Year

2005

Paper Type

Master's Thesis

College

College of Arts and Sciences

Degree Name

Master of Arts in General Psychology (MAGP)

Department

Psychology

First Advisor

Dr. Christopher Leone

Second Advisor

Dr. Lori Lange

Abstract

The relationship between self-monitoring and use of maintenance strategies in friendships was examined. It was hypothesized that low self-monitors would engage in more idealization, report higher degrees of closeness, and report higher degrees of platonic love in their relationships with their best friends than would high self-monitors. Participants (81 females, 61 males) completed Snyder and Gangestad's (1986) revised Self- Monitoring Scale; Edmond's (1967) Marital Conventionalization Scale; Hendrick's (1988) Relationship Assessment Scale; the Diversity and Strength scales of Berscheid, Snyder, & Omoto's (1989) Relationship Closeness Inventory; Aron, Aron, and Allen's (1998) Desirability, Probability, Desirability of the State, and Intensity Scales; and Sternberg's (1988) Triangular Love Scale. Low self-monitors reported engaging in a wider variety of activities with their best friends than did high self-monitors (p < .05), and low self-monitors reported slightly greater levels of satisfaction in their relationships with their best friends than did high self-monitors (p < .07). Plausible alternative explanations for these findings and suggestions for further research are discussed.

Included in

Psychology Commons

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