Similarity in personal relationships [Elektronische Ressource] : associations with relationship regulation between and within individuals / von Cornelia Wrzus

Cornelia Wrzus

Sujets

• Psychologie

Informations

• Publié par: universitat_potsdam
• Publié le: 01 janvier 2008
• Nombre de lectures: 7
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 3 Mo

Extrait

Similarity in Personal Relationships:

Associations with Relationship Regulation
Between and Within Individuals


Cornelia Wrzus This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License:
Attribution 3.0 Unported
To view a copy of this license visit
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/










































Online published at the
Institutional Repository of the Potsdam University:
http://opus.kobv.de/ubp/volltexte/2008/2015/
urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-20158
[http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-20158]



Similarity in Personal Relationships:

Associations with Relationship Regulation
Between and Within Individuals



An der Humanwissenschaftlichen Fakultät
der Universität Potsdam eingereichte
DISSERTATION
zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades

Doctor philosophiae
Dr. phil.

vorgelegt am 25. April 2008 von
Dipl.-Psych. Cornelia Wrzus


Dekan: Prof. Dr. Ria De Bleser
Gutachter: Prof. Dr. Franz J. Neyer
Prof. Dr. John B. Nezlek

Mündliche Prüfung am 04. September 2008
INDEX OF CONTENTS
INDEX OF CONTENTS

Abstract x
1 Similarity, closeness and reciprocity in personal 6
relationships
1.1 Personal relationships in light of evolutionary psychology 7
1.1.1 Major principles in evolutionary psychology 8
1.1.2 The evolutionary model of relationship regulation 14
1.2 Relationship regulation within ego-centered networks 26
1.2.1 Personal network structure 27
1.2.2 Closeness and reciprocity in ego-centered networks 31
1.2.3 Similarity and the interaction with closeness and reciprocity 43
1.3 Friendships and relationships in patchwork-families – Examples 54
for relationship regulation within specific relationships
1.3.1 Who belongs to the family? - A comparison of parent-child 55
relationships in patchwork and traditional families
1.3.2 Why do we have friends? 60
1.4 Summary and research questions 73
2 Method 77
2.1 Ego-centered network studies 77
2.1.1 Participants 77
2.1.2 Procedure 81
2.1.3 Measures 81
i INDEX OF CONTENTS

2.2 One-year follow-up of the family study 85
2.2.1 Participants 85
2.2.2 Procedure 87
2.2.3 Measures 87
2.3 Experimental similarity studies 87
2.3.1 Participants 87
2.3.2 Procedure 89
2.3.3 Measures 91
2.4 Analytical strategy 92
2.4.1 Relationship regulation across the network and the mediating 93
role of similarity
2.4.2 Relationship regulation in traditional and patchwork families 97
2.4.3 regulation in friendships 99
3 Results 101
3.1 Relationship regulation across the personal network 101
3.1.1 Network structure 101
3.1.2 Similarity, emotional closeness and perceived reciprocity across 108
the personal network
3.1.3 Addressing the question of causality 131
3.2 Relationship specificity 150
3.2.1 Who belongs to the family? - A comparison of parent – child 150
relationships in patchwork and traditional families
3.2.2 Why do we have friends? 166
ii INDEX OF CONTENTS

4 Discussion 177
4.1 Similarity, emotional closeness, and reciprocity across the 177
network
4.1.1 The structure of personal relationship networks in adulthood 177
4.1.2 The relevance of similarity for kin selection and for cooperation 179
4.1.3 Causal relationships among psychological similarity, emotional 184
closeness, and perceived reciprocity
4.2 Similarity, emotional closeness, and reciprocity in parent-child 186
relationships and friendships
4.2.1 Parent-child relationships 186
4.2.2 Friendships 189
4.3 Conclusions 192
4.3.1 Limitations 192
4.3.2 What can be taken home? 195
4.4 Future directions and practical applications 198
LITERATURE 201
APPENDIX231
iii INDEX OF TABLES
INDEX OF TABLES

Table 1 Overview of evolutionary psychological studies of similarity 45
Table 2 social psychological studies of similarity 48
Table 3 Overview of demographic sample characteristics in the Young 80
adult study, the Family study and the Similarity Studies
Table 4 Structural variables in the ego-centered networks (wording, 83
scaling, means)
Table 5 Overview of the number of participants in the longitudinal follow-up 86
of the family study
Table 6 Consistency within rater and agreement between parents for 98
parent-child relationships at T1 and T2
Table 7 Overview of network composition in the young adult and the family 103
study
Table 8 Overview of the mean structural characteristics of relationships in 105
the young adult and the family study
Table 9 Prediction of contact frequency by proximity and relationship type 107
(level 1), and gender and family type (level 2)
Table 10 Overview of the mean relationship qualities in the young adult and 110
the family study
Table 11 Multilevel logistic regression of relationship subsystems on 111
emotional closeness and perceived reciprocity
Table 12 Young adult study: multilevel stepwise model building for 114
regressing emotional closeness on age parity, genetic relatedness,
and psychological similarity (level 1)
Table 13 Family study: multilevel stepwise model building for regressing 115
emotional closeness on age parity, genetic relatedness, and
psychological similarity (level 1)
Table 14 Young adult and Family study: multilevel mediation analyses with 117
genetic relatedness as predictor and emotional closeness as
criterion
Table 15 Young adult study: multilevel stepwise model building for 119
regressing perceived reciprocity on genetic relatedness, age parity,
and psychological similarity (level 1)
iv INDEX OF TABLES

Table 16 Family study: multilevel stepwise model building for regressing 120
perceived reciprocity on genetic relatedness, age parity, and
psychological similarity (level 1)
Table 17 Young adult and Family study: multilevel mediation analyses with 122
age parity as predictor and perceived reciprocity as criterion
Table 18 Family and gender differences in associations among subjective 123
similarity, skill similarity, genetic relatedness, and emotional
closeness
Table 19 Family and gender differences in associations among subjective 126
similarity, physical similarity, skill similarity, age parity, and
perceived reciprocity
Table 20 Family and gender differences in the prediction of emotional 130
closeness by social similarity characteristics
Table 21 Family and gender differences in the prediction of perceived 131
reciprocity by social similarity characteristics
Table 22 Similarity study A: means and standard deviations of similarity, 133
emotional closeness and negative emotion at T1
Table 23 Similarity study A: percentages and absolute values of participants 138
who changed in their expected return between T1 and T2
Table 24 Similarity study B: means and standard deviations of similarity, 140
emotional closeness and negative emotion at T1
Table 25 Similarity study B: percentages and146n between T1 and T2
Table 26 Cross-lagged effects and correlated change between 149
psychological similarity, emotional closeness, and perceived
reciprocity
Table 27 Description of the parent-child dyads in patchwork and traditional 151
families at T1 and T2
Table 28 Prediction of emotional closeness by psychological similarity (level 156
1) and family type (level 3) in parent-child dyads at T1
Table 29 Prediction of emotional closeness by psychological similarity, 158
relatedness (level 1), and family type (level 3) in parent-child dyads
at T1
Table 30 Prediction of perceived reciprocity by psychological similarity, 160
relatedness, the interactions between similarity and relatedness
(level 1), and family type (level 3) in parent-child dyads at T1
v INDEX OF TABLES

Table 31 Prediction of emotional closeness at T2 by psychological similarity 164
and relatedness, while controlling for emotional closeness at T1
(level 1)
Table 32 Prediction of perceived reciprocity at T2 by psychological similarity 165
and relatedn perceived reciprocity at T1
(level 1)
Table 33 Means and standard deviation of the number and proportion of 167
friends and family members in the personal networks
Table 34 Estimated means of structural and qualitative characteristics of 169
relationships with family members and friends
Table 35 Prediction of closeness and reciprocity in horizontal family 172
relationships and friendships by psychological similarity
Table 36 Prediction of emotional closeness in friendships by the relationship 175
quality with horizontal family members
Table 37 Gender differences in the prediction of emotional closeness in 176
friendships by the relationship quality with horizontal family
members

vi