left by the decedent. All cases had been referred to the Montgomery County Coroner's Office (Dayton, Ohio). Twenty-seven of the 167 cases were identified as being motivated by relationship problems. A content analysis and thematic analysis was completed comparing the 27 relationally motivated cases to the overall sample. In addition, a comparison was made between the male and female note writers in the relationally-motivated sample. There were substantial differences between the relationally motivated sample and the overall sample. In addition, there were striking male/female differences within the relationally motivated sample. These findings and their clinical implications will be discussed.

Mirrors and Vanities is a multi-modal collection which showcases the diversity of working in long and short storytelling forms. Featured in this thesis are fiction, nonfiction, graphic narrative, and screenplay. Using unconventional approaches to storytelling in order to achieve emotional resonance with the audience while maintaining high standards for craft, these stories and essays explore the costs inherent to the subtle nuances of interpersonal relationships. The fiction focuses on the complications of characters keeping secrets. A husband discovers the truth behind his wife’s miscarriage. A girl visits her fiancé in purgatory. A boy crosses a line and loses his best friend. Meanwhile, the nonfiction centers on self-discovery and gender roles associated with power struggles. A schizophrenic threatens to ruin my mother’s wedding. I rediscover my relationship with my father through food writing. Sword-work teaches me to fail and succeed at making martial art. The title work of the thesis is a collaged story highlighting the tribulations of a physicist fixated on recovering his lost love by manipulating the multiverse. The multi-modal format implicates the nebulosity of physics theories and how different aspects of the narrative can be presented in various formats to best suit the nature of the storytelling. Through the interactions of characters in mundane and extraordinary circumstances, the works in this thesis examine the consequences of choice, the contrast between reality and expectation, coming of age, and the Truth of narrative.

Crisis theories (e.g., Hill, 1942; Karney & Bradbury 1995) suggest that the reciprocal interaction between long-term vulnerabilities and stressors predict relationship outcomes. This model might partially explain an individual’s choice to engage in an extramarital affair. In particular, neuroticism may be an individual vulnerability that can lead to chronic stress, and when this chronic stress is combined with acute stressors, the individual’s resources may be overwhelmed. Thus, the addition of acute stressful events may lead to infidelity as an emotion regulation strategy. The data for this study were drawn from two larger studies assessing newlywed couples’ marital interactions. Participants in Study 1 were 72 couples recruited from northern Ohio. Participants in Study 2 were 135 couples recruited from eastern Tennessee. The measures used were the Life Experiences Survey (Sarason, Johnson, & Siegel, 1978), the Chronic Life Stress questionnaire, created for the two studies described earlier, the Neuroticism subscale of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (Eysenck & Eysenck, 1975), and the Quality of Marriage Index (Norton, 1983). The statistics in this study were carried out using multi-level modeling in a three-level model. All analyses were conducted using Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM; Bryk, Raudenbush, & Congdon, 2004). This study’s findings suggest that, whereas neuroticism may not be predictive of infidelity via its relationship with chronic stress, acute stressful events may moderate the relationship between chronic stress and infidelity, suggesting that individuals who are overwhelmed with stress may engage in infidelity as an emotion regulation strategy.

According to social control theory, social relationships may be beneficial to health when partners monitor and attempt to improve one another's health behaviors (Rook & Pietromonaco, 1987; Tucker & Anders, 2001). This dissertation expanded upon current theoretical models of social control by proposing the Individual Differences in Social Control (IDISC) Model, which considers the characteristics of who is most likely to offer and receive health-related social control and the downstream impacts on a partner's health behaviors and health outcomes. Furthermore, this study examined social control primarily in the context of friends, who may be important to health early in the lifespan. Pairs of students signed up to take part in a University-supported weight loss challenge, and psychosocial surveys, along with physical assessments at the Campus Health Center, were completed at four waves spanning over six months.In the context of a dyadic longitudinal study, relationship satisfaction and personality were both found to significantly predict the giving and receiving of health-related social control, according to self-reports, and to a lesser extent, partner-reports. Specifically, higher relationship satisfaction, conscientiousness, agreeableness, and extraversion tended to predict helpful social control attempts (e.g., more positive and direct social control attempts). Whereas social control demonstrated inconsistent associations with health behaviors (e.g., eating healthy, physical activity), both positive social control and health behavior reports were associated with having a lower subsequent BMI. Perceived obstacles to weight loss showed associations with personality traits, giving social control to a partner, health behavior engagement at baseline and last report, and perhaps most importantly, to higher BMI and body fat percentage both at baseline and last report. All together, the present findings suggest that theoretical models of social control processes should be expanded to reflect individuals' differential likelihood of giving and receiving health-related social control from a partner, such as a friend, spouse, or relative, across the lifespan in order to more fully portray the processes involved.

The objective of the present research was to provide a broader examination of the association between maladaptive interpersonal relationships and childhood sexual abuse (CSA) by examining women’s personality preferences for best friends and romantic partners. This study used the Q-Method statistical procedure to examine the association between childhood sexual abuse and adult interpersonal difficulties. Women college students at the University of Dayton (N = 75) rated forty personality traits on a scale from least to most desired in a best friend and again for a romantic partner. The results revealed that women with a history of CSA showed marginally greater error variance in their preferences for romantic partners compared to women without a history of CSA.

This study examines the transition to marriage among low-income urban mothers and fathers who are unmarried and have a newborn baby together. The study contributes to an emerging body of research that explores the concept of obstacles to marriage by testing whether obstacles to marriage operate in the way that the descriptive literature has proposed: by standing in the way of loving and committed couples who might otherwise make a smooth transition to marriage. Using survival analysis techniques and data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, and introducing a new measure, the Headed to Marriage Index, the study tests the influence that three categories of determinants of marriage — relationship quality, investment in the relationship, and guiding values and beliefs — have on how long couples with a newborn remain unmarried to each other. It also determines whether and how the association between these determinants of marriage and time to marriage is affected by the presence of three obstacles to marriage: low education, poverty, and multiple partner fertility. Results show that the Headed to Marriage Index can be used to estimate hazard of marriage among these couples, and that as a predictor of marriage behavior, this simple index performs nearly as well as the individual components that it comprises. Results also show that low education, being in poverty, and having multiple partner fertility are formidable obstacles that might help to explain why some new parents never marry each other, even though they report wanting to. Finally, interaction terms using the Headed to Marriage Index and each of the three obstacles to marriage test the hypothesis that the extent to which these obstacles to marriage matter might differ depending a couple’s score on the Headed to Marriage Index. The results provided evidence that poverty is an obstacle to marriage for couples at all levels of the Headed to Marriage Index, but that its effect grows stronger as HMI score increases. Poverty is a significant barrier to marriage for those who are otherwise most prepared and oriented toward marriage.

This 14-year longitudinal study extends previous research on money in marriage by using multiple measures of money to predict seven dimensions of marital quality. Data collection began when the couples were newlyweds and extended through the first decade and a half of marriage, thus making it possible to examine the effects of money on marital quality across time. Overall, the findings indicate that money affects marital quality. Specifically, low income was associated behavioral negativity over the entire course of the fourteen year study. Low-income couples who were content with their financial situations were more satisfied than low-income couples that were unhappy about their financial situation. The effects of money on marriage increased over time such that by the time couples were nearly a decade a half into marriage couple’s income was associated with both positive marital behaviors and marital satisfaction. Similarly, the link between financial satisfaction and marital satisfaction emerged over time. The implications of these findings as well as directions for future research are discussed.

This study provides evidence that individuals who share similar experiences that are grounded in the actual features of the courtship are likely to remain married over 13 years later. Using logistic regression and path analyses to examine 168 married partners, results support previous research suggesting that “enduring dynamics” best predicts the developmental pathway for couples who remain married, whereas “disillusionment” prefigures marital instability. Specifically, findings revealed that marriages are more likely to be stable when premarital partners (a) feel similar depths of love for one another, (b) move toward marriage at comparable rates over the course of the courtship, and when feelings of (c) love and (d) ambivalence reflect how frequently they experience conflict and downturns in their estimations of the likelihood of marriage. Gender differences and exceptions to this pattern are discussed.

This report chronicles the process of investigating social theories and their relation to music experience in order to create a specific online community. The purpose of this community focuses on an historical perspective of music while facilitating the formation of varied knowledge-networks and relationship levels. Social theories are correlated with web applications and tools to support design choices that will appeal to users by providing opportunities for specific social functions. This research allows for an organized, detailed, and theoretical approach to the design of the online music community, Vinylsqueegee.com.

Immigration is a stressful event, and immigrants go though an acculturation process as a result of being exposed to a new culture and having contacts with people who are different from them. As immigrants try to adjust to the new country, they encounter various challenges and experience many changes. Personal construct psychology (PCP), a theory of personality that emphasizes human choice and the creation of a personal meaning system, is one way to understand these changes. The sociality corollary in PCP theory emphasizes the importance of establishing a ROLE relationship, which involves understanding of the other person’s process of meaning making. In this study, I used PCP theory to understand immigrants’ experience of relationships, adjustment, and changes in a foreign country. This study explored five Korean immigrants’ and sojourners’ experiences of living in America in three topic areas: relationships, adjustment, and changes using the phenomenological approach of Amedeo Giorgi. The results indicate that participants experienced more difficulties in developing close relationships with non Koreans than Koreans in America although their quality of relationships with Koreans in America were not great compared to those in Korea. Participants found that their struggles with English, difficulties with fitting into American society, relationship issues, confusion caused by cultural differences, and other practical issues (e.g., financial problems) hindered their adjustment in America. Participants experienced changes in various areas including their life styles, relationships, attitudes, and opinions as a result of living in America. I discussed the implications for acculturation study, PCP as a way to understand immigration experiences, as well as the implications for working with immigrant population based on the finding of this study.

Postsecondary education marks a transitional time in the lives of young adults. During this time, traditional-aged college students confront a substantial number of developmental challenges that are extraordinarily diverse and complex (Evans, Forney, & Guido-DiBrito, 1998). Erikson's (1968) theory of psychosocial development posited that the major developmental task of early adulthood is to establish close intimate relationships. The development of mature interpersonal relationships (Chickering & Reisser, 1993) is a critical priority if students are to successfully integrate into their social worlds and persist to graduation. Early theoretical models proposed by both Spady (1970) and Tinto (1975, 1993) linked institutional commitment and persistence to the quality of students' integration into the social environment of the campus, with social integration referring to students' peer relationships and interactions with faculty. Social and academic integration into the college environment and persistence to graduation have been cited as major challenges for this population (Pascarella & Terenzini, 1980; Tinto, 1975, 1993). Social integration, or social belonging, is the central focus of this dissertation given the importance of students' sense of connectedness to others during the college years. Given the seemingly ubiquitous use of technology among college student populations and the potential influence of this use on students' social relationships, this quantitative study explored the associations among students' use of communication technologies, perceived psychosocial well-being, and sense of community in university life. Time spent using communication technologies and motivations for use emerged as predictors of students' psychosocial well-being and sense of community.

Currently there are an estimated 1.6-3.8 million concussions annually in the United States; therefore, it is imperative that healthcare professionals recognize these injuries to reduce future injury risks such as Second Impact Syndrome (SIS), depression, and Mild Cognitive Impairment. In order to reduce these risks, healthcare professionals need to find ways to increase the athletes' willingness to report their concussions. McCrea suggests that healthcare professionals need to promote open lines of communication for injury reporting. In searching for different means by which to promote lines of communication to increase the athletes' willingness to report concussions, two possible means were identified. The first would be to explore the relationship between the athletic trainer (AT) and the athlete (i.e. perceived closeness), and the second would be to explore the amount of autonomy support given by the healthcare provider. Objective: To investigate if closeness and autonomy support predict athletes' willingness to report their concussion symptoms. Design: Multiple Linear Regression using two independent variables (Health Care Climate Questionnaire - HCCQ, and Need for Relatedness Scale - NRS) and one dependent variable (Willingness to Report Scale - WRS). Participants: 108 high school and collegiate athletes (age=17.9 + 2.3 years). The participants completed a demographic sheet and three questionnaires. Main Outcome Measures: Autonomy support, perceived closeness, and willingness to report were the outcomes and were measured using three questionnaires. The Health Care Climate Questionnaire measured autonomy support. The Need for Relatedness scale x measured perceived closeness. The Willingness to Report Scale measured the willingness of athletes to report concussion symptoms to their AT. Results: Interestingly, findings indicated that perceived closeness predicted WR for only HS subjects. Specifically, perceived closeness significantly predicted 15.8% of the variance of WR for HS subjects (F=8.436, p=0.006). Conclusions: Because perceived closeness predicted willingness to report for high school subjects, it is suggested that high school athletic trainers develop closer relationships with their athletes to increase reporting of concussions. By developing a closer relationship there is a potential to increase concussion reporting, thus also potentially decreasing the risk of SIS and other long term effects of concussions.

The thesis explores the didactic potential that product design has to change behaviors and improve interpersonal relationships. These works were created as a response to the decline of "filial piety" among Chinese immigrants in the US. "Filial piety" is the responsibility of each person to respect their parents, obey them, and provide material and physical care to them as they age. It is a virtue to be held above all others in Confucian ideals. "filial piety" is highly honored and legally mandated in China (Sung, 2000), whereas in the US it is more of an individual choice (Luo, 2007). The first generation of immigrants who grew up in China feel strongly obligated to take care of aging parents while the second generation is more likely to have American attitudes and respect the spirit of independency and individualism. "Three-generation cohabitation" is the traditional household arrangement in Chinese societies. However, younger generations tend to be resistant to this living arrangement and of taking direct care of their aging parents (Luo, 2007). Modernization or industrialization has caused substantial changes in the work-life balance of many workers; as a result, the practice of filial piety has become more difficult (Cowgill, 1986). Three designed objects, Virtual Window, Motion Activated Message Chair and GPS Cane were created to address the missed emotional attachment in long distance parent-adult child relationships where technology is facilitating communication. The pieces are meant to serve as "Critical Design" (Dunne, 1999) to reveal insights about immigrants' lives rather than serve as commercial products.

This paper is a test of Ellen Berscheid's Emotion in Relationships Model (ERM; Berscheid, 1983; Berscheid & Ammazzalorso, 2001). This model is based primarily on the Discrepancy/Evaluation Theory of emotion propsed by George Mandler (1975; 1990a). The ERM predicts that emotion in interpersonal relationships occurs when our relationship partner violates our expectancies and interrupts our behavioral sequences. This expectancy violation leads to arousal. Cognitive evaluation of the situation then either simultaneously or subsequently determines whether the violation is positive or negative based on whether it provides an opportunity to promote the individual's welfare or poses a threat to the individual's welfare. The ERM also expands upon Mandler's ideas by formulating hypotheses related to the infrastructure of the relationship, specifically how interdependent relationship partners are. This paper provides strong evidence for the expectancy - arousal relationship in an experimental paradigm that tests people in intact relationships, using a real time interaction between the participant's and their partners. The ERM is well supported by the data and evidence for a variety of expectancy sources such as the partner's past behavior, social norms, individual differences in attachment history, and relationship interdpendence or behavioral closeness is gleaned and discussed.

Relish the Lick is a series of collages of human and animal bodies that explore the emotional frictions of interpersonal relationships that begin around the kitchen table. The images’ ambiguous narratives are revealed within the composition of the figures themselves, which are predominantly constructed of food imagery. This work calls into question how people physically and emotionally feed off each other. Archetypal relationships, hierarchies of power and vulnerability, beauty and the grotesque, as well as dinner and dessert play parts in this visual theater. Organized in nearly empty environments, providing the most minimal of contexts, these stories are anywhere and everywhere. This MFA thesis document discusses the images created for Relish the Lick and reflects on the artistic, cultural, and textual influences for this body of work.

Student participation in leadership and involvement on campus has been found to improve students' experiences and assist in their holistic development. This study uses the personal narratives of six Resident Advisors (RAs) to consider student perceptions of themselves as leaders through this specific residential job role. A literature review provides recent publications in the field of student leadership and RA development. The data collected from student interviews confirms that there are differences in the ways that students construct ideas about leadership and their own identities. The findings indicate that women and men view their involvement in the RA position differently. Also, the RAs who participated in this study discussed that job satisfaction in the RA position is dependent on positive relationships and support from others. Lastly, recommendations for future research and practice associated with the RA position and student leadership development are presented at the conclusion of this thesis.

Buyer-supplier collaboration is an important element of successful supply chain management. Previous research on facilitators or determinants of interorganizational collaboration has typically focused on firm-level variables. However, a distinct difficulty with supply chain collaboration is that many of the enablers and barriers are related to people, and reside at the interpersonal level.The goal of this study is to provide a deeper understanding of the extent to which key contact employees are able to facilitate collaborative practices between buyers and suppliers. A dual level of analysis is employed, comparing the effects of interpersonal relationship quality between key contact employees and interorganizational relationship quality. Relationship quality is measured as a second-order construct consisting of trust, relationship commitment, and relationship satisfaction. Four collaborative practices are considered: information sharing, joint problem solving, joint performance measurement, and flexibility.Data were collected from purchasing managers at 169 firms using a cross-sectional survey. Firms were sampled across a wide range of industrial sectors and consisted primarily of manufacturers. The results show that even after taking interorganizational relationship quality into account, the level of interpersonal relationship quality with key contact employees at the supplier has a significant impact on the level of collaboration at the buying firm. Higher interpersonal relationship quality has a direct, positive influence on information sharing and an indirect, positive influence on joint problem solving, joint performance measurement, and flexibility.Overall, the empirical results confirm that interorganizational and interpersonal relationship quality can be differentiated, and that both types of ties play an important role in shaping collaborative practices between firms.

Although social relationships are rich with feeling, most psychological research on groups and relationships views them more coldly. As a result, there are few studies accounting for the powerful emotional experience of belonging. In this dissertation, I suggest the alternative viewpoint of the social life perspective. The social life perspective considers the connections between people as living, dynamic forms filled with particular tensions. In addition to the three moments of social life recognized by Sandelands (2003), I identify ten elements of social life that characterize its appearance. The two dissertation studies empirically test the validity of the social life perspective, and examine its relationship to other variables. In Study 1, I survey 167 firefighters about their experiences of loving and hating work. I then code these stories in order to identify the moments and elements of social life. The results indicate that social life is central to the work experience, and that the moments of social life, particularly love and individuation, are identifiable in stories told by firefighters. Through qualitative analysis, I identify ten broad topics firefighters used to discuss social life, and also identify features of the moments of social life in concordance with the theory. I also find support for the hypothesized elements of social life and find that they significantly relate to the moments of social life. Finally, the results of Study 1 indicate that the moments of social life do not predict psychological well-being or work performance, although the negative elements of social life do predict lower scores on measures of affiliation with the organization. In Study 2, untrained raters read and code each story as a test of whether the social life perspective echoes naive understandings of relationships. The results support the findings of Study 1, that the moments and elements of social life are present in stories about work. In particular, the moment of individuation seems visible to naive readers. Naive readers' ratings of the moments and elements of social life largely follow expert ratings. Finally, naive readers are more able to see social life in more beautifully told stories. These two studies provide the first empirical exploration of the social life perspective. On the whole, they support the predictions of the theory as to the form and characteristics of social life. At the same time, these studies allow us to examine workplace relationships in a way that privileges their emotional nature. In doing so, these studies contribute to the psychological literature on groups as well as the social life perspective itself.

This study examined the impact of witnessing interparental violence (WIV) in childhood, quality of parental care, and witness perceptions of self-blame on the interpersonal relationships and schemas of college students. Approximately 500 male and female students were recruited from undergraduate psychology courses to participate. It was hypothesized that the quality of parental care would moderate the relationship between reports of WIV and maladaptive interpersonal outcomes, such that the quality of parental care would have a larger effect on individuals who had experiences of WIV. The amount of reported self-blame experienced by the offspring was hypothesized to be a mediating factor in this relationship. Self-blame was found to mediate the relationship between WIV and interpersonal distress, as well as between WIV and disrupted interpersonal schemas. Although parental care was not a significant moderator of this relationship, both reported maternal and paternal care were predictors of future interpersonal distress.

Emotional intelligence is a fairly new, but rapidly growing, area of research. It has become increasingly popular as many researchers claim individuals who perform well at work do so because they have a high level of emotional intelligence. For example, Goleman hypothesised that 'emotional competence is a learned capability based on emotional intelligence that results in outstanding performance at work' (2001, p.1). Although many theoretical links have been established between emotional intelligence and workplace performance there has been relatively little empirical research conducted to support these statements. Although only limited research exists researchers have started to provide data which supports a positive relationship between emotional intelligence and workplace performance. The aim of this study is to further explore the relationship between emotional intelligence and workplace performance. In addition, this study will also explore the relationship between demographic factors, emotional intelligence and workplace performance. The Genos EI Scale was used to measure an individual's level of emotional intelligence, whilst workplace performance was assessed by the Role Based Performance Scale. The sample was drawn from one large insurance company who had offices throughout New Zealand. From the sample 114 subordinates completed the Genos EI Scale and provided demographic data. The direct managers of those who returned their completed Genos EI Scale completed the RBPS. The results of this study suggest a significant relationship exists between emotional intelligence and workplace performance (r =.055, p

This research examined under what conditions and for whom people's contingencies of self-worth, or bases of self-esteem, predicted their self-validation goals, or desire to prove certain qualities on which people's self-esteem is based. The results of four studies showed that (1) people adopt self-validation goals in domains of contingency, with low self-esteem people chronically pursuing self-validation goals in interpersonal domains (Study 1); (2) the effect of contingencies on self-validation goals is moderated by ego threat; specifically, after ego threat, people are generally less likely to pursue self-validation goals; (3) the pursuit versus disengagement of contingencies from self-validation goals varies as a function of people's self-esteem level and domain of contingency; specifically, high self-esteem people show positive associations between their contingency and self-validation goals under no threat and under ego threat, whereas low self-esteem people show a positive association under no threat, but tend to disengage their contingency from self-validation goals under threat (Study 2); (4) self-validation goals were not found to affect the quality of interpersonal relationships (Study 4); what mattered for interpersonal perceptions of supportiveness and liking was the type of personal problem discussed (academic vs. non-academic) and how contingent target participants were in the threatened domain (academics). Specifically, partners viewed targets as more supportive and liked them more if targets had received an academic threat and were highly contingent in that domain. Taken together, these findings suggest that people pursue self-validation goals to maintain and enhance their self-esteem in domains of contingency, but may also disengage their contingency from these goals and sometimes even disengage from these goals altogether when they receive a threat to their self-esteem. Thus, the present results suggest a complex portrayal of goal engagement and disengagement as a function of self-esteem level, contingencies, and ego threat.

Since the early 1980s social psychology has generated much empirical knowledge and many related 'truth' claims concerning the 'nature' and 'experience' of the (hetero-patriarchal) couple relationship; identifying and reifying certain patterns and components, prescribing particular relational behaviours and subjectivities while also consolidating socio-cultural ideations about what it is to be 'paired' in romantic relationships and how these can be 'successfully' maintained. From a post-structuralist perspective and drawing on Foucauldian theory in particular, this qualitative research critiques the 'psy'-disciplines's positivistic generation and naturalisation of the socio-historically specific power-knowledge of contemporary Western coupledom as a 'naturally' occurring human phenomenon. In particular, it is the discursive practices and values of couple exclusivity, commitment, trust and intimacy that are targeted in this denaturalisation of the 'stable', 'contained' and 'authentic' couple and coupled-subject and which are deconstructed as practices of freedom and truth manifest across 'conventional' and 'alternative' relationships. This thesis stages its post-structuralist psychology using the related methods of Foucauldian informed etymological and discourse analyses. The etymological analysis is a semantic history of key words and concepts deployed in the practice of contemporary coupledom, giving emphasis to its socio-historic contingency. This study conceptually grounds the discourse analysis which uses material from 28 interviews conducted with heterosexual and same sex, monogamous and non-monogamous couples and individuals, married and unmarried, co-habiting and not, to explore the productivity and regulation of couple-discourses and subjectivities in the present. Interpreting coupledom as a discursive regime, the delimitations of knowledge and possibility are problematised and consideration is given to a possible resistance not predicated on liberal-humanist and binary notions of 'freedom' and 'security'.