While experienced in a wide range of theoretical orientations and intervention approaches, Dr. Procidano has a particular interest in integrating Interpersonal and Cognitive Psychotherapies. An interpersonal-cognitive therapeutic approach dovetails with her research on the relationship of interpersonal support and nonsupport to meaning making and appraisal of stressful life events and personal goal strivings. In addition, she is interested in using IPT as a model for spiritually-based psychotherapy, particularly for the elderly.
My current research activities include a spectrum of studies intended to elucidate the nature, origins, and consequences of interpersonal support and nonsupport. I am currently conducting an investigation of cross-cultural similarities and differences in the nature of perceived social support from family and from friends, with collaborators in 7 other countries. We are revalidating measures of Perceived social support from family and from friends (originally constructed by Procidano & Heller, 1983), and plan to examine their linguistic equivalence, scale and structural equivalence, and construct validity. Construct validity will be studied by constructing causal models that include antecedents of perceived support, such as personality and attachment style; relation of perceived family and friend support to other social support constructs; and their contribution to appraisal, coping, and adjustment outcomes.
Another set of studies focuses on the nature of context-specific interpersonal support and nonsupport, through a) cross-cultural test construction (i.e., parallel construction in 2 cultures) and b) examination of "proximal interpersonal processes" in which support and nonsupport experiences occur and are encoded, through experimental laboratory studies and time-sampling methods.
An epidemiological study examines the relationships of patterns of support and nonsupport to appraisal and coping, and to clusters of distress, particularly eating disorders, alcohol use, and depression, in college students.
Finally, I am interested in the origins, nature, and effects of spiritual support and nonsupport in the context of various life tasks, such as pursuing important goal strivings and coping with stress, such as chronic illness. Part of this endeavor is understanding the extent to which perceived spiritual support and nonsupport parallels interpersonal support and nonsupport, especially in influencing the processes of giving meaning to life events and coping through emotional self-regulation.
