Advice in troubles talk conversations between strangers: the role of problem seriousness and the impact of advice on helper supportiveness and the desire for future interactions

In troubles talk conversations, problems are disclosed and discussed. When responding to problem disclosures, advice is one common response where the respondent recommends how to think, feel or act in response to a problem. This thesis focuses on extending our understanding of advice messages, with a main research question focused on determining if advice occurs in initial interactions between strangers. Through an analysis of 125 transcribed conversations, advice was present in 38.4% (n = 44) of the conversations. Advice was offered in response to less serious problems, supporting the first hypothesis. There was no support found for the positive association between the presence of advice and positive evaluations of helpfulness; additionally, there was no support found for a negative association between the presence of advice and negative evaluations of supportiveness or sensitivity. Finally, no difference was found supporting a decreased desire to interact further with an advice giver. While advice occurs in initial interactions, there may be additional influences beyond the provision of advice messages influencing helper evaluations of supportiveness and the desire for future interactions

Relational Effects of Person-Centered Comfort

When faced with stressful events, people seek the comfort of close others. The quality of support we receive from our friends, family members, and romantic partners, in turn, impacts our ability to cope. In addition, how we feel about our close relational partners seems intimately related to their abilities to foster appropriate, rather than maladaptive, coping. Surprisingly, however, the relational effects of support are largely ignored in literature. The two studies that comprise this dissertation incorporate tenets of two influential interpersonal communication theories, Person Centered Theory (PCT) and Relational Framing Theory (RFT), to investigate the relational effects of person-centered comfort. In Study 1, participants were asked to imagine experiencing an academic stressor, read a scripted supportive conversation, and were asked to evaluate the relational effects of the conversation. The results from Study 1 demonstrate that relational effects vary as a function of the person-centered quality of comforting messages such that high person-centered comfort is evaluated as expressing more affiliation and less dominance compared to low person-centered comfort. Further, HPC comfort results in positive changes in the perceived relationship qualities of closeness, commitment, intimacy, liking, loving, satisfaction and trust compared to LPC comfort. In Study 2, participants were asked to engage in a supportive conversation with a friend, after which they evaluated each conversational turn. Turns were coded for person-centered comfort. The results of Study 2 reveal that (a) HPC comfort has a negative impact on turn-level ratings of dominance and (b) stressor severity impacts both relational frames of affiliation and dominance. These results contribute to PCT by identifying relational effects of relational meaning and relational outcomes which vary as a function of the quality of person-centered comfort and further contribute to PCT by recognizing the ‘person’ receiving person-centered comfort perceives relational effects in addition to feeling better (or worse) after a conversation. Further, these results contribute to RFT by recognizing that the quality of person-centered comfort impacts frame relevancy, such that LPC comfort is perceived as more dominant and HPC comfort more affiliative. After acknowledging limitations, future directions are discussed for the programmatic study of supportive communication and relationships

A Service of zbw Leibniz-Informationszentrum Wirtschaft Leibniz Information Centre for Economics Watering a lemon tree: Heterogeneous risk taking and monetary policy transmission Watering a Lemon Tree: Heterogeneous Risk Taking and Monetary Policy Transmi

Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen: Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden. Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen. Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. Terms of use: Documents in Abstract We build a general equilibrium model with financial frictions that impede the effectiveness of monetary policy in stimulating output. Agents with heterogeneous productivity can increase investment by levering up, but this increases interim liquidity risk. In equilibrium, the more productive agents choose higher leverage, invest more, and take on higher liquidity risk. Therefore, these agents respond less than the agents with lower productivity to monetary policy that reduces the equilibrium interest rate. Overall quality of investment deteriorates, which can generate a negative spiral, dampening the effect of a monetary stimulus: Worse overall quality leads to lower liquidation values, increasing the cost of liquidity risk. This reduces the demand for loanable funds, further decreasing the interest rate, which then leads to further quality deterioration. When this feedback is strong, monetary policy can lose its effectiveness in stimulating aggregate output even if it leads to significant drops in the interest rate

Watering a Lemon Tree: Heterogeneous Risk Taking and Monetary Policy Transmission Watering a Lemon Tree: Heterogeneous Risk Taking and Monetary Policy Transmission

Abstract We build a general equilibrium model with maturity transformation that impedes monetary policy transmission. In equilibrium, productive agents choose higher leverage, exposing themselves to greater liquidity risk, which limits their responsiveness to interest rate changes. A reduction in the interest rate then leads to a deterioration in aggregate investment quality, which blunts the monetary stimulus and decreases liquidation values. This, in turn, reduces loan demand, decreasing the interest rate further and generating a negative spiral. Overall, the allocation of credit is distorted and monetary stimulus can become ineffective even with significant interest rate drops