| Social support has been defined as talk that aids people, by either helping during a stressful time or by buffering people from the negative effects of stress. Unlike most previous research, the dissertation uses dialectical theory; the study explores the ways that help itself can be hurtful or otherwise unhelpful.;The findings suggest that helping conversations are commonly experienced as contradictory. Through an inductive analysis of two hundred and fourteen retrospectively-reported conversations, a broad range of contradictions emerged (i.e., the informants recalled many unified oppositions in supportive talk). The dissertation explores the substantial variation in the form and content of these contradictions. In particular, there were seven types of Openness/Closedness contradictions. These conversations were animated by the tension between sharing and openness on one hand and privacy and protection on the other. The dissertation also explores Autonomy/Connection contradictions (four different types), involving the tension between intimacy and closeness with distance. For example, some conversations were animated by helpful/nonhelpful autonomy, when support providers withheld judgment, encouraging the support seeker to "make up their own mind.";The vast majority of codable conversations were animated by multiple contradictions. In addition to the two above contradictions, Rawlins (1992, Friendship matters: Communication, dialectics, and the life course. New York: Walter de Gruyter) dialectic of the Real and the Ideal was present. The choices that participants made in response to the above contradictions (the 'reality' of their conversation) were opposed by an absent, ideal (what they 'should have' chosen). Thus, the Ideal/Real contradiction and the Openness/Closedness (or Autonomy/Connection) contradictions overlapped. In addition to discussing this theoretical advance, other extensions to dialectically-informed scholarship are addressed in the dissertation.;Besides adding to dialectical theory, speaking to the social support field, and suggesting avenues for future research, the dissertation also has practical implications for support seekers, recipients, and providers. The analysis suggests that there may not always be "perfect help." Furthermore, it is suggested that positive ideologies of personal relationships may complicate the social support process, creating unrealistic ideals that frustrate both support providers and recipients. |
