Leckfor, Christina
(2020)
Intimate Conversation Leads to Greater Social Bonding in Both Face-to-Face and Texting Exchanges.
Master's Thesis, University of Pittsburgh.
(Unpublished)
Abstract
Texting has become a common way for people to communicate with one another, yet its effects on social bonding are not well understood. It is important to understand how texting affects intimacy development because intimacy is important for fostering feelings of validation, understanding, and caring within a relationship (Reis & Shaver, 1998). Using the fast-friends paradigm developed by Aron and colleagues (1997), the present research (N = 568) examines if intimacy can be developed over text message, and how texting communication compares to face-to-face interactions. Results from this study suggest that, even though in-person conversation is generally better for social bonding than texting, having an intimate conversation over text promotes social bonding to a greater extent than small-talk over text. When comparing face-to-face and texting communication more directly, results from this study suggest that having an intimate texting conversation leads to a similar degree of social bonding as having a small-talk face-to-face conversation. These findings have important implications for understanding how people should engage in conversations in daily life. This study also provides evidence that the fast-friends paradigm can be successfully implemented through a text-based medium, which could be used to carry out text-based intimacy interventions.
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Details
| Item Type: |
University of Pittsburgh ETD
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| Status: |
Unpublished |
| Creators/Authors: |
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| ETD Committee: |
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| Date: |
8 June 2020 |
| Date Type: |
Publication |
| Defense Date: |
25 March 2020 |
| Approval Date: |
8 June 2020 |
| Submission Date: |
2 April 2020 |
| Access Restriction: |
No restriction; Release the ETD for access worldwide immediately. |
| Number of Pages: |
63 |
| Institution: |
University of Pittsburgh |
| Schools and Programs: |
Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences > Psychology |
| Degree: |
MS - Master of Science |
| Thesis Type: |
Master's Thesis |
| Refereed: |
Yes |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: |
social bonding, intimacy, self-disclosure, face-to-face, computer-mediated communication |
| Date Deposited: |
08 Jun 2020 15:16 |
| Last Modified: |
08 Jun 2020 15:16 |
| URI: |
http://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/id/eprint/38556 |
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