Fatores envolvidos na natureza e administração de redes sociais de estudantes universitários

Abstract

This research aimed to investigate human’s interpersonal relationships. Specifically, we tried to replicate partially Stiller & Dunbar’s (2007) work, using the same instrument with another sample, though. The main objective was verify whether the social networks were according to Social Brain Hypothesis, on which human beings are capable of keeping and administrating an optimal number of interpersonal relationships, around 150 average. We found a mean of 52,53 social contacts, lower than the predict value, spending about 25% of their time with them. There were significant correlations among social network size, frequency of contact, time spent in contact, emotional closeness, and genetic relatedness, in the general social network, in relatives’ networks, and friends’ networks. Despite of long distant communications availability, respondents preferred make face-to-face contact with their social network members. We discussed the results from the perspective of four non mutual exclusive hypotheses. In the other hand, secondary hypothesis were confirmed about social network composition, and about interactions of social network size, frequency of contact, time spent in contact, and emotional closeness. We suggest additional studies to investigate other variables that may increase the comprehension of social networks, and the differences found.