Supportive message evaluation across multiple time-scales

Abstract

This study proposes and tests five temporally explicit models of message evaluation derived from work on supportive communication. Although most empirical work in this area is based on a limited number of time-scales (temporal isolation of messages or temporal aggregation of conversations), theories that direct that work have the potential to make much more sophisticated predictions of how supportive messages, and the conversations within which they occur, are evaluated. Using data produced by pairs of friends who engaged in 5-min supportive conversations, we articulated a series of theoretically informed models that examined how type, accumulation, and timing of conversational moves impacted how disclosers evaluated the supportiveness of the statements made throughout the conversation (evaluated by the discloser using video-assisted recall) and how they felt after the conversation. Results confirmed that (a) evaluations made throughout a conversation are related to post-conversation reports of supportiveness and emotional improvement, (b) different types of speaking acts are generally not differentially supportive, and (c) timing of some speaking acts matters—altogether suggesting we pay more attention to how we conceptualize and measure time in studies of enacted support.