We explored age differences in the amount of personal effort that people put forth to maintain relationships across adulthood in diverse family-life contexts. More specifically, we examined how personal effort in social relationships is age-differently related to emotional closeness and perceptions of reciprocity. A total of 658 early-midlife (37 years) and old-age adults (73 years) from three ...

As the philosopher Bertrand Russell observed, power plays a central role in everyday social interactions, and it serves as an organizing principle in the social and behavioral sciences (Reis, Collins, & Berscheid, 2000). Given its paramount importance, one might expect power would hold a privileged place in the field of social psychology and particularly in the study of relationships. Although ...

I am interested in what literature exists on the topic of romantic relationships seen through a social exchange theory perspective. This piece will begin by explaining social exchange theory and the way it has been used for understanding intimate relationships. The article will then cover specific topics that have an impact on romantic relationships including partner selection, trust building, ...

If a picture is worth a thousand words, how much are twenty seven thousand photos worth? We believe that they can help tell the life history of a person. In this paper we present a depiction of Dr. Ben Shneiderman’s life based on a Network Analysis of MyLifePix, a highly curated collection of more than twenty seven thousand of his pictures that show the world from his camera lens. In this analy...

Brains are complex networks. Previously, we revealed that specific connected structures are either significantly abundant or rare in cortical networks. However, it remains unknown whether systems from other disciplines have similar architectures to brains. By applying network-theoretical methods, here we show topological similarities between brain and social networks. We found that the statisti...

Many recent large-scale studies of interaction networks have focused on networks of accumulated contacts. In this paper we explore social networks of ongoing relationships with an emphasis on dynamical aspects. We find a distribution of response times (times between consecutive contacts of different direction between two actors) that has a power-law shape over a large range. We also argue that ...

Previous research has demonstrated the importance of intimate partner support and criticism to health, but less is known about how these behaviors are regulated and expressed in relationships. The present research examines individual differences and social cognitive processes that may shape support and criticism in romantic relationships. Chapter 1 describes a study designed to test gender diff...

Reflection on one’s own behaviour and practice is an important aspect of lifelong learning. However, such practice and the underlying assumed principles are often hidden from the learner’s vision, and are therefore difficult to evaluate. Social interactions with others stimulate the learner to re-asses and reflect on the nature of the learner’s own behaviour and practice, such as in professiona...