Developmental Psychology: Social Relationships

• Lecture on developmental psychology; social relations in the winter semester of 2024/2025

Topics Covered

• Questions, concepts, perspectives
• Methodological principles
• Prenatal development and the first years of life
• Cognitive development in childhood
• Development in adulthood
• Higher and old age
• Goals and adaptation
• Social relationships
• Cognitive development in adulthood
• Ambulatory Assessment
• Well-being
• Stress and stress regulation
• Buffers, summary, questions

Lecture on Social Relationships, Contents

• Selected theoretical perspectives
• Socioemotional selectivity theory
• Changes in social networks
• Loneliness

Learning Objectives

• Understanding the significance of social relationships for psychological adaptation processes
• Understanding the core assumptions of Socioemotional Selectivity Theory (SST) and how to test these
• Understanding how the composition of social networks and the feeling of loneliness change over the lifespan, and potential explanations for these changes

Theoretical Perspectives

• The pursuit of social relationships is considered a fundamental psychological need
• "Need to belong" hypothesis states that humans have a pervasive drive to form and maintain at least a minimum quantity of lasting, positive, and significant interpersonal relationships
• "Need for relatedness' refers to the desire to feel connected to others, to love and care, and to be loved and cared for
• Empirical evidence shows robust effects of social belonging on well-being and health
• Social relationships are not static over the lifespan
• Social relationships vary throughout young adulthood (e.g., moving, partnership)
• Social relationships vary during middle adulthood (e.g., professional environment, retirement, divorce)
• Social relationships vary through older adulhood (e.g., widowhood, grandparenthood, need for care)
• Developmental contextual framework is the functional change of Social relations depending on the life span

Attachment Theory

• During the first year of life, infants develop a specific emotional bond with a primary caregiver or person
• Internal working models consist of generalized representations of attachment-related experiences and internalized experiences that determine social expectations
• The attachment style learned in early development functions as a working model for further relationships over the lifespan
• Empirical findings show that attachment is not constant across different relationships; the same person is attached differently in different relationships

Convoy Model

• Individuals "move" through their lives accompanied by a convoy of other people
• Convoys are dynamic, with inner circles being more stable than outer ones
• Central function of the convoy: exchange of emotional and instrumental support
• Convoys change with altered life conditions:
• Increase in young adulthood and during Marriage
• Decrease when divorced
• Variations when children leave or arrive

Socioemotional Selectivity Theory

• SST (Carstensen, 1995) as one of the most important theories in the context of socio-emotional development in aging
• People's motivation shifts as they age, focusing more on emotional fulfillment
• Two motives for social relationships: information seeking and emotion regulation
• Information seeking involves growing social networks and Investing in the Future
• Emotion regulation involves concentrating on emotionally close interaction partners
• Investing in well-being and valuing what one have
• Core thesis of SST: time perception determines which of the two motives becomes activated
• Perception of time as expansive leads to information seeking
• Perception of time as limited/finite leads to emotion regulation

SST Implications

• People with limited future perspectives focus on the here and now instead of the future
• Focus on investing the time remaining as efficiently as possible
• Superficial or non emotionally rewarding relationships are removed
• Meaningful activities over future investments
• Attempting to optimize emotional well-being

Empirical studies of socioemotional selectivity theory

• The SST explains how preferences for specific types of social interaction also change with age
• Older people may prefer familiar partners when they perceive a limited time horizon
• SST-principles were measured with a study among 206 younger participants (8-45) and 196 older participants (46-93)
• SST-principles were measured with a study among 91 younger participants (10-39) and 87 older participants (40-90)
• SST-principles were measured in Hong Kong (transition from UK → China)
• An anticipated end to colonial rule resulted in an altered time perspective

Further Applications of SST

• The SST can be applied to explain findings in areas such as information processing (age differences in preferences for positive vs. negative stimuli) and well-being

Changes in Social Networks

• Motives of Social Relations lead to a composition of the network
• Critical Life Events lead to a composition of the network
• Longitudinal data showed that approximately 1/3 of the relations that were disconnected were due to mortality

Changes in Social Networks over Adulthood

• A cross-sectional study (Berliner Altersstudie: N = 206 between 70 and 103 Years)
• Changes in the size of the network occur throughout adulthood
• The size of the family network stays steady
• The size of friendship networks often decreases

Critical Life Events and Social Networks

• Changes in social networks after critical life events, such as starting a job and retiring, indicate social changes
• Marriage and Divorce as an indicator
• The birth of children indicate social changes

Loneliness

• A higher number of social relationships and frequency of social activities do not necessarily predict loneliness
• Loneliness is not equate with the mere absence of social interactions
• Loneliness = subjective evaluation of lacking relationship quality or quantity

Data on Loneliness

• Data from the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP), N = 16,132 (cross-sectional study) and the General Social Survey in the USA, (N = 2,440 [cross-sectional]) showed similar findings
• A correlation of social media usage and age of subject were found in the studies

Findings on Loneliness

• Meta-analyses across different study types (longitudinal and cross sectional) show a similar image
• Meta-analysis (1976–2019) showed An increase in loneliness by 0.56 standard deviations

Summary

• Social relationships play a significant role in positive psychological development across the lifespan
• The SST posits that altered time horizons change the motives for social interactions (information gain vs. emotion regulation)
• Networks change over the lifespan, partially initiated by the person and partially by the occurrence of age-correlated life events
• Complex interactions of age, cohort, and period effects impact loneliness