Implicit Theories of Friendships: Examining the Roles of Growth and Destiny Beliefs in Children’s Friendships A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA BY Sara Gayle Kempner IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY W. Andrew Collins, Ph.D., Nicki R. Crick, Ph.D. August 2008 © Sara Gayle Kempner 2008 Acknowledgements I would like to thank my advisors, Andy Collins and Nicki Crick. Andy, thank you for being a mentor and advisor to me and supporting the development of my interests. Your continuing dedication to my education means so much to me. Nicki, you welcomed me into your lab and allowed me to broaden my research experiences. I am grateful for your nurturance and support. I would like to thank my committee members Richard Weinberg and Jeffry Simpson. Rich, you have been a great supporter of all my interests in graduate school. Jeff, it was in your close relationships seminar where the ideas for this project first emerged. Thank you for being a part of this project. I owe a great deal of gratitude to the schools, teachers, and children who participated in this study and shared their thoughts with me. Especially one child who asked me how I was going to use their answers to get a Ph.D. After explaining that I would put their answers into a computer, analyze it, and write a paper the child remarked, “Well that sounds pretty easy!” I would like to thank all the undergraduates who helped collect and enter data. Rachel Kruzel, I do not think I could have done all of this without your enthusiasm and support for this project. I would also like to thank my family who has supported me wholeheartedly through all of my pursuits. Mom and Dad, you have always expected the best from me and done everything you could to make sure I achieved it. I am very lucky to have a wonderful family who is interested in and supportive of my interests. You have been there when I needed you and reminded me that I could do this. Last, but certainly not least, I could not have written this dissertation without my own friends. To my friends who have been supporting me since applying to graduate school seemed like the biggest challenge, you helped make this possible. I am proud and lucky to call you my friends. To the friends that I made in graduate school, your wisdom and support over these years has been invaluable. I am proud to call you my colleagues and friends. i Abstract Individuals formulate implicit theories about the nature of friendships, which influence their motivations and behaviors in friendships. In the present study, a measure of implicit theories of friendship was developed and tested in a sample of 166 sixth grade children. Children also completed measures assessing the importance of friendship qualities as well as specific behaviors in their friendships with their best friends. Results of the study validated the measure of implicit theories of friendship and showed that growth beliefs were positively related to intimacy, conflict resolution and validation and caring in children’s friendships. Destiny beliefs were not directly related to features of children’s friendships. Gender, satisfaction in the friendship, and the length of the friendship moderated the relation between implicit theories of friendship and the importance of friendship qualities and behaviors in the friendship. Implications of the findings as well as developmental considerations are discussed. Future directions for the study of implicit theories of friendship are presented. ii Table of Contents Acknowledgements................................................................................................. i Abstract................................................................................................................... ii List of Tables............................................................................................................ v List of Figures.......................................................................................................... vi Introduction............................................................................................................ 1 The Significance of Friendships................................................................. 1 The Role of Representational Models in Social Behavior.......................... 3 Implicit Theories........................................................................................ 6 Gender Differences................................................................................... 10 Overview and Hypotheses........................................................................ 11 Methods................................................................................................................. 15 Results.................................................................................................................... 22 Discussion............................................................................................................... 36 References............................................................................................................... 50 Appendix A.............................................................................................................. 58 Appendix B.............................................................................................................. 59 Tables...................................................................................................................... 60 Figures..................................................................................................................... 67 iii List of Tables Table 1. Descriptive Characteristics for Scales Table 2. Factor loadings for Implicit Theories of Friendship Measure. Table 3. Correlations between growth and destiny theories for validation purposes. Table 4. Correlations between growth and destiny theories and peer behaviors. Table 5. Correlations between growth and destiny theories and friendship qualities. Table 6. Correlations between implicit theories and friendship qualities by gender. Table 7. Effects of Destiny and Growth scales on Friendship Qualities. iv List of Figures Figure 1. The interaction between destiny and growth beliefs predicting children’s ratings of how upset they would be if there was conflict in their friendship with their best friend. Figure 2. The two‐way interaction between friendship length and growth beliefs predicting the value of conflict resolution in the friendship. Figure 3. The two‐way interaction between friendship length and growth beliefs predicting the value of validation and caring behaviors in the friendship. Figure 4. The three‐way interaction between friendship length and growth and destiny beliefs predicting intimate exchange in the friendship. Figure 5. The two‐way interaction between friendship satisfaction and destiny beliefs predicting relational aggression in the friendship. Figure 6. The two‐way interaction between friendship satisfaction and destiny beliefs predicting levels of conflict, both to and from the best friend. Figure 7. The three‐way interaction between friendship satisfaction and growth and destiny beliefs predicting the importance of conflict resolution in the friendship. Figure 8. The 3‐way interaction between Growth, Destiny, and Gender predicting relational aggression in the friendship. Figure 9. The 3‐way interaction between Growth, Destiny, and Gender predicting intimate exchange in the friendship. Figure 10. The 3‐way interaction between Growth, Destiny, and Gender predicting satisfaction with the friendship. v Introduction Individuals vary in their beliefs and expectations about what a friendship is and how friends should behave. Social cognitive approaches to interpersonal relationships are replete in social psychology research, and while developmental psychologists have studied social cognition with respect to individuals’ functioning, less research has explicitly explored the developmental linkages between social cognition and friendships. In particular, very little is known regarding how individuals formulate theories about the nature of friendships and how these theories influence functioning both in individuals and friendships. One area of research that has focused on how individuals differ in their conceptualizations of attributes is the study of implicit theories (Dweck, Chiu, & Hong, 1995a). Much of the work in this field has focused on achievement and social judgment (Dweck, 2000), but more recently researchers have extended the study of implicit theories to relationships (Franiuk, Cohen, & Pomerantz, 2002; Knee, 1998; Knee, Patrick, & Lonsbary, 2003). This research has shown important connections between individual’s implicit theories of romantic relationships, whether they believe in romantic destiny (destiny beliefs) or relationships develop over time (growth beliefs), and their goals and behavior in romantic relationships. The application of implicit theories to the study of friendships can provide interesting insights into the relation between individual’s theories of friendship and behavior. The goal of the present research is to examine associations between growth and destiny beliefs about friendships and behavior and qualities of children’s friendships. The Significance of Friendships Theoretical arguments have been made for the developmental significance of friendships (Buhrmester & Furman, 1986; Sullivan, 1953). Much of the current work on the 1 significance