Empirical Generalizability | Someone To Talk To | Oxford Academic

This chapter presents each of the book’s core empirical propositions about how much graduate students change, retain, develop, avoid, and make use of confidants and compares them with nationally representative data. Drawing on original surveys and recent findings from other national studies, it examines whether other populations make decisions about whom to talk to as the graduate students did. Among the most significant findings: the core discussion networks of people at all ages change most often as they experience transitions that alter those with whom they interact on a regular basis; people actually confide often in individuals they are not close to; people often avoid those they are close to; people are willing to forgo closeness for empathy; people will often confide in whomever is around. In general, while graduate students are unique, their decisions with respect to confiding in others are largely not. Graduate students are unique. The average first-year PhD student is more ed

This chapter presents each of the book’s core empirical propositions about how much graduate students change, retain, develop, avoid, and make use of confidants and compares them with nationally representative data. Drawing on original surveys and recent findings from other national studies, it examines whether other populations make decisions about whom to talk to as the graduate students did. Among the most significant findings: the core discussion networks of people at all ages change most often as they experience transitions that alter those with whom they interact on a regular basis; peop