John H. Berg

Attraction and exchange in continuing and noncontinuing dating relationships.

Measures enabling one to assess general feelings about a relationship, social exchange behaviors, and the particularism and symbolism of resources given to and received from another were examined longitudinally in 38 dating couples. These variables were first measured shortly after a couple began to date and again approximately 4 months later. We found that in contrast to what might be expected from prevailing theories of relationship development, the later status of couples (still dating or broken up) could be predicted with a high degree of accuracy from the initial measures. This finding corroborates and extends previous work dealing with same-sex friendships. Couples who were still dating 4 months later demonstrated greater love, more relationship-maintaining behaviors, more favorable evaluations of the dating relationship, and greater amounts of self-disclosure at the time of initial contact than did couples who broke up. Over time, these differences (as well as others) between couples who did and who did not continue dating intensified. In terms of the types of resources subjects gave and received from their dating partner, more particularistic and more symbolic resources were exchanged in continuing couples only later. Although both continuing and noncontinuing couples showed a decrease in the correlation between the love that members reported, this was offset in continuing daters by increasingly similar reports of reward, equity, and liking. Results are discussed in terms of initial versus gradually evolving differences between continuing and noncontinuing relationships.

Themes in the Study of Self-Disclosure

Compositions for preparing fire retardant polyvinyl chloride films characterized by their unusual combination of low flame spread, low smoke density, reduced permeability for vapor transmission and good cold crack resistance are described. These film forming compositions comprise a blend of about 40-55% polyvinyl chloride, about 7-20% of chlorinated polyethylene, about 4-20% of a phosphate ester plasticizer, about 3-7% of a magnesium hydroxide filler, about 3-6% of zinc borate and about 3-6% of an antimony trioxide fire retardant with various lubricants, pigments and stabilizers being included where desired. The films derived from the above blend enjoy particular utility in preparing vapor barrier constructions for use in the building trade.

Loneliness The Relationship of Self-Disclosure and Androgyny

The relationship of self-disclosure and of psychological masculinity and femininity to the experience of loneliness was examined in a sample of college students. Since both disclosure and sex-typing are important factors in close interpersonal relationships, it was expected that they would also be associated with loneliness the experience of a deficiency in ones social relations. As predicted, loneliness was negatively correlated with past disclosure, willingness to disclose, and social responsiveness, but only for women. High masculinity and high femininity offered protection against loneliness, with androgynous students being least lonely.The relationship of self-disclosure and of psychological masculinity and femininity to the experience of loneliness was examined in a sample of college students. Since both disclosure and sex-typing are important factors in close interpersonal relationships, it was expected that they would also be associated with loneliness the experience of a deficiency in ones social relations. As predicted, loneliness was negatively correlated with past disclosure, willingness to disclose, and social responsiveness, but only for women. High masculinity and high femininity offered protection against loneliness, with androgynous students being least lonely.

Responsiveness and Self-Disclosure

In recent years, the concept of responsiveness has been used in investigations of self-disclosure (e. g., Berg & Archer, 1980, 1983; Davis & Perkowitz, 1979), social exchange phenomena (e. g., Berg, Blaylock, Camarillo, & Steck, 1985; Clark & Mills, 1979; Kelley, 1979), and friendship formation (e. g., Berg & Clark, 1986; Berg & McQuinn, 1986). It is the intent of this chapter to explore the applicability of responsiveness to self-disclosure phenomena in a more extensive and systematic fashion than has been heretofore possible. In doing this, I will first review usages of the term responsiveness and the research that supports its existence as an independent construct. In so doing, a distinction will be made between two general forms of responsiveness: conversational responsiveness and relational responsiveness. The consequences of responsive action and the aspects of an action that lead to its being judged as responsive are then presented. Following this presentation of the concept of responsiveness, various aspects of self-disclosure and findings in the self-disclosure literature will be examined as they relate to responsiveness. Finally, the limitations of present findings dealing with responsiveness and self-disclosure will be noted, and directions for future investigation will be discussed.

Loneliness and Aspects of Social Support Networks

The relationship between loneliness and both structural and social behavioral aspects of social support was investigated in a sample of 150 college students. Loneliness was found to be significantly correlated with self-disclosure and network density for both men and women. Significant correlations between loneliness and network size and network multiplexity were found only for men. Together the four different aspects of the support network accounted for 32 percent of the variance in mens loneliness scores and size, multiplexity, density, and self-disclosure each made significant individual contributions. For women, these four variables together accounted for 19 percent of the variance in loneliness and self-disclosure was the only factor to make a significant individual contribution when controlling for the others.