Year
2021
Season
Spring
Paper Type
Master's Thesis
College
College of Arts and Sciences
Degree Name
Master of Science in Psychological Science (MSPS)
Department
Psychology
NACO controlled Corporate Body
University of North Florida. Department of Psychology
First Advisor
Dr. Christopher Leone
Second Advisor
Dr. Paul Fuglestad
Rights Statement
http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
Abstract
Based on the self-monitoring and friendship literature (Fuglestad & Snyder, 2010) it was predicted that compared to low self-monitors, high self-monitors have an unrestricted orientation to sexual liaisons and view friendships as activity-based. These two tendencies suggest high self-monitors are more likely than low self-monitors to initiate opposite sex friendships for sexual purposes whereas low self-monitors are more likely than high self-monitors to initiate opposite sex friendships for companionship purposes. To evaluate this prediction, 133 male and 135 female heterosexuals completed the 25 item Self-Monitoring Scale (Snyder, 1974), the Reasons for Friendship Initiation Scale (Bleske-Rechek & Buss, 2001), and the Sociosexual Orientation Inventory (Simpson & Gangestad, 1991; Penke & Aspendorf, 2008). While controlling for sociosexuality, high self-monitors more often than low self-monitors initiated opposite sex friendships for sexual gratification, while there was no significant relationship between self-monitoring and companionship. Limitations (e.g., nonexperimental design, self-report, unrepresentative sample), and future directions (e.g., longitudinal designs, behavioral observations, diverse samples) are discussed.
Suggested Citation
Masterson, Abigail P., "Opposite Sex Friendship Initiation: Dispositional Differences in Self-Monitoring" (2021). UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations. 1018.
https://digitalcommons.unf.edu/etd/1018