Consistencies in theoretical and naive evaluations of comforting messages

Abstract

Prior research on comforting communication from the constructivist perspective has employed a hierarchical system of message analysis to classify different comforting strategies; within this system, messages are scored for the extent to which they explicitly acknowledge, elaborate, and legitimize the feelings of distressed others. The present paper reports two studies assessing the extent to which naive actors' perceptions of comforting strategy sensitivity, effectiveness, and quality correspond with the formal analysis of comforting strategy sophistication embedded in the constructivist hierarchical coding scheme. In the first study, 73 female college students interacted with a female confederate who feigned distress over having recently been dropped by her long-term boyfriend. These interactions were videotaped and content analyzed; in addition, both the confederate and an experimental observer rated participants' behaviors for sensitivity. Results indicated that participants employing a greater proportion of theoretically sophisticated comforting strategies were perceived as behaving more sensitively toward the confederate. In the second study, 148 college students were presented with lists of preformulated comforting strategies derived from the constructivist hierarchy and were asked to rate these strategies for "sensitivity" and "effectiveness" and to rank order them in terms of overall quality. Results indicated that respondents rated and rank ordered the strategies in a manner very consistent with the constructivist hierarchical ordering of comforting strategy types: The constructivist ordering of the strategies explained over 95% of the variance in respondents' ratings and rank orderings.

Ethnicity and emotional support in same‐sex friendship: A comparison of Asian‐Americans, African‐Americans, and Euro‐Americans

“…These included (1) being dropped by a long-term boy/girlfriend; (2) failing an important exam; (3) losing a scholarship competition; and (4) coping with a recently announced parental divorce. Each of these situations has been employed in both message construction (e.g., Burleson, 1983;Samter, 1992) and message perception studies (e.g., Burleson & Samter, 1985;Kunkel, 1995); all have beeQ found to reflect realistic instances in which comforting is called for.…”

“…Procedures for assessing participants' perceptions of comforting messages were modeled on those developed by Burleson and Samter (1985). Participants were presented with four randomly ordered hypothetical situations in which a "close, same-sex friend" was portrayed as experiencing some form of emotional distress.…”

“…At the other end of the hierarchy, "elaborated" or "person-centered" comforting strategies not only legitimize particular affective reactions, but also encourage extended articulation of those reactions and attempt to place them in a broader context. Importantly, studies examining people's perceptions of comforting messages indicate that strategies exhibiting a high degree of person-centeredness are actually seen by naive actors as the most sensitive and effective ways of handling emotional distress (e.g., Burleson & Samter, 1985;Kunkel & Burleson, in press;Samter, Burleson, & Murphy, 1987). Consistent with these findings, young adults also view emotion-focused goals (e.g., helping people work through their feelings, allowing them to blow off steam) as more important to pursue during comforting episodes than problem-focused goals (e.g., helping them solve the problem, giving them advicq Kunkel, 1995).…”

A Little Comfort for the Theoretically Distressed: A Follow-Up to Burleson et al.'s Response

“…The core tenet of the Burleson and Samter (1985) hierarchy of comforting strategies is that higher-level comforting responses are superior to lower-level responses. And as Burleson et al note, there is a tremendous amount of research supporting this assumption.…”

“…When giving a course lecture on social support, the Burleson and Samter (1985) hierarchy of comforting strategies is always included, as is previous comforting research. Invariably, a student will comment, ''If I failed an exam, I wouldn't need to hear a level nine response.''…”