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Abstract:
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This study focuses on the effects that solicitation and closeness of relationship have on reactions
to the provision of support in interpersonal situations. The provision of social support can be
either solicited or unsolicited, and whether or not support provided in a particular situation is
solicited can have a substantial influence on reactions to the support (Goldsmith & Fitch, 1997).
In addition, this study investigates the effects of closeness of relationship on instances of social
support provision and subsequent reactions. 72 Georgetown University undergraduate students
completed a vignette survey designed to measure the effects that solicitation and closeness of
relationship, when present in social support provision situations, have on support recipients'
levels of satisfaction, perceptions of support providers' interpersonal motives as well as of their
own, and levels of support advice incorporation. Results revealed significant main effects of
closeness of relationship on the extent to which participants perceived interpersonal love motives
in their support providers and interpersonal face-saving motives of their own, as well as those of
their support providers. It was found that subjects perceived a higher level of love motives in
support providers who were described as having a close relationship with participants, as
opposed to a more distant one. It was also found that participants perceived that both they,
themselves, as well as their support providers were motivated to a greater degree by matters
regarding each person saving his or her own face in vignettes for which the relationships
between subjects and support providers were described as being more distant. |