The present article applies Cobb’s original formulation of the social support construct and elaborates a theoretical and empirical framework employing the interpersonal circumplex model that has proved useful for elucidating concepts and measures from a variety of research traditions. In a series of studies, 1,040 undergraduate students completed self-report questionnaires indicating their likelihood of performing various support actions. A circumplex structure was obtained that was both substantively and structurally auspicious and that provided a taxonomic framework within which 12 extant social support subscales and 15 personality characteristics were clarified. The Support Actions Scale Circumplex (SAS-C) assesses a broad range of social support behavior, including both the potentially protective and deleterious effects of interpersonal transactions.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Alden, L. E. , & Capreol, M. J. (1993). Avoidant personality disorder: Interpersonal problems as predictors of treatment response. Behavior Therapy, 24, 357-376.
2.
Anchin, J. C. , & Kiesler, D. J. (1982). Handbook of interpersonal psychotherapy. Elmsford, NY: Pergamon.
3.
Bakan, D. (1966). The duality of human existence: Isolation and communion in Western man. Boston: Beacon.
4.
Barrera, M., Jr. , & Ainlay, S. L. (1983). The structure of social support: A conceptual and empirical analysis. Journal of Community Psychology, 11, 133-143.
5.
Barrera, M., Jr. , Sandler, I. N., & Ramsay, T. B. (1981). Preliminary development of a scale of social support: Studies on college students. American Journal of Community Psychology, 9, 435-447.
6.
Bartholomew, K. , & Horowitz, L. M. (1991). Attachment styles among young adults: A test of a four-category model. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 61, 226-244.
7.
Blatt, S. J. , & Zuroff, D. C. (1992). Interpersonal relatedness and self-definition: Two prototypes for depression. Clinical Psychology Review, 12, 527-562.
8.
Block, J. (1995). A contrarian view of the five-factor approach to personality description. Psychological Bulletin, 117, 187-215.
9.
Buss, D. M. (1984). Marital assortment for personality dispositions: Assessment with three different data sources. Behavior Genetics, 14, 111-122.
10.
Buss, D. M. , Gomes, M., Higgins, D. S., & Lauterbach, K. (1987). Tactics of manipulation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52, 1219-1229.
11.
Caplan, G. (1974). Support systems and community mental health: Lectures on concept development. New York: Behavioral Publications.
12.
Cassel, J. C. (1974). Psychiatric epidemiology. In S. Arieti & G. Caplan (Eds.), American handbook of psychiatry: Vol. 2. Child and adolescent psychiatry, sociocultural and community psychiatry (2nd ed., pp. 401-410). New York: Basic Books.
13.
Cassel, J. (1976). The contribution of the social environment to host resistance. American Journal of Epidemiology, 104, 107-123.
14.
Cobb, S. (1975). Epilogue: Meditations on psychosomatic medicine. International Journal of Psychiatry in Medicine, 6, 331-336.
15.
Cobb, S. (1976). Social support as a moderator of life stress. Psychosomatic Medicine, 38, 300-314.
16.
Cohen, S. , & Hoberman, H. M. (1983). Positive events and social support as buffers of life change stress. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 13, 99-125.
17.
Coyne, J. C. (1976). Toward an interactional description of depression. Psychiatry, 39, 28-40.
18.
Cutrona, C. E. (1986). Behavioral manifestations of social support: A microanalytic investigation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51, 201-208.
19.
Dakof, G. A. , & Taylor, S. E. (1990). Victims’ perceptions of social support: What is helpful from whom?Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 58, 80-89.
20.
Davis, M. H. (1980). A multidimensional approach to individual differences in empathy. JSAS Catalog of Selected Documents in Psychology, 10, 85.
21.
Foa, U. G. , & Foa, E. B. (1974). Societal structures of the mind. Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas.
22.
Ford, D. H. , & Urban, H. B. (1963). Systems of psychotherapy: A comparative study. New York: John Wiley.
23.
Freedman, M. B. , Leary, T. F., Ossario, A. G., & Coffey, H. S. (1951). The interpersonal dimension of personality. Journal of Personality, 20, 143-161.
24.
Gifford, R. (1991). Mapping nonverbal behavior on the Interpersonal Circle. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 61, 279-288.
25.
Gottlieb, B. H. (1978). The development and application of a classification scheme of informal helping behaviors. Canadian Journal of Behavioral Science, 10, 105-115.
26.
Gurtman, M. B. (1991). Evaluating the interpersonalness of personality scales. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 17, 670-677.
27.
Gurtman, M. B. (1992). Construct validity of interpersonal personality measures: The Interpersonal Circumplex as a nomological net. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 63, 105-118.
28.
Gurtman, M. B. , & Balakrishnan, J. D. (1998). Circular measurement redux: The analysis and interpretation of interpersonal circle profiles. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 5, 344-360.
29.
Hirsch, B. J. (1980). Natural support systems and coping with major life changes. American Journal of Community Psychology, 8, 159-172.
30.
Hobfoll, S. E. (1988). The ecology of stress. Washington, DC: Hemisphere.
31.
Horowitz, L. M. , Locke, K. D., Morse, M. B., Waikar, S. V., Dryer, D. C., Tarnow, E., & Ghannam, J. (1991). Self-derogations and interpersonal theory. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 61, 68-79.
32.
House, J. S. (1981). Work, stress, and social support. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
33.
House, J. S. , & Kahn, R. L. (1985). Measures and concepts of social support. In S. Cohen & S. L. Syme (Eds.), Social support and health (pp. 83-108). Orlando, FL: Academic Press.
34.
Johnson, R. , Hobfoll, S. E., & Zalcberg-Linetzy, A. (1993). Social support knowledge and behavior and relational intimacy: A dyadic study. Journal of Family Psychology, 6, 266-277.
35.
Kahn, R. L. , & Antonucci, T. C. (1981). Convoys of social support: A life course approach. In S. B. Kiesler, J. N. Morgan, & V. K. Oppenheimer (Eds.), Aging: Social change. New York: Academic Press.
36.
Kiesler, D. J. (1983). The 1982 Interpersonal Circle: A taxonomy for complementarity in human transactions. Psychological Review, 90, 185-214.
37.
Kiesler, D. J. (1988). Therapeutic metacommunication: Therapist impact disclosure as feedback in psychotherapy. Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologists Press.
38.
Kiesler, D. J. (1996). Contemporary interpersonal theory and research: Personality, psychopathology, and psychotherapy. New York: John Wiley.
39.
LaForge, R. , Leary, T. F., Naboisek, H., Coffey, H. S., & Freedman, M. B. (1954). The interpersonal dimension of personality: II. An objective study of repression. Journal of Personality, 23, 129-153.
40.
Leary, T. (1957). Interpersonal diagnosis of personality. New York: Ronald Press.
41.
Moskowitz, D. S. (1994). Cross-situational generality and the interpersonal circumplex. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 66, 921-933.
42.
Muran, J. C. , Segal, Z. V., Samstag, L. W., & Crawford, C. E. (1994). Patient pretreatment interpersonal problems and therapeutic alliance in short-term cognitive therapy. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 62, 185-190.
43.
Pierce, G. R. , Sarason, B. R., & Sarason, I. G. (1992). General and specific support expectations and stress as predictors of perceived supportiveness: An experimental study. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 63, 297-307.
44.
Reis, H. T. (1984). Social interaction and well-being. In S. W. Duck (Ed.), Personal relationships: Repairing personal relationships (Vol. 5, pp. 21-45). London: Academic Press.
45.
Rook, K. S. (1984). The negative side of social interaction: Impact on psychological well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54, 438-446.
46.
Rook, K. S. (1990). Parallels in the study of social support and social strain. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 9, 118-132.
47.
Rook, K. S. , & Pietromonaco, P. (1987). Close relationships: Ties that heal or ties that bind? In W. H. Jones & D. Perlman (Eds.), Advances in personal relationships (Vol. 1, pp. 1-35). Greenwich, CT: JAI.
48.
Rosen, A. S. (1992). The circle as a model for the interpersonal domain of Swedish trait terms. European Journal of Psychology, 6, 283-299.
49.
Ryan, R. M. , & Solky, J. A. (1996). What is supportive about social support? On the psychological needs for autonomy and relatedness. In G. R. Pierce, B. R. Sarason, & I. G. Sarason (Eds.), Handbook of social support and the family (pp. 249-267). New York: Plenum.
50.
Sarason, B. R. , Pierce, G. R., & Sarason, I. G. (1990). Social support: The sense of acceptance and the role of relationships. In B. R. Sarason, I. G. Sarason, & G. R. Pierce (Eds.), Social support: An interactional view (pp. 97-128). New York: John Wiley.
51.
Sarason, B. R. , Sarason, I. G., & Pierce, G. R. (1990). Traditional views of social support and their impact on assessment. In B. R. Sarason, I. G. Sarason, & G. R. Pierce (Eds.), Social support: An interactional view (pp. 9-25). New York: John Wiley.
52.
Sarason, I. G. , Sarason, B. R., & Pierce, G. R. (1990). Social support: The search for theory. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 9, 133-147.
53.
Schumaker, S. A. , & Brownell, A. (1984). Toward a theory of social support: Closing conceptual gaps. Journal of Social Issues, 40, 11-36.
54.
Sullivan, H. S. (1953). The interpersonal theory of psychiatry. New York: Norton.
55.
Tolsdorf, C. C. (1976). Social networks, support, and coping: An exploratory study. Family Process, 15, 407-417.
56.
Trapnell, P. D. , & Wiggins, J. S. (1990). Extension of the Interpersonal Adjective Scales to include the Big Five dimensions of personality. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 59, 781-790.
57.
Trobst, K. K. (1991). Determinants of support provision: Interaction of provider and recipient factors. Unpublished master’s thesis, University of British Columbia.
58.
Trobst, K. K. , Collins, R. L., & Embree, J. M. (1994). The role of emotion in social support provision: Gender, empathy, and expressions of distress. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 11, 45-62.
59.
Trobst, K. K. , & Hemphill, K. J. (2000). Raising questions regarding social support processes: Provisional answers from an interpersonal analysis of chronic fatigue syndrome patients and their providers. Unpublished manuscript.
60.
Vaux, A. (1988). Social support: Theory, research, and intervention. New York: Praeger.
61.
Vaux, A. , Riedel, S., & Stewart, D. (1987). Modes of social support: The Social Support Behaviors (SS-B) Scale. American Journal of Community Psychology, 15, 209-237.
62.
Weiss, R. S. (1974). The provisions of social relationships. In Z. Rubin (Ed.), Doing unto others (pp. 17-26). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
63.
Wiggins, J. S. (1979). A psychological taxonomy of trait-descriptive terms: The interpersonal domain. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 37, 395-412.
64.
Wiggins, J. S. (1980). Circumplex models of interpersonal behavior. In L. Wheeler (Ed.), Review of personality and social psychology (Vol. 1, pp. 265-294). Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
65.
Wiggins, J. S. (1982). Circumplex models of interpersonal behavior in clinical psychology. In P. C. Kendall & J. N. Butcher (Eds.), Handbook of research methods in clinical psychology (pp. 183-221). New York: John Wiley.
66.
Wiggins, J. S. (1991). Agency and communion as conceptual coordinates for the understanding and measurement of interpersonal behavior. In W. Grove & D. Cicchetti (Eds.), Thinking clearly about psychology: Essays in honor of Paul E. Meehl (Vol. 2, pp. 89-113). Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
67.
Wiggins, J. S. (1995). Interpersonal Adjective Scales: Professional manual. Odessa, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources.
68.
Wiggins, J. S. (1997). Circumnavigating Dodge Morgan’s interpersonal style. Journal of Personality, 65, 1069-1086.
69.
Wiggins, J. S. , & Broughton, R. (1991). A geometric taxonomy of personality scales. European Journal of Personality, 5, 343-365.
70.
Wiggins, J. S. , Phillips, N., & Trapnell, P. D. (1989). Circular reasoning about interpersonal behavior: Evidence concerning some untested assumptions underlying diagnostic classification. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 56, 296-305.
71.
Wiggins, J. S. , & Pincus, A. L. (1994). Personality structure and the structure of personality disorders. In P. T. Costa, Jr., & T. A. Widiger (Eds.), Personality disorders and the five-factor model of personality (pp. 73-93). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
72.
Wiggins, J. S. , & Trapnell, P. D. (1996). A dyadic-interactional perspective on the five-factor model. In J. S. Wiggins (Ed.), The five-factor model of personality: Theoretical perspectives (pp. 88-162). New York: Guilford.
73.
Wiggins, J. S. , & Trobst, K. K. (1997a). Prospects for the assessment of normal and abnormal interpersonal behavior. Journal of Personality Assessment, 68, 109-125.
74.
Wiggins, J. S. , & Trobst, K. K. (1997b). When is a circumplex an “interpersonal circumplex”? The case of supportive actions. In R. Plutchik & H. R. Conte (Eds.), Circumplex models of personality and emotions (pp. 57-80). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
75.
Wiggins, J. S. , & Trobst, K. K. (1998). Principles of personality assessment. In A. Bellack, M. Hersen, & C. Reynolds (Eds.), Comprehensive clinical psychology (Vol. 4, pp. 349-370). Oxford, UK: Pergamon.
