Perceived Social Support and Individual Differences in the Interpretation and Recall of Supportive Behaviors

Antecedents of perceived support: Is perceived family environment generalized to new social relationships?

“…4 This finding was predicted by a cognitive perspective of perceived social support that hypothesizes that relatively enduring expectancies about social support influence ongoing social information processing (Lakey & Cassady, 1990;Sarason et al, 1990). Moreover, it is consistent with laboratory research generated from this perspective in which low-PSS persons evaluated novel written and videotaped supportive behaviors less favorably than did high-PSS persons (Lakey & Cassady, 1990;Lakey et al, 1992;Pierce et al, 1992). A limitation of these laboratory studies is that their external validity can be questioned.…”

“…Cognitively, highly agreeable persons may be prone to interpret the social behaviors of others as indicating higher levels of support or intimacy. This would be similar to the interpretive biases associated with PSS observed by Lakey and Cassady (1990), Lakey et al (1992), and Pierce et al (1992).…”

“…For example, Lakey and Cassady (1990) have hypothesized that PSS acts in part as a cognitive personality construct that influences the interpretation and recall of novel social interactions. Consistent with this hypothesis, Lakey and Cassady (1990) and Lakey, Moineau, and Drew (1992) found that high-PSS persons interpreted novel supportive stimuli as more helpful than did Iow-PSS persons, and displayed better memory for support-relevant behaviors. Similarly, Pierce, Sarason, and Sarason (1992) found that persons with low PSS interpreted a standardized supportive message delivered by a parent as less supportive than did high-PSS individuals.…”

Three Generalizability Studies of the Components of Perceived Coach Support

“…Perceiver effects might be due to perceptual biases of the perceivers (Lakey & Drew, 1997). For example, Lakey, Moineau, and Drew (1992) found that individuals with characteristically low perceived support rated the supportiveness of videotaped support attempts less favorably than individuals with characteristically high perceived support. Certain personality characteristics such as agreeableness (Lakey et al, 2004) have been associated with target effects.…”

The effects of social support, life events, and demographic factors on depression among Maori and Europeans in New Zealand rural, town, and urban environments

“…Siegert et al reported that their preliminary investigations indicated that the full SSQ is too long for practical use in a questionnaire which combines it with other inventories, and the nature of the items too repetitive for use with non-student samples. It is also important that the inventory should not only list conditions of social support, but also be perceived by the respondents as sources of help when needed (Bell et al, 1982;Ladewig et al, 1990;Lakey, 1989;Lakey & Cassady, 1990;Lakey et al, 1992;Lakey & Dickinson, 1994;Siegert et al 1990;Wetherington & Kessler, 1986). One item, "Being married or if not married, having a close relationship with a person of the opposite sex" was changed to "Having a stable relationship with a person of the opposite sex."…”