| The research paradigm that Ickes and his colleagues (Ickes, Robertson, Tooke & Teng, 1986; Ickes & Tooke, 1988; Ickes, Tooke, Stinson, Baker & Bissonnette, 1988) developed for the study of naturalistic social cognition was used to explore the phenomena of empathic accuracy and intersubjectivity in the unstructured interactions of pairs of male friends and male strangers. The results revealed that male friends were more accurate than male strangers in inferring the content, but not the valence, of their partners' thoughts and feelings. Friendship appeared as a complex variable that alters the social context for dyadic interaction. The hypothesized difference in intersubjectivity, that male strangers would show a convergence in their thoughts and feelings during the course of an interaction which would not be seen among friends, was not supported directly by the data. However, there was substantial similarity (convergence) in the sociability scores of the friends, indicating a significant degree of personality matching within the relationship. The discussion emphasized the need for theorists and researchers in cognitive social psychology to examine relationships as the social context for social-cognitive phenomena. |
