Social relationships are often touted as critical for well-being. However, the vast majority of studies on social relationships have relied on self-report measures of both social interactions and ...well-being, which makes it difficult to disentangle true associations from shared method variance. To address this gap, we assessed the quantity and quality of social interactions using both self-report and observer-based measures in everyday life. Participants (N = 256; 3,206 observations) wore the Electronically Activated Recorder (EAR), an unobtrusive audio recorder, and completed experience sampling method self-reports of their momentary social interactions, happiness, and feelings of social connectedness, 4 times each day for 1 week. Observers rated the quantity and quality of participants' social interactions based on the EAR recordings from the same time points. Quantity of social interactions was robustly associated with greater well-being in the moment and on average, whether they were measured with self-reports or observer reports. Conversational (conversational depth and self-disclosure) and relational (knowing and liking one's interaction partners) aspects of social interaction quality were also generally associated with greater well-being, but the effects were larger and more consistent for self-reported (vs. observer-reported) quality variables, within-person (vs. between-person) associations, and for predicting social connectedness (vs. happiness). Finally, although most associations were similar for introverts and extraverts, our exploratory results suggest that introverts may experience greater boosts in social connectedness, relative to extraverts, when engaging in deeper conversations. This study provides compelling multimethod evidence supporting the link between more frequent and deeper social interactions and well-being.
In this paper, we argue that friendship should receive more attention in social/personality research. Here, we focus on our area of expertise, personality traits, and review the literature on how ...personality traits influence friendship formation, maintenance, and dissolution. Specifically, we examine how personality traits of the actor and partner influence friendship development (i.e., who is more likely to initiate and end friendships, and who is more likely to be the target of friendship initiation and termination). We also discuss dyadic effects, such as personality similarity, on friendship development. Throughout this review, we draw on the literature on personality and romantic relationships to identify the most important gaps in the literature on personality and friendships. Our review suggests that agreeableness has the most consistent effects on both romantic relationships and friendships, followed by neuroticism. Extraversion, conscientiousness, and openness to experience have all been shown to influence relationship development, but their effects are inconsistent. We end with a call for more research on friendship beyond the role of personality traits and suggestions for specific future directions.
Objective
There is a growing body of research regarding the situations that are linked to personality expression in daily life. We examined racialized young adults' experiences of racial and ethnic ...cues, and variables from prior personality expression research.
Method
We assessed Big Five personality states in racialized undergraduate students (N = 180) in the Greater Toronto Area, Canada using experience sampling methodology. Participants (Mage = 19.85‐years‐old; 51% South Asian, 17% East Asian, 11% African, 11% Middle Eastern, 9% Southeast Asian, 8% Black‐North American, 5% Caribbean, 3% Afro‐Caribbean, 2% Central American, 2% White/European, 1% South American, 1% North African, 1% South and Central American, 1% Afro‐European, 3% another) provided five assessments daily over 12 days (Nobservations = 6980).
Results
We observed within‐person associations from past personality expression research (e.g., participants exhibited greater conscientiousness when at school). Racial and ethnic cues from previous studies of racial and ethnic identity, stereotyping, discrimination, and prejudice were associated with situational characteristics (e.g., being in a majority White space was associated with being in public), and with Big Five personality states (e.g., racial identity salience was associated with extraversion).
Conclusion
Results suggest that assessing sociocultural variables beyond the individual provides an opportunity for better understanding personality expression.
I used the framework of the personality-relationship transaction to examine the co-development of personality and relationship quality during college in three different relationship contexts: an ...aggregate of friends, romantic partner dyads, and friend dyads. I treat the personality-relationship transaction as a dyadic process, rather than an ego-centric one, by including friends’ and romantic partners’ reports of personality and relationship quality. I created a multivariate latent growth curve model version of the Actor Partner Interdependence Model to test how personality and relationship quality co-developed. Initial correlations between personality and relationship quality reflect what is seen in previous work; self-reported extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness are positively correlated with friendship quality, and openness is negatively correlated with romantic relationship quality. There were very few associations between initial personality and relationship quality and changes in either domain. A notable exception was that changes in openness to experience were influenced by relationship quality in all three relationship contexts. Changes in personality and relationship quality were uncorrelated in all three relationship contexts. Overall, the results suggest that personality and relationships develop independently of each other, after taking their initial associations into account.
Personality is not the most popular subfield of psychology. But, in one way or another, personality psychologists have played an outsized role in the ongoing "credibility revolution" in psychology. ...Not only have individual personality psychologists taken on visible roles in the movement, but our field's practices and norms have now become models for other fields to emulate (or, for those who share Baumeister's (2016, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2016.02.003) skeptical view of the consequences of increasing rigor, a model for what to avoid). In this article we discuss some unique features of our field that may have placed us in an ideal position to be leaders in this movement. We do so from a subjective perspective, describing our impressions and opinions about possible explanations for personality psychology's disproportionate role in the credibility revolution. We also discuss some ways in which personality psychology remains less-than-optimal, and how we can address these flaws.
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