La percezione diadica della qualità della relazione: ruolo e significato dell’effetto stereotipico

[Autom. eng. transl.] In social psychology the stereotype is defined as a belief in the personal characteristics of a group of individuals (Myers, 2009). These are generalizations, sometimes accurate, sometimes less, in relation to people belonging to a group. The perception of another specific, therefore, is partially influenced also by the stereotype relating to the group to which the person perceived belongs. If perception can be influenced by stereotypes, then it is appropriate to verify the degree of accuracy of stereotypes (Cronbach, 1955; Judd & Park, 1993). The literature on dyadic perception (the perception that two persons in relation have of each other) has found that it is influenced by the individual characteristics of the two people (including the possible stereotypes that characterize them), by the characteristics related to the relationship specific and the characteristics of the context. For the study of interpersonal relationships, breaking down the individual effects and the relational effects, identifying their specificities allows us to establish the uniqueness of the relationship (eg Social Relations Model, Kenny et al., 2006) and its role in determining the similarity between two people (Kenny & Acitelli, 1989). The stereotypical effect has been defined as the "typical or normative response that people tend to give to a set of variables" (Kenny et al., 2006; p. 331). Usually this effect is subtracted from the scores of individual constructs (eg the values, Barni & Ranieri, 2010; Roest et al., 2009) to measure how much two people belonging to the same dyad are actually similar. There are no studies that focus on the stereotypical effect in relational constructs (eg relational satisfaction). The aim of the work is to present a critical analysis of the possible effects of the stereotype, understood as a typical way of responding, on the measurement of relational variables and how this effect can be measured and controlled at a methodological level. More specifically in the dyadic measurement of relational variables, it is possible to distinguish different stereotypical effects depending on the unit of analysis considered (individual vs. dyad) or the presence or absence of the group. Several examples will be provided using data from 177 family triads composed of parents and young adult children. The relational constructs used are family satisfaction and relational satisfaction (FSS, Olson & Wilson, 1982; NRI, Furman & Buhrmester, 1992).