| Chapter 1: | Introduction |
|
|
Analyzing both the structure of the group and the structure of the task eliminates the possibility of confounding social network measures with measures of social support. Furthermore, the theory provides a framework that can be modified to focus on different groups and/or tasks according to the nature of social support in specific groups such as women, African Americans, or the elderly.
As has been described, the literature on traditional social support describes it as being made up of three kinds of support, composed on two levels of relations. The task-specific model provides a framework for testing a group’s ability to provide support and for clarifying the potential benefit of that support. The proposed research will extend the study of social support into the realm of CMC to test the ability of an electronic social network to provide support and determine if the characteristics found in traditional social support are present online. The following discussion delineates the theoretical perspectives that will guide the proposed research.
A Social Network Perspective
Prominent research that has looked at online social support falls into two broad categories: studies of online support groups created for the purpose of research (Barak, 2007; Boberg et al., 1995; Gustafson et al., 2002; Meier, 1997; Weinberg, Schmale, Uken, & Wessel, 1996) and those studies that examine naturally occurring online support groups (Baym, 2000; Brennan, Moore, & Smyth, 1995; McKenna & Bargh, 1998; Rodgers & Chen, 2005; Wright, 2000). In either case, the analysis focuses on the group or individual dyads without considering the larger social network. Those few works that introduce the concept of a social network tend to simply measure the size of the network without conducting any social network analysis or exploring the impact of network connections on the transmission of support (Miyata, 2002; Wright, 2000).