Many studies have been conducted on the process of social support. However, very few of have focused on the seeking of that support. This paper utilized uncertainty reduction theory and facework in an investigation of who people turn to for social support and how it is obtained. Comparisons were made between men and women and between same- and cross-sex friends on the level of relational certainty, expectations for specific types of social support, the directness and amount of facework in support. The results suggests that men and women may be more alike than different. No gender differences were found and only one difference was found between same- and cross-sex friends. Specifically, a supplementary analysis using a subscale of the relational certainty measure revealed that same-sex friends are higher in general relational certain than cross-sex friends, but this difference did not emerge when same- and cross-sex friends were compared on certainty regarding the likelihood of receiving the needed social support. The results also suggest that relational characteristics such as the level of relational certainty play a role in determining who people are likely to seek out for social support and the messages they use to acquire the desired support.

This dissertation adopts a discourse-centered approach to culture in order to explore the local meanings attached to alcohol and drinking in contemporary Navajo society. Against a backdrop of drastic cultural transformations, Navajo discourse reveals a wide range of accounts in which drinking is situated within the context of individual experiences and histories. Alcohol and drinking are connected to personal memories of important events, emotions, and relationships. Beyond the level of individual stories, these narratives help organize collective accounts of the Navajo as a people by providing comprehensive evaluations and commentaries on drinking. A number of collective meanings are embedded in narratives about alcohol that reference cultural sentiments and prominent moral values and offer a social commentary that defines what is, and is not, Navajo. Further insights are offered by an examination of aging-out, a salient pattern of Navajo drinking. Former problem drinkers who have aged out and no longer experience alcohol related difficulties offer narratives that frame drinking in certain set ways. The discourse on aging-out among the Navajo not only provides detail on a category of drinker that is largely ignored in accounts of Native American drinking but also illustrates some of the values and meanings attached to drinking cessation and personal change. The discourse of alcoholism treatment provides other understandings regarding Navajo conceptions of alcohol, including the character of this substance and the effect it has on people--especially Native Americans. Consideration of this set of discourse reveals insights into the treatment process as well as commentaries and evaluations of treatment effectiveness and other related issues. This study suggests that Navajo narratives of alcohol and drinking provide important idioms for expressing moral and self-identity, individual experience, collective history, and cultural degeneration. The discourse on drinking in Navajo society reveals a social world of polarization, contention, and intergenerational conflict.

Recently, the role of guilt within interpersonal relationships has come under scrutiny. This research, though informative, has been primarily gleaned from retrospective accounts. This investigation examines guilt virtually as it is elicited in friendship and significant-other dyads, probing the following issues: (a) experienced guilt and perceptions of conversational appropriateness as they relate to relational satisfaction and relational interdependence, (b) the association between elicitors' and targets' perceptions of relational transgression and relational satisfaction, (c) elicitors' perceptions of predicted and actual outcomes of guilt elicitation, (d) effects of guilt elicitation on targets' perceptions of the relationship, (e) self-esteem's effect on targets' experienced guilt, and (f) effects of relationship type (i.e., friends vs. significant others) on the above. Results indicate that relationship type is associated with intensity of the guilt appeal, and is a factor in the link between relational interdependence and perceptions of a guilt appeal's appropriateness. Additionally relationship type, relational interdependence, and relational satisfaction offered some demonstration of moderating the usage and reception of guilt. Relational satisfaction evidenced no association with partners' perceptions of the relational transgression, while self-esteem demonstrated a near significant association with experienced guilt. Content analyses of elicitors' perceptions of predicted and actual outcomes and targets' perceptions of relational meanings of guilt appeals are presented.

This study sheds new light on social psychological research on fairness by borrowing insights from social networks research and by incorporating the evolutionary approach. First, I propose the distinction between fairness in exchange based on local comparisons (e-fairness) and fairness in allocation based on referential comparisons (a-fairness). Early studies on fairness by social exchange theorists primarily considered exchange situations, but later on distributive justice researchers, considered allocation situations only. As a result, there is a certain discrepancy between the theories and the actual settings that researchers use (Cook and Hegtvedt 1983). Using the evolutionary approach resolves this confusion. The validity of this argument is explored by use of computer simulation. Second, I propose that there is a relationship between two comparison processes, local comparison and referential comparison. Because most of the empirical research focuses on either local comparison or referential comparison (Hegtvedt and Johnson 2000), this research is the first attempt to address the potential influence of referential comparison on local comparison. Specifically, I argue that referential comparison has a dampening effect on local comparison, and that this effect is stronger for across-group referential comparison than for within-group referential comparison. This argument is tested by the experimentally. By borrowing insights from social networks research, the macro-level implication of this study is drawn. According to Nakane (1970), patterns of cross-cutting ties characterize societies. One extreme is a vertical society (in which there are no cross-cutting ties between members of sub-groups), and the other extreme is a horizontal society (in which there are many cross-cutting ties). Since across-group referential comparison is more likely to occur in horizontal societies, given the same degree of objective inequality, we can expect that the degree of perceived unfairness will be higher in vertical societies than in horizontal societies. Thus, behavioral attempts to achieve fairness will also be higher in vertical societies. As a result, we can expect that social inequality is higher in horizontal societies than in vertical societies. This seems to be the case when we consider the United States and Japan.

Behavioral and Social Facts in Legal Decision Making provides a coherent framework for thinking about the social science and legal decision making interface. It takes as its premise that valuable lessons may be learned by examining a variety of legal decisions and their relationship to pertinent social and behavioral facts. It describes and explains these lessons in three parts. Section I introduces this relationship by demonstrating that behavioral and social factual knowledge can be critical in legal decision making, that the knowledge may have multiple sources, and that it can be used to address a variety of issues, interests and concerns held by various parties with an interest in the legal decision. Having established that the relationship between social science and legal decision making is an important one, Section II shows how and why behavioral and social facts can be used in legal decision making. Five primary uses are illustrated. First, behavioral and social facts can be used to identify and evaluate legal assumptions. Second, behavioral and social facts can be used by legal decision makers to establish social and legal policy. Third, behavioral and social facts can be used to settle factual disputes. Fourth, behavioral and social facts can be used to help resolve constitutional issues. Finally, behavioral and social facts can be used to educate legal decision makers so that they can make more effective and informed decisions. Despite the many potential benefits of using behavioral and social facts in legal decision making, Section III acknowledges that the relationship does not always work out as anticipated. Deficiencies may exist within either the behavioral and social facts or the legal decision maker. For example, the legal decision maker may choose to ignore relevant behavioral and social facts. Other problems may exist: The behavioral and social facts may not yet exist, or if they do exist, they may not directly address the specific issues with which the legal decision maker is concerned. Finally, the behavioral and social facts may suffer from methodological or statistical flaws that limit their application.

Findings from a host of prior cross-cultural studies suggest that those of differing cultural orientations are likely to possess differing motivations for deceiving and truthtelling, and as a consequence, are likely to exhibit differing patterns of behavior when engaging in deceptive communication. Thus, this investigation examined: (a) the impact of cultural identity on one's motivation for deceptive communication, and (b) the impact of cultural orientation on overt manifestations of behavior. In addition, this study investigated the effects of culture and relational familiarity (i.e., strangers versus friends) on truth bias and deception detection accuracy. To test the proposed theoretical relationships, participants from two cultures (i.e., United States and Japan) were employed in an experimental study. Results of the current investigation revealed that degree of independence was the single best predictor of one's motivation to tell the truth and one's motivation to protect the self, whereas degree of interdependence was the best predictor of one's motivation to protect the other. In terms of deceivers'/truthtellers' perceptions of the self under deception, higher interdependence scores were found to be related to self-perceptions of less positive affect, less fluency, and less psychological involvement under truth conditions, but were associated with greater positive affect, greater fluency, and more psychological involvement under conditions of deception. When considering partner perceptions of truthtellers'/deceivers' behavior, higher degrees of independence were found to be associated with less positive affect under deception. When outside-observers viewed the behaviors of truthtellers/deceivers, higher degrees of independence were found to be associated with greater kinesic involvement and pleasantness, less nervousness, and greater vocal pleasantness and vocal relaxation under truth. Conversely, higher scores on independence were found to be related to less kinesic involvement, less pleasantness, greater nervousness, and less vocal pleasantness and vocal relaxation under conditions of deception. Finally, relationship type was not found to be a significant predictor of either accuracy or truth bias, although, higher degrees of interdependence were associated with lower detection accuracy and greater truth bias. The findings of the current investigation strongly suggest that behavioral differences indeed become manifest when research is conducted employing samples of varying cultural orientations.

Almost everyone experiences the desire for privacy occasionally. Achieving privacy, on the other hand, can be more difficult, especially when relational concerns are present. While the topic of privacy has received a good deal of attention in a variety of fields (e.g., communication, law, psychology, architecture, sociology), the impact of the act of seeking privacy has received little study. Privacy-seeking is often considered a selfish act, one that is likely to make the seeker feel guilty and the other affected parties rejected. The purpose of the present study is to examine the aggressiveness of various strategies that people use to gain privacy. In the present study, privacy-seekers described how they tried to achieve privacy in a particular situation, the reasons and motivations behind their actions, their perceptions of the situation and their own behavior, and the consequences of their actions. Results indicated that the use of moderate aggressiveness may be a superior strategy for achieving privacy with relational sensitivity, in comparison to aggressive or nonaggressive strategies. Aggressive strategies were seen as more dominant, less pleasant and less composed, and resulted in more negative relational consequences, than moderately aggressive strategies, while nonaggressive strategies were seen as less dominant, equally pleasant and composed, but less satisfying to use than moderately aggressive strategies. The relationship of the intruder (friend or stranger) also played a role in how participants sought privacy. However, no setting effects were found for perceptions of the environment or type of territory and use of aggressiveness.

This research study, entitled Domestic Violence: A Profile of the Victim in Pima County, took 1990 information from the Pima County Attorney's Office Adult Diversion Program, and compiled a profile of the domestic violence victim in Pima County. Data was derived from police reports and questionnaires answered by the participants which were contained in files at the Pima County Attorney's Office. It was shown that the subjects displayed a number of similar specific characteristics. They were between the ages of 25-44, had 0-3 children, were Caucasian or Hispanic, had the gross yearly income between 0-20,000 dollars. It was also shown that the majority of the domestic violence came from a spouse or an unmarried partner, that the incidents involved alcohol and that the subjects suffered minor injuries which required little or no medical treatment.

This study examined the effects of a gender specific questionnaire on college students' attitudinal responses about rape survivors. The Attitudes About Rape Survivors Scale was used in two versions, female specific and male specific, to measure one-hundred and eighty-three college students' attitudinal responses about rape survivors. The 2 x 2 factorial research design contained two main effects, gender and gender specific language, and one interaction, gender by gender specific language. The two-way ANOVA test of the main effects and interaction yielded significant results for gender, F (1, 179) = 28.50, p ≤.001, and gender specific language, F (1, 179) = 11.08, p ≤.001. No significant results were found for the interaction of gender by gender specific language, F (1, 179) =.046, p ≤.831. Additional findings regarding directional implications for the main effects, male target rape survivor, and structure of the items within the Attitudes About Rape Survivors Scale were also found. All findings were discussed with regard to implications for future research.

This study used both a questionnaire and personal interviews to gather information on women's networking organizations. The information was compared to a study of similar organizations in the United Kingdom. The questionnaires did not support or disprove the results of the previous study. Personal interviews of 5 networking organization leaders supported some of the conclusions of the United Kingdom study. Organizations that limited their membership to members of a particular group or profession and focused on training were more apolitical. Those organizations with more inclusive membership policies were found to be more likely to promote change to benefit women in general. Counselors who advise women clients to seek support in networking organizations should be aware that not all organizations promote goals that are in the best interest of women as a class.