Social support and schematic processing: Priming effects on support-related cognitions and mood

Two studies examined whether the schematic processes associated with perceived social support (PSS) influence cognitions and mood. Participants were classified as negative schematic (low in PSS and indicating PSS is very important), aschematics (moderate in PSS and not believing it is important), positive schematic (high in PSS and believing it is very important). In the first study, participants' self-representations for PSS were made salient via direct questions about supportive and unsupportive experiences in their lives. Social support schema differences emerged only when the women's data was analyzed separately--this is due to the addition of a negative schematic group among women that was not available among men. The most interesting finding was a predicted mediation effect for schematic women. After discussing experiences when needed support was not received, negative schematic women reported more decreases in positive affect than did aschematic or positive schematic women. This was mediated by negative schematic women's tendency to make stable attributions (as opposed to unstable) for the reasons they didn't get the support they needed. There were also memory differences in Study I: negative schematic women had fewer retrieval failures than did aschematic women for unsupportive experiences, and positive schematic women were more likely than aschematic women to recall events that occurred more recently. Also, positive schematic women described the persons involved in non-supportive experiences as helpful, as compared to aschematic and negative schematic women. Finally, judges rated negative schematic women as expressing more positive affect while answering support questions, and as expressing more negative affect while answering non-support questions.;In Study II, participants' self-representations for PSS were made salient via indirect priming based on questions about the social support needs of people in general. In Study II women classified as PSS schematics reported more support-relevant retrieval errors for the priming questions. Schematic processing was not exhibited, however, for differential affect.;Findings from these studies suggest that discussing personal experiences may activate schematic processing for PSS, as evidenced by differential interpretations of the experiences and differential changes in affect, but schematic processing may not be activated via indirect priming.