Journal of Personality and Social Psychology Copyright 1987 by the American Psychological Association, Inc.

1987, Vol. 53. No. 6, 1137-1145 0022-3514/87/S00.75

Determinants of Perceived Social Support: Interpersonal Transactions,

Personal Outlook, and Transient Affective States

Amiram Vinokur Yaacov Schul

Institute for Social Research Hebrew University of Jerusalem
University of Michigan Jerusalem, Israel

Robert D. Caplan
Institute for Social Research
University of Michigan

During the last decade, the study of social support has relied heavily on recipients' reports of per-
ceived support. However, such reports of support may reflect not only actual supportive interpersonal
transactions but also the recipients' own personal and perceptual dispositions and comparatively
transient mood states. This study examines these factors' independent effects on perceived support.
Interpersonal transactions of social support were assessed in a longitudinal panel design using reports
from 486 adult male respondents and their significant others (mostly wives). Using structural model-
ing techniques (LISREL vi), an unfolding series of statistical analyses were performed. The results
provide strong support for a model in which recipients' perception of support is determined signifi-
cantly and strongly by actual interpersonal transactions as reported by significant others, moderately
by the recipients' negative outlook bias, and weakly by their anxiety and depression as indicators of
their poor mental health. The implications of the results for future research are discussed.

The last 15 years have witnessed a spectacular growth of re-
search on the effects of social support on health and well-being.
Hundreds of research investigations have been conducted on
the subject during this period. Yet, many fundamental issues
remain unresolved. Typically, researchers have focused on ei-
ther the social structural aspects of social support by examining
social contacts and networks, or they have focused on the psy-
chological aspects by examining perceived obtained support or
its perceived availability. Even when the psychological aspects
of social support have been examined, the role of personality
has, with rare exceptions (Kobasa & Puccetti, 1983; Lefcourt,
Martin, & Saleh, 1984; B. R. Sarason, Sarason, Hacker, & Bas-
ham, 1985; I. G. Sarason, Sarason, & Shearin, 1986), largely
been ignored. The social psychological aspects of this phenome-
non—the study of social support as an interpersonal transac-
tion that involves both a provider of support and a recipient—
is nearly absent. Our goal in this article is to fill this gap by
examining simultaneously the transactional and cognitive-emo-
tional determinants of perceived obtained social support.
The recent literature on social support addresses two concep-
tually distinct definitions of the concept: social support as the
perceived availability of support resources and social support as
an interpersonal transaction (e.g., Wethington & Kessler, 1986).
Studies that have focused on availability of support resources
This research was supported by National Institute of Mental Health
Grants MH34586 and MH39675 and by the Michigan Prevention Re-
search Center funded by National Institute of Mental Health Grant
MH38330. We wish to thank Laura KJem Tor help and advice regarding
data analysis.
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to
Amiram Vinokur, Institute for Social Research, The University of
Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106-1248.
have relied on measures of the availability of a social network,
on measures of frequency of social contacts (e.g., Berkman &
Syme, 1979; House, Robbins, & Metzner, 1982), or more di-
rectly, on measures of the perceived availability of support (e.g.,
Cohen, Mermelstein, Kamarck, & Hoberman, 1985; I. G. Sara-
son, Levine, Basham, & Sarason, 1983). Studies that have fo-
cused on support as an interpersonal transaction have exam-
ined the provision of various kinds of support via behavioral
acts as perceived by the recipients (Caplan, Cobb, French, Har-
rison, & Pinneau, 1975; House, 1981; LaRocco, House, &
French, 1980; Procidano & Heller, 1983). (For elaborate re-
views of social support measures and concepts, see Barrera,
1986; House & Kahn, 1985; and B. R. Sarason, Shearin, Pierce,
& Sarason, 1987). In either case, the attempt to identify sup-
portive transactions has relied on measures of perceived sup-
port or potential available support. There has been no informa-
tion on the extent to which perceived obtained support reflects
actual supportive behaviors.
Without such information it is possible that measures of per-
ceived obtained support, and in particular, measures of per-
ceived availability of support, are largely a function of personal-
ity dispositions or processes that consistently bias the percep-
tion of obtained or potentially available support. This
possibility is suggested by correlations among measures of per-
ceived support from different sources and across time periods.
Reanalyses of data from the study reported here revealed that
the correlations among measures of perceived social support
from spouse, close friend, co-worker, and supervisor ranged
from . 17 to .59 and averaged .34. The stability of perceived so-
cial support from all the aforementioned sources across time
periods from 4 to 8 months ranged from .49 to .69 and averaged
.60. I. G. Sarason et al. (1986), using measures of perceived
availability of support, found greater stability coefficients. Such

1137
1138 A. VINOKUR, Y. SCHUL, AND R. CAPLAN
correlations suggest (but do not demonstrate) that the personal-
ity of the respondent produces similar and consistent percep-
tions and interpretations of supportive behaviors and their
availability.
One might also hypothesize that the stability of social sup-
port across settings reflects the consistency of the environments
themselves. This could occur because people tend to elicit, or
mobilize, the same supportive behaviors across settings or self-
select into environments that are compatible with their per-
sonal needs (e.g., Emmons, Diener, Larsen, 1986), and that
provide a consistent level of support. These "environmental"
explanations depend on dispositions of the recipient of social
support. Accordingly, they are compatible with a general hy-
pothesis regarding the role of personality as a plausible determi-
nant of perceived obtained social support.
Other studies have suggested that personality and early social-
ization predict to social support. Kobasa and Puccetti (1983)
suggested that psychological hardiness influences the degree to
which social support is successfully mobilized to moderate the
impact of stressful life events on well-being. In their study, psy-
chological hardiness and support from the boss were signifi-
cantly correlated (r = .29, p < .005). Sandier and Lakey (1982)
and Lefcourt et al. (1984) demonstrated that people with an
internal locus of control benefit from social support more than
those who have a more external orientation. Finally, I. G. Sara-
son et al. (1986) have suggested parental bonding as a develop-
mental origin to social support and its stability.
The issue of whether personality variables are the key deter-
minants of either the mobilization of support or its perception
is critical for understanding the links between social support
with health and well-being. As already suggested by Cohen and
Syme (1985), conclusive evidence for the causal effects of actual
supportive transactions, or for the operation of stable biasing
tendencies in the perception of social support, could be ob-
tained from experimental studies in which support is manipu-
lated. To date, the experimental literature on this issue is still
limited because of the narrow range of social support manipu-
lations in laboratory settings (e.g., I. G. Sarason & Sarason,
1986). Until the causal roles played by social support versus
those played by personality are made explicit, the enormous lit-
erature on the main and buffering effects of social support (Co-
hen & Wills, 1985; Kessler & McLeod, 1985) will be open to
equivocal interpretations (Cohen & Syme, 1985; pp. 16-18).
Another methodological approach, besides the experimental
one, for identifying causal effects of actual supportive transac-
tions and of stable perceptual dispositions is to use valid exter-
nal measures of provided support as well as personality mea-
sures of relevant perceptual dispositions. External measures
can be obtained from observers or from the provider of support.
In the investigation reported here, we used this approach by
securing measures of support from both the providers and the
recipients of support. Recognize, however, that measures of
provided support may also be affected by the perceptual biases
of the provider of support. Nevertheless, the degree of the agree-
ment between measures of provided support with measures of
obtained support from the two sources offers convergent valid-
ity for the occurrence of actual interpersonal supportive trans-
actions.
In this article we address the question regarding the determi-
nants of perceived obtained social support by examining data
that include not only a measure of obtained support as reported
by the recipient but also a measure of provided support as re-
ported by the provider. Our purpose is to focus on and examine
the perception of obtained social support as a function of the
following three variables: (a) actual provision of social support
from interpersonal transaction as reported by those who pro-
vide it; (b) stable and general personal disposition to perceive
negatively oneself and one's social transactions and condition;
and (c) affective states such as anxiety and depression that are
often used as the main indicators of poor mental health.
There is ground to hypothesize that each of the aforemen-
tioned factors contributes significantly to perceived social sup-
port. First, the provision of support is expected to have at least
minimal impact on perceived support, particularly in enduring
social relationships. In the study that follows, the providers and
the recipients of social support were mostly spouses or close
friends in such enduring relationships.
Second, it is reasonable to expect that stable cognitive or at-
tributional styles affect how social support offered by others is
being perceived, interpreted, and experienced. People who are
disposed to view themselves and their personal experiences in
a negative light are thus hypothesized to misperceive or under-
rate the support provided to them. Watson and Clark (1984)
have recently suggested that such a disposition constitutes a sta-
ble and pervasive trait that is latent across diverse personality
scales. This disposition characterizes people who are more
likely to experience negative affective states and "tend differen-
tially to dwell on the negative side of themselves and the world"
(p. 465). This disposition will be referred to in this study as a
generalized negative outlook. (For an integrative review of this
disposition, see Watson & Clark, 1984.)
Third, studies of social support typically assume on the basis
of correlational evidence that social support has a main effect
on mental health and well-being. Nevertheless, it is equally
plausible to hypothesize that poor mental health, and in partic-
ular its main indicators (i.e., depression and anxiety), is a deter-
minant of perceived low social support. The literature on affect
and memory suggests that mood states influence the likelihood
of recall of mood congruent events (see the extensive review
by Blaney, 1986; Lewinsohn & Hoberman, 1982). Accordingly,
whereas social support may have a beneficial effect on well-be-
ing, we hypothesize that its perception is influenced by concur-
rent affective states such as depression and anxiety. The experi-
ence of these and other negative affective states will invoke more
memories of negative than positive instances of social interac-
tions and social support.
To examine these hypotheses, longitudinal data collected
from a sample of men and their significant others (mostly wives)
were analyzed using the structural modeling techniques of LIS-
REL vi (Joreskog & Sorbom, 1984). These techniques allowed
us to model a latent variable, described as generalized negative
outlook, based on repeated measures of resentment and self-
esteem and on a measure of perceived parental support during
adolescence. An additional advantage of the application of
structural modeling is that the estimates of the relative strength
of influence of the independent variables are more reliable than
in path analysis. Structural modeling makes it possible to take
into account the unreliability associated with the various mea-
sures.
 DETERMINANTS OF PERCEIVED SOCIAL SUPPORT
Method
Overview of the Sample and Design
This study is based on data collected as part of a larger investigation
on stress, work, and unemployment among Vietnam veterans and non-
veterans (for a complete report, see Vinokur, Caplan, & Williams, in
press). The analyses reported here were derived from data collected at
three time periods from a panel of 486 male respondents and their sig-
nificant others (wives and close friends). Of the male respondents, 297
had recently lost their jobs and were unemployed at the first wave of
data collection. The other 189 respondents were employed. The first
wave of data was collected in February and March 1982. The second
and third waves took place 4 months and 12 months, respectively, fol-
lowing the first one.
Respondents and Procedure
The sample of respondents was drawn to represent unemployed Viet-
nam veterans, era veterans (in the military during the Vietnam war but
stationed elsewhere), nonveterans of the same generation, and their em-
ployed counterparts. The unemployed respondents were recruited from
nine state unemployment offices in southeast Michigan. The employed
respondents were nominated by their unemployed counterparts to pro-
duce demographically matched groups. This intention was met success-
fully. Eligible unemployed respondents were men between 24 and 41
years of age who had lost their jobs within the last 4 weeks and were
working for pay fewer than 20 hr a week or were not working at all.
The specific sampling design was intended to serve the purpose of the
original, larger investigation (Vinokur et al., in press) and does not con-
cern the present study.
At each interview, the focal respondent selected a significant other
who was asked to complete a self-administered questionnaire. The sig-
nificant other was denned as someone who knew the respondent well
and who saw the respondent at least once a week. Seventy-one percent
of the significant others were the wives of the respondents, 16% were
girlfriends or close friends, and 13% were others, such as roommates,
relatives, and neighbors.
Data collection. Data from the respondents were collected through
personal interviews. The interviews took place at the respondent's loca-
tion of choice, usually his home, and they lasted for about 1 hr. Upon
completion of each interview, the respondent was paid $5 for his partici-
pation. Data from the significant others were collected using self-admin-
istered questionnaires that took approximately 20 min to complete.
The significant others were paid $2 for their participation at each time
wave.
Response rate. Of those men who were found eligible, 84% were re-
cruited to the study as focal respondents and were interviewed in Wave
1. Continued participation in the study was even higher. The response
rate for Wave 2 was 95%, with 462 of the original 486 focal respondents
participating in the study. At Wave 3,96%, or 442, of the Wave 2 respon-
dents were interviewed. Similarly high response rates were obtained
with the significant others. In each time wave, data were collected from
more than 90% of the respondents' significant others.
Measures
Most of the measures in this study were based on instruments used
in earlier investigations on stress and unemployment and on social sup-
port. In most instances, we used multi-item indexes to maximize the
internal consistency of the measures. The Cronbach alpha coefficients
of our measures ranged from .80 to .87. We constructed the respective
index measures by averaging the ratings to the items that made up
the measures. (Copies of the measures can be obtained from Amiram
Vinokur.)
Provided social support. The questionnaire from the significant oth-
1139
ers included six questions on the provision of socially supportive behav-
iors to the focal respondent (e.g., showing care and concern, providing
useful information). These questions were the same as those included
in the interview with the focal respondent (described later) except that
they referred to providing rather than receiving support. The measure
of significant-other-provided support had alpha coefficients ranging
from .81 to .85 for the three data collection waves.
Obtained social support. The measure for this construct assessed per-
ceived supportive behaviors of the significant other. It was based on a 6-
item index, with coefficient alphas ranging from .85 to .87 for the three
waves of data collection. To measure social support, we asked the re-
spondents to indicate on 5-point scales, which ranged from not at all ( I )
to a great deal (5), how much the significant other "provides you with
encouragement" and with "useful information," "says things that raise
your self-confidence," "listens to you when you need to talk," "shows
that he/she cares about you as a person," and "understands the way you
think and feel about things." The social support items were chosen to
represent three of the four functions of social support suggested by
House (1981). These functions include emotional, appraisal, and infor-
mational support. Instrumental support was not assessed by these
items.
Poor menial health. In this study we measured poor mental health
symptomatology using Anxiety and Depression subscales based largely
on the Hopkins Symptom Checklist (Derogatis, Lipman, Rickels, Uh-
lenhuth, & Covi, 1974). The measures of anxiety and depression in-
cluded 7 items each, with alphas ranging from .85 to .87 across the three
time waves. The questions in these scales required the respondent to
"tell how often you have experienced each of the following in the last
two weeks" The respondent was then read symptoms such as "nervous-
ness or shakiness inside," "worrying about things," "feeling blue," and
"feeling depressed" and was asked to rate the symptom's frequency on
a 5-point scale, which ranged from not at all (1) to very often (5).
Indicator Measures of Generalized Negative Outlook
Three indicators were chosen for assessing the stable personality dis-
position referred to here as generalized negative outlook. Our choices
were based on the indicators' broad representation of the concept as
defined here and by Watson and Clark (1984). The measures covered the
respondent's outlook on his past relationship with his parents (Parental
Support scale) and on his present view of his ordeal in life and with
people (Resentment scale) and his view of himself (Self-Esteem scale).
The latent variable represented the common variance among these indi-
cators—variance that was assumed to transcend the particular content
of each indication and to represent a generalized perceptual disposition.
Parental support during childhood and adolescence was assessed by
indexes derived from the work of Gold and his associates (Gold &
Mann, 1972; Gold & Reimer, 1975). A Parental Supportiveness scale
was constructed from two 8-item indexes regarding felt closeness to,
identification with, and support received from father and mother (or
guardians) during one's teenage years. The items included ratings of
items such as "How much did your (father/mother/guardian) accept
and understand you as a person?" "How close did you feel to your (fa-
ther/mother/guardian)?" "How much did he/she try to help you when
you were scared or upset?" and "How much did he/she show you affec-
tion?" The rating scale ranged from not at all (1) to a great deal (5}. The
Parental Supportiveness scale for father and for mother had an alpha
coefficient of .85.
Resentment was measured using a 5-item index developed by Blu-
menthal. Kahn, Andrews, and Head (1972). The measure had alpha
coefficients ranging from .80 to .87 across our three waves of data collec-
tion. The items required the respondent to indicate on 5-point scales the
extent of agreement or disagreement with various statements reflecting
resentment and paranoia. The respondents were asked to "tell how
much you agree or disagree with. . ." the statements "I don't seem to
get what is coming to me," "when I look back on what happens to me I
1140 A. VINOKUR, Y. SCHUL, AND R. CAPLAN
feel resentful," "I feel I get a raw deal out of life," "people ask too much
of me," and "other people always seem to get the breaks."
The self-esteem measure was an index based on seven items with co-
efficient alphas ranging from .82 to .83 across the data collection waves.
The items asked the respondent to indicate the extent to which he was
satisfied with himself, felt confident, compared himself favorably with
the average man, saw himself as a failure, was able to handle problems
in his life, and was happy with his accomplishments.
Age, education, and income were assessed using standard survey re-
search questions that will not be detailed here.
Results
Overview of the Analyses
On the basis of our hypotheses, we generated first an initial
simplified longitudinal model with generalized negative out-
look, resentment, self-esteem, and parental support as the exog-
enous conceptual variables and perceived obtained social sup-
port, perceived provided support, and poor mental health as the
endogenous conceptual variables. All the endogenous variables
at Time 1 were modeled as predictors of the same measures at
Time 2, respectively. In the second phase of the analysis, a series
of increasingly more elaborate causal models were constructed,
and their goodness of fit was tested against the initial model
and, then, against the preceding less elaborate models in the
series. Finally, partial replication of the best fitting model was
provided by testing it again to predict Time 3 social support
from the corresponding Time 2 variables.
Initial Structural Model
The LISREL vi procedure (Joreskog & Sorbom, 1984) was
used to estimate the parameters of the initial structural model.
The results of this analysis are presented in Figure 1.
The initial structural model consisted of two unconnected
parts. The first part included the following four exogenous con-
structs: (a) resentment, (b) self-esteem, (c) parental support,
and (d) generalized negative outlook. The first two constructs
were indicated by the corresponding measures from Time 1, 2,
and 3 data collections, and their loadings were set to be equal.
The self-esteem construct was estimated using subindexes of
positively and negatively keyed items. The parental support
construct was measured at Time 3 only and was indicated by the
respective subscales regarding support from mother and from
father (or guardian). The generalized negative outlook con-
struct was estimated in the structural model using the Resent-
ment and Self-Esteem scales (with measures from Time 1, 2,
and 3 data collections) and perceived support from mother and
from father during childhood and adolescence (measured at
Time 3 only).
The second part of the initial structural model included the
three endogenous constructs: obtained social support, provided
social support, and poor mental health. Each construct at Time
1 was modeled to influence its level at Time 2. The indicators
for the social support constructs were the questionnaire items;
those for the mental health construct were the Anxiety and De-
pression subscales. We also assumed that the responses to the
same questions at different times would share some unique vari-
ance. The residuals associated with these responses were there-
fore linked to represent correlated errors that were set to be
equal.
The estimation of this initial model produced a chi-square of
1774 with 710 degrees of freedom. This figure, which is 2.5
times the degrees of freedom, represents a fairly good fit be-
tween the model and the data.
The estimated model produced high betas between the con-
structs at Time 1 and Time 2. That is, each of the endogenous
variables at Time 1 was an excellent predictor of its level at the
subsequent data collection at Time 2. These betas varied only
slightly from .66 to .71.
Extended Structural Model
We viewed the model in Figure 1 as incomplete because it
implied that the stabilities of the endogenous variables were due
to the effects of their antecedent levels on the consequent levels.
As an alternative, we generated an extended structural model
in which stable personality dispositions and social relationships
between the significant other and the focal respondent would
account for the stability of the respondent's perception of ob-
tained support. In addition, we included the respondent's emo-
tional state (i.e., mood) as an additional determinant of the ob-
tained support based on the previously cited literature about
the effects of mood on cognition. (We also considered a model
in which obtained support influences mood, the results of
which will be described later.)
We hypothesized that the recipient's generalized negative
outlook would have the strongest influence on obtained social
support and poor mental health and the smallest influence on
the provider's sent social support. This latter link was hypothe-
sized as being due to the provider's possible aversion to helping
people with a negative disposition (e.g., Coyne, 1976a, 1976b).
As a stable personality disposition, the generalized negative out-
look was also hypothesized to account for the stability observed
in the level of obtained social support and poor mental health
between Time 1 and Time 2. If this hypothesis is correct, the
stability (i.e., betas) of the obtained social support and of poor
mental health between Time 1 and Time 2 should decrease
when the influence of the generalized negative outlook on these
variables is modeled in our analyses.
Linking Provided Social Support and Poor Mental
Health to Obtained Support
Using the conceptual framework just described, we first
tested a series of successive LISREL causal models that included
systematic variations in the links among the endogenous vari-
ables. We started with a model that included a path of influence
from provided social support to obtained social support at each
time wave. This path represents the extent to which perceived
social support actually reflects interpersonal transactions where
support is provided. This model provided a significantly better
fit, x2(709, AT = 440) = 1694, p < .001, than the initial one,
X 2 (710,JV=440)= 1774.
Next, we added to the model the additional paths of influence
from poor mental health to obtained social support at each time
wave. This addition resulted in a significantly better fitting
model, x2(708, N = 440) = 1619, p < .001, than the previous
one. A model with additional paths from obtained social sup-
 DETERMINANTS OF PERCEIVED SOCIAL SUPPORT 1141

Time 1 Data Time 2 Data

FR
General
Negative
Outlook
FR
Obtains
Social
Support

Figure 1. Initial model predicting the focal respondent's (FR) obtained social support, the significant other's
(SO) provision of social support, and the PR's poor mental health and generalized negative outlook as
indicated by measures of parental support, self-esteem, and resentment. (The letter r refers to the wave of
data collection. All the beta coefficients were statistically significant beyond the .001 level. The chi square
was 1774 with 710 degrees of freedom.)

port at Time 1 to poor mental health and to provided social
support at Time 2 neither improved the fit nor demonstrated
significant changes in the coefficients of the previous model.
Linking Generalized Negative Outlook and Its Elements
to Social Support and Mental Health
Next, we shifted to a new series of analyses that tested models
with successive additions of paths of influence from the exoge-
nous variables (e.g., generalized negative outlook) to the endog-
enous variables (e.g., obtained social support). In this series of
analyses the paths of influence among the endogenous variables
were kept the same as in the best fitting model described earlier.
In the first model tested in this series, generalized negative
outlook was modeled to have a path of influence on each of
the endogenous variables. This model produced a significantly
better fit x2(705, ff = 440) = 1406, p < .001, than the previous
best fitting model. Finally, we tested models with additional
paths of direct influence from the measures of parental support,
self-esteem, and resentment to each of the endogenous vari-
ables. Again, these models included all the significant paths be-
tween generalized negative outlook and the endogenous vari-
ables.
Figure 2 presents the best fitting model produced by these
successive model testings. It contains the paths of influence that
were statistically significant beyond the .05 level.
The LISREL analysis of this model yielded a chi-square of
1369 with 704 degrees of freedom. This result constitutes sub-
stantial improvement over the results of the initial structural
model with which we started. The ratio of chi-square to degrees
of freedom for this model is 1.94, compared with the initial
model ratio of 2.5. The improvement is statistically significant
beyond the .001 level. Furthermore, Hoelter's (1983) critical n
index of goodness of fit was calculated and yielded a value
of 247. A value above 200 is indicative of a model that ade-
quately reproduces the observed covariance structure (Hoelter,
1983).
In this extended model, obtained social support at Times 1
and 2 was affected in a similar way by the other variables. Pro-
vided social support had the strongest influence on obtained
social support, with betas of .35 and .30 at Times 1 and 2, re-
spectively. Thus there is convergent validation for the role of
1142 A. VINOKUR, Y. SCHUL, AND R. CAPLAN

Time 1 Data Time 2 Data

so
Provides fi4 / Provides
Social -' Social
Support Support
-.07
-.07 '

j.35 .30 .47

FR FR FR
General -.17 Obtains 44 / Obtains
Negative Social ' -H Social
Outlook Support Support

-.15
-.17
.52 .48 ^
FR .64 FR \ .42^
Poor 29 / Poor
Mental -H Mental
.31' Health Health

.28
FR
Resentment

Figure 2, Causal model of the effects of the significant other's (SO) provision of social support, focal respon-
dent's (FR) poor mental health, PR's generalized negative outlook, and resentment upon PR's obtained
social support. (All the beta coefficients were statistically significant beyond the .05 level. The chi square
was 1369 with 704 degrees of freedom.)

interpersonal transactions in influencing perceived obtained so-
cial support.
Generalized negative outlook was also found to be a signifi-
cant determinant of the perception of obtained support at both
time periods {betas of—.17 and —.15, respectively, for Times 1
and 2). The more negative the outlook, the less the obtained
support. Furthermore, in both time waves the path coefficients
between negative outlook and provided support were -.07
(p < .05). It thus appears that negative outlook had a small, yet
statistically significant, negative influence on the inclination of
the significant other to provide support.
In addition to its influence on obtained social support, gener-
alized negative outlook was found to have a very strong influ-
ence on poor mental health, with betas of .52 and .48 for Times
1 and 2, respectively. Similarly, resentment was found to have a
direct influence on poor mental health, with betas of .31 and
.28 for Time 1 and Time 2. The effects of resentment and of
negative outlook on poor mental health were congruent with
Watson and Clark's (1984) conceptualization of negative out-
look as part of the larger disposition to experience aversive emo-
tional states.
Finally, poor mental health was also found to have a signifi-
cant influence on obtained social support, with betas of-.18
and -.17 for Times 1 and 2, respectively. As hypothesized, the
negative affective states of anxiety and depression appear to de-
crease or suppress the perception of socially supportive acts
from the significant other.
As predicted, the effects of provided social support, general-
ized negative outlook, and poor mental health reduced the
across-time beta stability coefficient of obtained social support
from .69 (cf. Figure 1) to .44 (cf. Figure 2). Similarly, the effects
of generalized negative outcome and resentment reduced the
across-time beta stability coefficient of poor mental health from
.71 {cf. Figure 1) to .29 (cf. Figure 2).
In the extended model presented in Figure 2, poor mental
health was modeled as a determinant of obtained social sup-
port. An equally cogent case can be made in favor of modeling
obtained social support as a determinant of poor mental health.
 DETERMINANTS OF PERCEIVED SOCIAL SUPPORT
Unfortunately, our modeling procedures cannot provide a test
between these two important alternatives. However, the effects
of reversing the causal influence on other estimates can be in-
structive with respect to the robustness of the model. When the
analyses were repeated on a model that reversed the direction
of influence from obtained social support to poor mental
health, the obtained results in terms of goodness of fit remained
virtually unchanged, yielding a chi-square of 1378 with 704 de-
grees of freedom. There was only a small decrease in the betas
of the paths from obtained social support to poor mental health
(from -.18 and -.17 to -.06 and -.06 at Times 1 and 2, respec-
tively; cf. Figure 2).
We attempted a partial replication of the extended model in
Figure 2 by using the measures obtained at Time 2 as predictors
of their level at Time 3. The replication again indicated a high
degree of goodness of fit to the model: The chi-square with 704
degrees of freedom was 1513, with the model having virtually
identical beta coefficients with the same level of significance as
the earlier one in Figure 2. The ratio of the chi-squares to the
degrees of freedom was 2.15, and Hoelter's critical n index was
216, indicating a good fit to the model.
In our final set of analyses we applied the extended model to
the data of the employed and the unemployed groups sepa-
rately. The obtained chi square for the same model with 704
degrees of freedom was 1083 and 1176 for the two groups con-
secutively. The critical n goodness-of-fit values were 121 and
176, which indicated poorer fit of the data of these subgroups
to the model than the fit of the data that was based on the entire
sample to the same model. Nevertheless, the corresponding beta
coefficients produced by the analysis of the two subgroups were
very similar to one another. They are not presented or discussed
separately because they displayed exactly the same pattern as
for the combined data as in Figure 2.
Discussion
Part of the interest in the concept of social support derives
from its potentially ameliorative effects on well-being. There is
evidence that it serves as a buffer between various stressors of
life and well-being as well as has direct effects on well-being and
on reducing stressors (e.g., see reviews by Cobb, 1976; Cohen
& Wills, 1985; Kessler & McLeod, 1985). As the literature has
grown, attention has turned to an important set of related is-
sues. These issues are concerned with the conceptualization of
social support in terms of perceived availability versus actual
interpersonal transactions and with the effects of personality on
the mobilization of social support and on its perception.
The study reported in this article focused primarily on two
of these issues: the extent to which perceived obtained support
reflects actual supportive transactions and the influence of per-
sonality on the perception of support. In the structural analyses
we attempted to highlight the mutual and relative influence of
three major variables on the perception of obtained social sup-
port. The first variable, provided support, represents the contri-
bution of the interpersonal transaction as reported by the pro-
vider of support. The other two variables, generalized negative
outlook and poor mental health, represent the influence of sta-
ble and transient dispositions of the recipient of support.
The findings of the structural analyses with respect to ob-
tained social support are very consistent. They show that per-
1143
ceived obtained support at a given time can best be predicted
from the corresponding measure at the earlier time. The predic-
tive power of the earlier measure appears to be due to an associ-
ation produced by the causal influence of three other factors at
both time periods. These factors are (a) the stability of provision
of support by the significant other, (b) the personality of the
respondent in terms of a disposition to perceive himself and his
interaction with the social environment (parents, others) in a
negative light, and (c) poor mental health as indicated by anxi-
ety and depression. As hypothesized, when these three factors
were introduced into our final model (i.e., Figure 2), the beta
between obtained social support at Time 1 and Time 2 de-
creased (from .69 in the initial model to .44 in our extended
model, Figure 2).
The extended structural model suggests that perception of
obtained social support reflects, rather substantially, the inter-
personal transactions. At the same time, there is also consistent
evidence that obtained social support is influenced, though to
a lesser degree, by the stable personality characteristic of a gen-
eralized negative outlook.
A generalized negative outlook appears to exert its strongest
influence on measures of affective states such as anxiety and
depression. There is also evidence for a small, but significant,
relation between poor mental health and the perception of ob-
tained social support. This relation is uncontaminated by the
effects of generalized negative outlook. Unfortunately, our
model does not allow us to determine the causal direction of
this relation.
Overall, the results of this study clearly demonstrate the need
to consider both personality and social interaction when exam-
ining the nature of social support and its perception. Further-
more, the findings suggest that affective states also play a role in
the perception of this interpersonal phenomenon.
Limilalions of the Study
Despite the comprehensive analyses presented in this article,
the results should be viewed with caution. The findings of our
analyses appear consistent and robust. Nevertheless, there are
four reasons why they do not provide complete and adequate
assessment of the role and the relative contribution of the con-
structs to perceived social support. First, the role of personality
was represented in this study by only a single construct, the
generalized negative outlook (although we believe that this con-
struct is a key one). This construct was derived from available
measures that were not specifically designed to tap the con-
struct. Hence it is quite plausible that we have omitted other
stable dispositions that influence the perception of interper-
sonal interactions. For example, the disposition to respond to
events with intense affect (Larsen, Diener, & Emmons, 1986)
may exert influence on the experience and perception of social
support. Various motivational and attributional dispositions,
particularly those that relate to other people, such as need for
affiliation, power, or nurturance, are likely to affect the percep-
tion of supportive interpersonal interactions (e.g., Lefcourt,
Martin, Pick, & Saleh, 1985).
Second, our measure of provided social support is likely to
be influenced by stable personal dispositions of the provider in
a manner similar to the way the measure of obtained support
was shown to be influenced by the personality of the recipient.
1144 A. VINOKUR, Y. SCHUL, AND R. CAPLAN
Recall that both measures were based on perceptions of sup-
port: provided and obtained. This unmeasured influence may
have biased the estimate of the link between provided and ob-
tained support. A more accurate assessment of the contribution
of provided support to obtained support could be achieved by
modeling the determinants of the measure of provided support.
Third, the role of interpersonal transactions in this article was
assessed by the agreement in the provider's and the recipient's
report of social support. The literature already suggests that the
convergence in these measures provides only imperfect indica-
tion of the actual interpersonal transaction that transpired. In
a study that used detailed behavioral checklists, Jacobson and
Moore (1981) found only modest agreement between spouse
reports of behaviors involving companionship, affection, sex,
consideration, and communications.
Fourth, whereas the recipients of social support in this inves-
tigation included only men, the social support providers in-
cluded primarily women (more than 87%). Gender differences
in the pattern of social support that may have influenced our
findings have been identified in a number of studies. For exam-
ple, Butler, Giordano, and Neren (1985) found that female
graduate students reported both asking for and receiving more
support during periods of personal stress than did men. A more
complete set of findings that is based on our extended model
should include women as well as men as the recipients of social
support.
Implications/or Future Research
The limitations of the study could be overcome if future stud-
ies provide more comprehensive and systematic assessments of
the relevant constructs. In addition, the modeling approach
demonstrated in this article could be applied to study the role
of two other factors in the interpersonal dynamics involved in
social support and its effects on well-being: the role of personal-
ity in the mobilization of support and the role of social under-
mining.
As Heller and Swindler (1983) suggested, personality may
play a crucial role in the mobilization of social support. Recent
work has already produced some evidence on the role of social
skills and psychological hardiness in attracting social support
(Cohen, Sherrod, & Clark, 1986; Kobasa & Puccetti, 1983;
B. R. Sarason et al., 1985; I. G. Sarason et al. 1986). To assess
the contribution of personality to the mobilization of social
support, relevant personality variables can be integrated into
our model by linking them to the provided social support con-
struct.
Recent studies have suggested that social support and social
undermining need not necessarily fall on the same continuum
(e.g., Abbey, Abramis, & Caplan, 1985; Rook, 1984). These
studies suggest that some relationships may be high in both so-
cial support and undermining, others low in both, and others
high in one and low in the other. Social support scales, such as
the one we have used, focus only on supportive behaviors and,
consequently, cannot distinguish among these cases. The low
end of our social support scales merely represent inaction or
ignoring someone rather than going out of one's way to under-
mine them (Abbey et al., 1985).
One useful extension of our model would be to introduce
social undermining as a separate variable. This would lead to a
set of questions regarding whether the perception of obtained
social undermining is influenced by the same parameters that
influence the perception of obtained social support. For exam-
ple, how much of the perception of obtained social support is
influenced by provided social support compared with sent so-
cial undermining?
To take another example of the utility of examining social
undermining, Rook's findings suggest that social undermining
is more likely than social support to influence mental health.
Does this mean that the perception of social undermining is a
more salient and, accordingly, more influential element than
social support? If so, would a generalized negative outlook be
more likely to influence the perception of negative social acts
than of positive acts? Would negative mood states also be more
likely to elicit perceptions of social undermining than to lower
perceptions of social support? And, similarly, would sent social
undermining have a stronger effect on the perception of ob-
tained social undermining than sent social support would have
on the perception of obtained social support?
We close by noting the practical value of pursuing these is-
sues. There are a wide variety of applied settings in which the
need to assess social support is potentially important. Interven-
tions aimed at improving patient compliance by altering physi-
cian behavior (Eraker & Becker, 1984), at altering family pat-
terns of interaction (e.g., Minuchin, Rosman, & Baker, 1978),
and at changing the way in which managers and their employees
work together (Anderson, 1976), all rely on altering patterns of
social influence from the negative and undermining to support-
ive patterns. Experiments that involve such interventions and
program evaluation must rely, at the outset, on a crucial manip-
ulation check of "what got delivered" and "what got received"
(Price, Detterer, Bader, & Monahan, 1982). As noted earlier,
some investigators' lines of research suggest that these self-re-
ports will be influenced by the perceiver's mood. Other lines of
research suggest that perceptual styles and biases will also be
important. We have shown that both need to be assessed and
controlled for so as to reveal a clearer picture of the link be-
tween "what got delivered" and "what got received."
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Received December 1, 1986
Revision received June 22, 1987
Accepted April 30, 1987 •