The four elementary forms of sociality: framework for a unified theory of social relations

How Peers Make a Difference: The Role of Peer Groups and Peer Relationships in Personality Development

Peers are a pervasive aspect of people's lives, but their role in personality development has rarely been considered. This is surprising, given that peers are promising candidates to explain personality development over the entire lifespan. Owing to the lack of clear–cut definitions of peers, we first elaborate on their defining criteria and functions in different life phases. We then discuss the role of peers in personality development across the lifespan. We advocate that an integration of social group perspectives and social relationship perspectives is essential to understand peer effects on personality development. Group socialization theory is particularly suited to explain developmental differences between groups as a result of group norms. However, it is blind towards differences in development within peer groups. In contrast, the PERSOC framework is particularly suited to explain individual differences in development within groups as a result of specific dyadic peer–relationship experiences. We propose that a conjunct consideration of peer–group effects and dyadic peer–relationship effects can advance the general understanding of personality development. We discuss examples for a cross–fertilization of the two frameworks that suggest avenues for future research. Copyright © 2014 European Association of Personality Psychology

Perceived primal threat, stress, and health: further examination of the role of perceived primal threat in the stress process

The general aim of the two studies presented here was to further examine the role of Perceived Primal Threat (PPT) in the stress process. PPT refers to threats against a four-component set of interdependent "primal" needs: self-preservation, social integration, personal identity and growth, and personal worldview. These threats are suggested to represent a pathway through which stress affects health. The first study (cross-sectional) was conducted in a sample of 216 healthy adults, while the second (prospective) in a sample of 137 chronically ill outpatients. The findings of both studies underlined the incremental and discriminant validity of PPT in relation to other stress-related variables. Furthermore, they provided support to the hypotheses that PPT is independently related to well-being and also mediates the relation of the stressful condition to well-being. Overall, the two studies underlined the important role of PPT in the stress process and indicated that PPT represents a promising research area.