Friendship establishment was analyzed using constructs from social cognitive theory and social network theory. In further studies, we investigated the effect of personality traits, interpersonal self-efficacy, and network structure on the establishment of friendships. In this study, we used social network analysis method and exponential random graph model. The following findings are reported. First, the friendship network of college students had small group characteristics, and the formation of this small group was more based on personality complementarity than similarity. The homogeneity (...) hypothesis of personality was not tenable. Secondly, individuals with dominance or influence personality traits and high interpersonal self-efficacy were more likely to be in the center of the friendship network. Furthermore, personality traits and interpersonal self-efficacy may have interactive effects on the formation of friendship networks. Popularity and activity effects existed in friendship networks, but the reciprocal relationship based on personality traits was not verified. The balance structure can easily explain the agglomeration of friendships in a small range, indicating that small groups of friendships prefer a two-way circular close relationship. Finally, the formation of a friendship network includes the comprehensive process of individual characteristics and endogenous tie formation, which helps us to understand the social population structure and its process over a wider range. (shrink)

Studies have shown that narcissistic individuals are more likely to become leaders in uncertain situations, while few studies paid attention to the relational mechanism, linking a narcissistic leader with subordinates and team attitudes and behaviors. Based on the “guanxi” and dominance complementarity theory, we examined the influencing mechanism of narcissistic leaders on subordinates and team followership. Two-wave data collected from 326 employees in the manufacturing and technology industry in China supported our hypothesized model. We have found that narcissistic leaders have (...) a negative impact on followership and TF of subordinates; Supervisor–subordinate guanxi and team leadership relationship identity play a partial mediating role between narcissistic leadership and subordinates and team followership. Furthermore, individual and team values play a moderating role in the process of influencing a mechanism. In other words, the higher the individual tradition and team power distance, the less negative impact of leader narcissism on SSG and team leadership relationship identity. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. We also offer several promising directions for future research. (shrink)

Healthy relationships are important to functioning in daily life and across the life-span. Personality factors could predict relationship satisfaction through the influence of individuals’ relationship schemas and perceptions of their partners. Given the potential importance of attachment styles to relationship mechanisms and the well-established relationship between attachment and interpersonal behavior, interpersonal traits may influence relationship satisfaction directly. According to Leary’s interpersonal reflex theory, any interpersonal act elicits responses from the other person that verify, validate, or otherwise reinforce the actor’s own (...) self-image and self-presentation, and thus increase the probability that the actor will emit similar interpersonal acts in future interactions. The Impact Message Inventory attempts to measure individuals’ perceptions of how others impact them by evoking interpersonal acts such as dominance and affiliation. This study examined the influence of perceived partner-evoked behavior and individuals’ own interpersonal styles on relationship satisfaction. This study used IMI measures of evoked Dominance and Affiliation as well as revised Liking and Loving measures to predict relationship satisfaction using three different satisfaction outcome measures. The final analyses included 291 participants who completed a scantron survey. Partner impact, or the interpersonal behaviors, evoked from the individual during interaction, predicted relationship satisfaction well. Evoked affiliation was the most consistently strong predictor of satisfaction across all three outcome measures. Liking is a stronger predictor of relationship satisfaction than is loving, and it is significant across all three outcome measures. The liking measure appears to reflect a relatively high level of reward in the relationship and intrinsic enjoyment of the partner’s company without the comparative cost of loving. Future research should examine interactions between couples, moving beyond intrapsychic self-reports of perceived experiences and feelings, although these are important in their own right. (shrink)

A positive teacher-student relationship that is characterized by mutual trust, warmth, and teacher support (= proximity) as well as clear limits for student behavior (= influence) is considered central for students’ cognitive and psychosocial development and this assumption has widely been supported empirically. However, these studies largely focused on domain-specific student outcomes such as achievement or interest in particular subjects and less so on general aspects of school adjustment such as school satisfaction or self-esteem. At the same time, the teacher-student (...) relationship can also be considered vital for teachers: Teachers who perceive difficulties in controlling student behavior report reduced occupational well-being. In addition, the teachers’ need to feel appreciated and liked by students is increasingly emphasized as an important resource for their occupational well-being. However, this assumption has not been investigated sufficiently. Therefore, the present work addressed the question of whether the teacher-student relationship in terms of proximity and influence is associated with students’ general school adjustment and teachers’ occupational well-being. Results from study 1 revealed that teacher proximity and influence were associated with students’ general school adjustment in terms of achievement, school satisfaction, truancy, and self-esteem. Study 2 showed that teachers who perceived difficulties in controlling student behavior and who felt unappreciated by students reported lower work enthusiasm and higher emotional exhaustion. In Study 3, teachers who felt related with their students reported higher work enthusiasm, whereas no association with their emotional exhaustion was found. The present work underlined the importance of the teacher-student relationship for both students’ school adjustment and teachers’ occupational well-being. (shrink)

Theory of Mind is a mental process which can be critical to the understanding of the maintenance of psychic disorders and can have implications for their treatment. The idea of a conceptual organisation of the Theory of Mind is supported by current research from Developmental Psychology. We could show that Theory of Mind seems to develop with the understanding of identity and is based on a common conceptual basis: the understanding of the relationship between reference and representation. Theory of Mind (...) means the ability to ascribe and reflect own mental states and mental states of others. The concept "Theory of Mind" is used very heterogeneousl and is defined very broadly in the research with adults. The aim of this work is to describe the theoretical and conceptual basis of the Theory of Mind and to show its importance for the Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Chronic Depression with regards to aetiology concept as well as for its implications in the specific therapy methods [Dialectic Trauma Therapy of and the Cognitive Behavioral Analysis System for Psychotherapy ]. I will take into account the attachment theory, the ability of perspective-taking and the integration of paradoxical information as well as the meaning of trauma as a determining factor in the organisation of the Theory of Mind. The differentiation between reference and representation forms the basis of the ability of perspective-taking as well as understanding identity. This work shows related concepts as well as established assumptions about the organisation of the Theory of Mind and Mentalizing and introduces a meta-representational concept to distinguish between reference and representation. The environment is seen as an external source of supply to the formation of mental representation. This work intends a systematic processing of the conceptual fundament of the Theory of Mind as a basis for the use in the clinical-therapeutic area. (shrink)