Social Network Size: The Effect of Construal Priming on Social Groups

Four studies examined how people group their relationships with other people and how social groups are structured. Study 1 provided a baseline for the number and types of social groups that individuals construct as their social network. Studies 2 and 3 examined whether construal mindset changes the way people sort their relationships. I expected that individuals adopting an abstract mindset would report having fewer, more vague social groups (e.g., "friends”), compared to those adopting a concrete mindset, who would report more, specific groups (e.g., "school friends"). Results suggested that construal mindset did not affect social group structures. As a follow-up on this unexpected result, a comparison of the effect of construal on social-groups-sorting versus household-object-sorting confirmed that construal mindset’s influence might simply not extend to cognition about social groups (Study 4). Together, these studies suggest that while social group structures are malleable they are not significantly shifted by construal mindset.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts (M.A.)

Level thesis:degree_level

Master's

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Psychology

Grantor dc:publisher

Carleton University

Year dc:date.issued

2014

Author dc:creator

• Bacev-Giles, Chantal

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright © 2014 the author(s). Theses may be used for non-commercial research, educational, or related academic purposes only. Such uses include personal study, research, scholarship, and teaching. Theses may only be shared by linking to Carleton University Institutional Repository and no part may be used without proper attribution to the author. No part may be used for commercial purposes directly or indirectly via a for-profit platform; no adaptation or derivative works are permitted without consent from the copyright owner.

Language dc:language.iso

en

DOI

10.22215/etd/2014-10255

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:carleton.scholaris.ca:20.500.14718/32315