The early stages of a relationship present an interdependence dilemma: People want to demonstrate interest, but are reluctant because trust is not yet established (Holmes, 1991). Five studies investigated the influence of attachment on how people navigate the interdependence dilemma focusing on the use of communal and exchange norms (Clark & Mills, 1979). In Study 1, compared to secure and avoidantly attached individuals, anxiously attached individuals avoided using exchange norms with a potential friend, presumably to signal interest in closeness. In Study 2, when a potential friend used communal norms (compared to exchange norms), anxious individuals felt more anxious and exhibited lower appearance self-esteem, whereas avoidant individuals viewed their partner as more negatively communal and liked their partner less. In Study 3, secure individuals accepted help from a potential friend, and did not feel the need to reciprocate, whereas avoidant individuals quickly reciprocated, presumably to clear their debt and to establish boundaries. Anxious individuals again felt anxious upon receiving help. Study 4 focused on emotion regulation and cognition. When a potential friend used communal norms (suggested working as a team), anxious individuals performed worse on a mental concentration task (ruminated) compared to secures. Moreover, lexical decision analyses revealed that proximity accessibility was associated with better performance for the less anxiously attached, and worse performance for the more anxiously attached, suggesting that thoughts about closeness dampened anxiety and rumination for the secures, but increased it for the anxious individuals. Finally, in Study 5, which focused on attributions, anxious individuals tended to monitor and appraise discrete events for their significance to relationship goals, and were more likely to infer relationship progress from discrete communal events. Moreover, anxious individuals made more relati

Few studies of interpersonal complementarity have examined individual differences that might moderate the relation between one person's behaviour and the other's response. The present research investigated the degree to which global perceptions of others (perceived interpersonal climates) moderated the relation between event-level perceptions of the other and behavioural response in social interactions. The influence of interpersonal perceptions on social behaviour was examined in two field studies; the first study was conducted with university undergraduates, and the second study was conducted with a community sample of working adults. Event-contingent recording procedures were used to collect information about participants' communal (agreeable---quarrelsome) and agentic (dominant---submissive) behaviours and perceptions of partner communion and partner agency. Based on hypotheses derived from interpersonal complementarity, it was expected that perceptions of communion would predict communal behaviour according to the principle of correspondence (agreeableness evokes agreeableness and hostility evokes hostility) and perceptions of agency would predict agentic behaviour according to the principle of reciprocity (dominance invites submissiveness and submissiveness invites dominance). As predicted, perceived interpersonal climates moderated the relation between perception of the other and behaviour in specific interactions. Perceived communion in an event predicted correspondence with regard to communal behaviour; this response was stronger for individuals who generally perceived others as cold-quarrelsome rather than warm-agreeable. Perceived agency in an event predicted reciprocity such that individuals responded to perceptions of dominance with more submissive behaviour and perceptions of submissiveness with more dominant behaviour; this response was stronger for individuals who generally perceived others as submissive, and this response was weak to non-existent for individuals who generally perceived others as dominant. The moderating effects of perceived interpersonal climates were independent of five-factor and interpersonal traits; global perceptions of others provided unique interpersonal information not captured by the five-factor model of personality. Both studies support the basic principles of complementarity while indicating that complementarity does not apply equally to all people. The present research shows that interpersonal perceptions are not only useful for studying behaviour within an event, but that global perceptions of others (perceived interpersonal climates) influence our reactions to the social environment.

The thesis develops models for social phenomena based on two primitive concepts: individual and relation. The models - based on the p* class of models for social networks - are designed to examine the inter-dependence of individual characteristics together with the social relations that exist among those individuals. The goal of constructing such models is to extend the capacity to develop rich descriptions of social processes. Relations among individuals are represented by a network or networks of interpersonal ties. The first part of the thesis describes models solely for such sets of relational ties. Techniques to represent data dependencies, approaches to model interpretation, and methods for valued attribute and relational data, are developed. (For complete abstract open document)

Thesis (B.A. Hons) from the Department of Psychology, University of Adelaide, 1971.

Thesis (B.Sc.Hons.))--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Psychology, 1974. / Includes Bibliography.

Thesis (M.S.)--West Virginia University, 2009. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains ix, 74 p. : ill. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 45-53).

Thesis (M.A.)--Columbia Biblical Seminary and Graduate School of Missions, Externes Studienzentrum Korntal, 1996. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 79-85).

Thesis (M.S.P.H.)--University of Michigan, 1942.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 1998. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 243-253). Available also in digital form from UMI Company.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Lehigh University, 2004. / Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 96-105).