Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Self-Structuring of Support: An Examination of Support Networks under Stress

本论文改进研究的目的是研究个人如何积极地重组他们的社会网络，以应对生活压力源，在这种情况下是艾滋病毒诊断。基于社会学和心理学对网络演化的研究、心理学和社会学对压力的研究以及社会心理学对社会支持的研究，提出了网络重构理论。根据这一理论，预测在面对生活压力时：(1)社会支持网络变小；(2)社会支持网络更加密集（即网络成员之间的关系比例更大）；(3)信息和社会支持网络变得更加相似（即，同时出现在两个网络中的个体数量增加）。该研究使用从个人收集的数据来调查这些假设，这些数据将在自愿的基础上从3000多名感染艾滋病毒的高风险男性或已经感染艾滋病毒的男性中收集。对参与者进行半结构化访谈，以获取他们不同类型网络的信息（即，积极的社会情感支持，消极的社会情感支持，信息支持和知情者）。多元统计技术将被用于分析访谈数据。＊＊＊

9612326 Carley The aim of this Dissertation Improvement research is to examine how individuals actively restructure their social networks in response to a life stressor, in this case an HIV diagnosis. A theory of network restructuring is proposed that is based on work in sociology and psychology on network evolution, in psychology and sociology on stress, and in social psychology on social support. According to this theory, it is predicted that in response to a life stressor: (1) the social support network becomes smaller; (2) the social support network becomes more dense (i.e., there are a greater proportion of relationships among the members of the network); and (3) informational and social support networks become more similar (i.e., the number of individuals who co-occur in both networks increases). The research investigates these hypotheses using data collected from individuals who will be gathered on a voluntary basis from a subject pool of more than 3000 men who are at high risk of infection or are already infected with HIV. A semi-structured interview will be conducted with participants to solicit information on their different types of networks (i.e., positive socio-emotional support, negative socio-emotional support, informational support, and the informed). Multivariate statistical techniques will be used to analyze the interview data. ***