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social relations model

a general framework used in studies of interpersonal perception in which a person’s behavior with a particular partner is considered to reflect aspects of the larger group to which the two individuals belong, as well as aspects of the individual emitting the behavior, aspects of the partner, and qualities unique to the two individuals’ relationship with one another. The model makes use of a round-robin rating design in which participants rate one another and their degree of perceptual accuracy in different areas is evaluated. Of particular interest are individual accuracy, or how well a person’s judgments of an individual correspond to how that individual tends to behave across interaction partners; and dyadic accuracy, or how well someone can uniquely judge how a specific individual will behave with him or her. [developed in 1981 by U.S. social psychologist David A. Kenny]

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Psychology term of the day

January 30th 2025

trauma management therapy

trauma management therapy

a treatment program intended to alleviate the anxiety and fear, manage the anger, and enhance the interpersonal functioning of combat veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). It is a sequential multicomponent approach that combines (a) education, in which the client is informed about the symptom chronicity, skill deficits, and extreme social maladjustment associated with PTSD; (b) exposure therapy, in which the client reexperiences—in imagination or through virtual reality—his or her specific traumatic event during individually administered weekly sessions; (c) programmed practice, in which the client performs exposure-related homework assigned by the therapist; and (d) socioemotional rehabilitation, in which the client participates in structured, group-administered social and emotional skills training sessions. [developed in 1996 by clinical psychologists B. Christopher Frueh (1963–  ), Samuel M. Turner (1944–2005), Deborah C. Beidel, and Robert F. Mirabella and health administrator and political scientist Walter J. Jones]