Studies on the socialization of American college students indicates a pervasive trend in hookups as opposed to the traditional dating. Hookups are associated with fraternity and sorority parties in which two individuals "hook up" and have a sexual encounter without the commitment of developing a formal relationship. This research was…

Classical guitar ensembles are increasing in the United States as popular alternatives to band, choir, and orchestra. Classical guitar ensembles are offered at many middle and high schools as fine arts electives as one of the only options for classical guitarists to participate in ensembles. The purpose of this study was to explore the development…

Noting that communication scholars have begun to sense the inadequacy of traditional theoretic perspectives to frame the sorts of questions and answers required for a fully articulated theory of interpersonal attraction and relationship development, this paper explores the possibility of applying constructivism to that area. (It defines the…

Exposure to novel stimuli increases one's liking for such stimuli. Response competition is one theory attempting to account for this effect: as a stimulus becomes more familiar, competing responses drop out in favor of one dominant response and the stimulus becomes better liked. Imagery ability refers to the regeneration of responses during…

A study examined the relationship of interpersonal perceptual variables to communication contexts, specifically relationship types. The variables examined were (1) interpersonal solidarity, (2) perceived homophily, (3) uncertainty reduction, (4) feeling good, (5) interpersonal attraction, (6) relational safety, and (7) self-disclosure. The…

Research has demonstrated that attraction to a stranger is a function of the proportion of similar attitudes reported by that stranger. Traditional theories of attraction do not usually differentiate between respect or esteem for another and liking. This study used a 2 x 2 factorial experiment to test the hypothesis that the desire to work with…

Facial attractiveness has been the focus of considerable research in social psychology. Nonverbal behaviors emitted by the face may affect the perceived attractiveness of males and females differently. Visual behavior has particularly important functions in regulating social interaction and in establishing and conveying social power. Power and…

While the influence of competence on interpersonal attraction has been examined from several perspectives, the attraction literature is relatively silent with respect to competitive interactions between the sexes. A study was conducted to examine the roles of competence and physical appearance in liking responses. Male (N=43) and female (N=53)…

The fact that love is so fundamental to the human experience and can affect clients in so many ways suggests that counselors may frequently encounter clients seeking assistance with problems involving love, and that counselors may consequently be interested in scientific inquiry regarding the nature and experience of love. This paper reviews two…

Social exchange theory asserts that satisfaction is not the only factor that determines whether relationships last. Whether or not individuals are happy, interactions are evaluated using a comparison level for alternatives that describes the quality of outcomes judged to be available in the other partnerships. In this study, college students…

Compatibility has recently been conceived as the degree to which partners either facilitate or interfere with each other's interaction goals. Compatability is thus perceived as an on-going process, rather than an end state. A study was conducted to develop an index of compatibility based on pair interaction, where compatibility is conceived as the…

Although there are many typologies of relationship development and love, it is frequently assumed that all break-ups are alike. This longitudinal study examined persons' cognitions regarding early relationship interactions and/or observations which caused them to think about the viability of the relationship. The role of causal attributions in the…

Little is known about the implications of individual differences in privacy preferences. To explore the relationship between privacy preferences and the style and quality of social interaction in a first encounter, 77 of 320 college students completing the Privacy Preference Scale were grouped according to their low (20 male, 20 female) or high…

College students participated in a survey to determine the effect of dyadic communication apprehension and environmental setting on their selection of affinity-seeking strategies in introductory interactions with potential romantic partners. No gender effect was found. The subscale structure of affinity-seeking was not replicated indicating that…

Providing a framework for a symposium exploring the influence of physical attractiveness on the socialization process, this paper (1) offers a working definition of physical attractiveness, (2) reviews stereotypes associated with attractiveness, and (3) discusses a social network perspective on the influence of attractiveness. Physical…