ICPR Abstracts: Session 37

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Session 37: Symposium

Relationship Cognitions, Social Support and 
Self-Evaluation

Relational Schemas, Stress Appraisal 
and Social Support
                                    
Tamahra Pierce and John Lydon
McGill University
                                    
We examine how the concept of relational schemas can be 
useful in understanding the process by which perceived 
social support buffers the experience of stress and 
influences coping strategies.  In a field study of women 
making pregnancy decisions, we found that expectations 
about support from significant others at the time of a 
pregnancy test were related to women's appraisal of the 
stressfulness of the event and choice of coping strategies.  
These results prompted us to conduct a lab experiment in 
which a subliminal priming technique was used to activate 
different sets of interpersonal expectations.  After 
receiving the primes, subjects listened to an audiotaped 
scenario in which they were asked to imagine themselves 
facing an unplanned pregnancy.  Chronic interpersonal 
expectations were later assessed in a telephone interview.  
Activated negative interpersonal expectations reduced 
positive affect, while chronically accessible negative 
interpersonal expectations were associated with 
heightened negative affect.  Both activated and chronically 
accessible positive interpersonal expectations increased 
intention to seek emotional support.
        These two studies help to demonstrate how 
relational schemas can influence the appraisal of stressful 
events and guide
behavioral reactions to them. Current research is 
investigating the influence of relational schemas on the 
perception of others as support providers, and on memory 
and subjective ratings of support received.  Perception of 
others as support providers is tested using a subliminal 
priming methodology, where relational schemas are 
activated prior to a first impression task.  The influence of 
relational schemas on memory and subjective ratings of 
support received is tested using a combined lab and field 
methodology, where participants chronic relational 
schemas are assessed in an initial lab session, after which 
participants record their daily interactions over a seven 
day period. Retrospective ratings of the amount of support 
received over the week and level of satisfaction are 
obtained in a second lab session.


A Social-Cognitive Perspective on Social Support

Brian Lakey and Catherine J. Lutz
Wayne State University

We argue for a social-cognitive approach to social support 
because this approach offers new perspectives, 
mechanisms and methodologies.  New perspectives are 
urgently needed because traditional models focus on the 
actual assistance that people receive during times of stress 
(i.e. enacted support), which has not been consistently 
linked to emotional well-being (Barrera, 1986).  Rather, it 
is the perception of social support that appears to be 
important in health, yet these perceptions do not appear to 
be based on the assistance that people actually receive 
(Barrera, 1986).  In contrast to traditional models, social 
cognitive approaches conceptualize support perceptions as 
primarily cognitive in nature.  As such, perceived support 
should be influenced by a wide range of processes 
identified in basic social cognition research.
        Together with our colleagues, we have 
conducted a number of investigations on cognitive 
processes in perceived social support, emphasizing the 
role of chronically accessible beliefs about social support.  
For example, in a number of studies, we have observed 
that persons with high levels of perceived support interpret 
ambiguous supportive actions as more helpful that persons 
with low perceived support (Lakey & Cassady, 1990; 
Lakey, Moineau & Drew, 1992; Lakey & Dickinson, 
1994).  In addition, persons with high perceived support 
display better memory for supportive behaviors than low 
perceived support individuals (Lakey & Cassady, 1990; 
Lakey et al., 1992).  However, our most recent research 
has found that perceived support primarily reflects a 
unique match between perceiver and supporters (Lakey, 
McCabe, Fisicaro & Drew, in press), i.e. although 
characteristics of the supporters, and biases of perceivers 
both make significant contributions to explaining support 
judgements, the Perceiver X Supporter interaction 
accounts for the largest amount of variance.  Work in 
progress by the authors investigates the extent to which 
different perceivers use different decision rules in making 
perceived support judgements. The implications for 
clinical and preventive interventions will be discussed.


Examining the Potential Role of
Self-Evaluation Maintenance Processes in Relationship 
Outcomes

Steven R. H. Beach, Abraham Tesser,
Marilyn Mendolia, Page Anderson, Dan Whitaker
University of Georgia

Expressions of positive and negative feelings and the 
nature of affectional exchange are clearly important in 
understanding relationship quality.  However, working 
well together and functioning as part of a team are also 
important aspects of marital satisfaction.  Optimal team 
performance suggests a coordination of effort and may 
often require that each partner develop and maintain a 
unique set of performance niches with the relationship.  
The self-evaluation maintenance (SEM) model and its 
extension to marriage provides a theoretical framework for 
generating specific hypotheses about how such 
differentiation might function in the context of close 
relationships and how violations of performance niches 
might influence relationship outcomes such as satisfaction, 
desire for closeness with the partner, and willingness to 
help the partner.
        It is our thesis that a performance ecology exists 
within every committed, romantic relationship, that the set 
of performance niches occupied by each partner and the 
relative performance of partners within their respective 
niches provides a context for understanding marital 
processes, and that the Self-Evaluation Maintenance 
model is useful in explicating the structure of this 
performance ecology.  In the current series of studies we 
address predictions that follow directly from the SEM 
model or its extension to dyads (Tesser, 1988; Beach & 
Tesser, 1995).  First, we manipulate SEM processes and 
show that this can effect recall of relationship history 
(Study 1).  Second, we show that partners report engaging 
least frequently in activities that the SEM model predicts 
they should avoid and engage more frequently in activities 
with the least potential for arousing self-evaluation threat 
in the self or the partner (Study 2).  Third, we show that 
spouses may systematically distort their perception of the 
partner in a way that minimizes their perception of 
negative partner reactions (Study 3). Accordingly, the 
series of studies is designed to illustrate  the potential 
importance of Self-evaluation maintenance processes in 
understanding the behavior of persons in marital 
relationships.


Theoretical and Methodological Issues
in the Study of Social Support and Personality

Gregory R. Pierce
Hamilton College

This paper has three goals: (a) to present an interactional 
theory of social support; (b) to describe an ongoing 
program of research investigating this theory; and (c) to 
discuss several theoretical and methodological issues that 
theories of social support still need to address.  Our 
interactional theory emphasizes the roles played by 
personality characteristics, interpersonal relationships, and 
situational factors in determining the impact of potentially 
supportive behavior.  Empirical evidence will be reviewed 
from longitudinal, experimental, cross-sectional, and 
observational studies, providing support for this model.  
One consistent theme emerges from this work:  Early 
theories focusing on whether social support has a main 
effect on adjustment of buffer stress do not pay sufficient 
attention to the complexity of social support phenomena. I 
will argue that the following theoretical and 
methodological issues need to be addressed.  How should 
we conceptualize and investigate specific relationships and 
social networks as sources of support?  How does social 
support that occurs (or does not occur) in one relationship 
in a person's network influence supportive activity 
occurring in other relationships?  It has become 
increasingly clear that supportive efforts occurring in one 
relationship do not take place in isolation of potentially 
supportive interactions occurring in other relationships.  
Which features of relationships, besides social support, 
should also be considered?  Social support is only one 
feature of relationships; it influences and is influenced by 
other facets of relationships (e.g., conflict, intimacy, 
power).  This suggests the need for multidimensional 
approaches to supportive relationships.  How do past and 
current relationships influence the development of new 
supportive relationships?  Evidence suggests that the 
quality of family relationships strongly influence the 
formation of new peer
relationships.  A research agenda will be presented to 
move the study of social support beyond demonstrations of 
links between social support, health and well-being, to an 
understanding of the mechanisms underlying social 
support processes.

Discussant
Mark Baldwin
University of Winnipeg