The dynamic role of personality states in mediating the relationship between extraversion and positive affect

Self-Perception of Extroversion Increases with Social Media Use: A Social Media Induction Task

Previous studies have examined the relationship between social media and extroversion, often relying on correlational designs. This study introduced a social media induction procedure to examine the relationship between social media and extroversion with an experimental design. In a procedure adapted from the personality research literature, participants used a written prompt to imagine themselves as a social media influencer and were then asked to use social media with this mindset. Participants' extroversion was measured before and after this activity using the Big Five Inventory. The results show that this social media induction procedure resulted in increased reports of extroversion after the task, and this post-task change was not predicted by other related social media factors (such as hours of social media use per day). These results complicate the assertion that differences in social media use between extroverts and introverts are due to its stronger appeal to extroverts.

Do people agree on how they and others are acting? Examining the degree of target-observer and observer-observer agreement about current behavior as it changes across situations

The purpose of the present research was to test the level of agreement between targets and observers both at any given moment and as the targets' current behavior (assessed as personality states) change across moments. Ninety-seven target participants participated in 22 different activities across 20 1-hour long sessions in a laboratory setting while reporting their current behavior, and their behavior was evaluated by 183 observers (total of 3,493 target self-reports, 2,973 of which had a corresponding observer report from at least one observer). Target-observer and observer-observer agreement was significant for all personality states (and was substantial for extraversion, conscientiousness, and openness to experience), and was observed in different situations, across all situations, and after accounting for normative agreement. The findings from this study-the first to examine within-person agreement on in-person behavioral states-provide evidence that people can accurately report their current behavior, that people agree on changes in behaviors across situations, and by extension that intensive assessment methodologies (such as experience-sampling methodology) have validity as assessments of momentary behavior. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Experimental effects of social behavior on well-being

Subjective well-being is characterized by relatively frequent positive emotions, relatively infrequent negative emotions, and high life satisfaction. Although myriad research topics related to subjective well-being have been explored - from how it should be measured to how it affects physical health - a key finding is that social connections are crucial. Researchers are therefore increasingly exploring whether subjective well-being can be improved through interventions that encourage specific types of social behaviors, including prosociality, gratitude, extraversion, and brief social interactions. We review this recent work, highlighting potential behavioral and psychological mechanisms underlying the effectiveness of such interventions, along with their boundary conditions.

Dispositional and situational personal features and acute post-collision head and neck pain: Double mediation of pain catastrophizing and pain sensitivity

Pain variability can be partially attributed to psycho-cognitive features involved in its processing. However, accumulating research suggests that simple linear correlation between situational and dispositional factors may not be sufficiently explanatory, with some positing a role for mediating influences. In addition, acute pain processing studies generally focus on a post-operative model with less attention provided to post-traumatic injury. As such, this study aimed to investigate a more comprehensive pain processing model that included direct and indirect associations between acute pain intensity in the head and neck, pain catastrophizing (using pain catastrophizing scale (PCS)), and pain sensitivity (using the pain sensitivity questionnaire (PSQ)), among 239 patients with post-motor vehicle collision pain. The effect of personality traits (using Ten Items Personality Inventory (TIPI)) and emotional status (using Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and Perceived Stress Scale (PSS)) on that model was examined as well. To this end, three Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) analyses were conducted. Overall, the data had good fit to all the models, with only PSQ found to have a direct correlation with acute pain intensity. The SEM analyses conversely revealed several mediations. Specifically, that: first, PSQ fully mediated the relationship between PCS and pain intensity; second, PCS and PSQ together fully mediated the relationship between conscientiousness (personality trait) and pain intensity; and finally, emotional status had direct and indirect links with PSQ and pain intensity. In conclusion, these models suggest that during the acute post-collision phase, pain sensitivity intermediates between emotional states and personality traits, partially via elevated pain catastrophizing thoughts.

The Joyful Life: An Existential-Humanistic Approach to Positive Psychology in the Time of a Pandemic

In the midst of a global pandemic, psychology has a duty to identify dispositional or character traits that can be cultivated in citizens in order to create resiliency in the face of profound losses, suffering and distress. Dispositional joy holds some promise as such a trait that could be especially important for well-being during the current pandemic and its consequences. The concept of the Joyful Life may operate as bridge between positive psychology and humanistic, existential, and spiritual views of the good life, by integrating hedonic, prudential, eudaimonic and chaironic visions of the good life. Previous phenomenological research on state joy suggests that momentary states of joy may have features that overlap with happiness but go beyond mere hedonic interests, and point to the experience of a life oriented toward virtue and a sense of the transcendent or the sacred. However, qualitative research on the Joyful Life, or dispositional joy, is sorely lacking. This study utilized a dialogical phenomenological analysis to conduct a group-based analysis of 17 volunteer students, who produced 51 autobiographical narrative descriptions of the joyful life. The dialogical analyses were assisted by integration of the Imagery in Movement Method, which incorporated expressive drawing and psychodrama as an aid to explicate implicit themes in the experiences of the participants. The analyses yielded ten invariant themes found across the autobiographical narrative descriptions: Being broken, being grounded, being centered, breaking open, being uplifted, being supertemporal, being open to the mystery, being grateful, opening up and out, and being together. The descriptions of a Joyful Life were consistent with a meaning orientation to happiness, due to their emphasis on the cultivation of virtue in the service of a higher calling, the realization of which was felt to be a gift or blessing. The discussion examines implications for future research, including the current relevance of a joyful disposition during a global pandemic. Due to the joyful disposition's tendency to transform suffering and tragedy into meaning, and its theme of an orientation to prosocial motivations, the Joyful Life may occupy a central place in the study of resiliency and personal growth in response to personal and collective trauma such as COVID-19.

Do You Feel Better When You Behave More Extraverted Than You Are? The Relationship Between Cumulative Counterdispositional Extraversion and Positive Feelings

The idea that increased levels of extraversion are beneficial to well-being is widespread. Drawing on the idea that behaving discordant to one's trait level is demanding and effortful to maintain, and that repeated taxations of one's self-regulatory resources are unpleasant, we examined the relationship between cumulative counterdispositional extraversion and positive feelings. In two experience-sampling (ESM) studies, participants repeatedly rated their level of state extraversion and positive feelings. Results revealed that cumulative positive deviations from one's trait extraversion level were positively associated with positive feelings, whereas cumulative negative deviations were negatively associated with positive feelings. This confirms the idea that, also when looking at cumulative instances of extraversion-related behaviors, higher levels of extraversion go hand in hand with higher levels of positive feelings.

What makes for a pleasant social experience in adolescence? The role of perceived social interaction behavior in associations between personality traits and momentary social satisfaction

Whereas theory and research agree that social interactions are central mediators of the associations between personality traits and relationship outcomes, less is known about the mechanisms involved. This is particularly evident when looking at adolescence, when social networks restructure and expand. Drawing on experience sampling data from two adolescent samples (overall N > 200), we examined which self- and other-perceptions of real-life social interaction behaviors contribute to the links between personality traits (i.e., extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism) and momentary satisfaction with social interactions. Multilevel exploratory factor analyses revealed that most social perceptions could be represented by two factors, labeled expressive and communal behavior. As hypothesized, we found that higher extraversion and agreeableness and lower neuroticism predicted greater social satisfaction. These associations were mediated by perceptions of more expressive and communal behaviors in the case of agreeableness and extraversion and perceptions of less expressive behavior in the case of neuroticism. Contrary to our expectations, the results were the same no matter whether self- or other-perceptions were used as mediators. We discuss how our results provide information about the co-development of personality traits and social relationships from a microlevel perspective and outline directions for future research on perceived social interaction behavior.

The Affiliative Role of Empathy in Everyday Interpersonal Interactions

Empathy theoretically serves an affiliative interpersonal function by satisfying motives for intimacy and union with others. Accordingly, empathy is expected to vary depending on the situation. Inconsistent empirical support for empathy's affiliative role may be because of methodology focused on individual differences in empathy or differences between controlled experimental conditions, which fail to capture its dynamic and interpersonal nature. To address these shortcomings, we used ecological momentary assessment to establish typical patterns of empathy across everyday interactions. Associations among empathy, affect, and interpersonal behaviour of self and interaction partner were examined in a student sample (N = 330), then replicated in a preregistered community sample (N = 279). Multilevel structural equation modelling was used to distinguish individual differences in empathy from interaction-level effects. Results show that people are more empathetic during positively valenced interactions with others perceived as warm and when expressing warmth. By confirming the typically affiliative role of empathy, existing research to the contrary can be best understood as exceptions to the norm.

Bayesian Multivariate Mixed-Effects Location Scale Modeling of Longitudinal Relations Among Affective Traits, States, and Physical Activity

Intensive longitudinal studies and experience sampling methods are becoming more common in psychology. While they provide a unique opportunity to ask novel questions about within-person processes relating to personality, there is a lack of methods specifically built to characterize the interplay between traits and states. We thus introduce a Bayesian multivariate mixed-effects location scale model (M-MELSM). The formulation can simultaneously model both personality traits (the location) and states (the scale) for multivariate data common to personality research. Variables can be included to predict either (or both) the traits and states, in addition to estimating random effects therein. This provides correlations between location and scale random effects, both across and within each outcome, which allows for characterizing relations between any number of personality traits and the corresponding states. We take a fully Bayesian approach, not only to make estimation possible, but also because it provides the necessary information for use in psychological applications such as hypothesis testing. To illustrate the model we use data from 194 individuals that provided daily ratings of negative and positive affect, as well as their physical activity in the form of step counts over 100 consecutive days. We describe the fitted model, where we emphasize, with visualization, the richness of information provided by the M-MELSM. We demonstrate Bayesian hypothesis testing for the correlations between the random effects. We conclude by discussing limitations of the MELSM in general and extensions to the M-MELSM specifically for personality research.

Sociable behavior is related to later fatigue: moment-to-moment patterns of behavior and tiredness

The popular idea that extraverted behavior is mentally depleting has received support in one previous study. The present research attempted to replicate this finding and rule out some alternative explanations. An experience-sampling study was conducted to this end (N = 74, observations = 1046). The results showed that extraverted behavior was indeed related to feeling tired 2–3 h later. The results provide empirical evidence of an everyday life pattern between behavior and feelings states.

Validation of the Mexican Spanish Version of the Scale of Positive and Negative Experience in a Sample of Medical and Psychology Students

The Scale of Positive and Negative Experience (SPANE) aims to measure affect with high transcultural validity. The bifactor model is the best theoretical option to represent affective balance, although it is not typically used in validation studies. The objectives of this research were to test a bifactor model vis-à-vis the traditional model composed of two correlated factors, to prove its invariance across sexes, and to provide evidence of concurrent validity. A nonprobability sample composed of 600 Mexican students of psychology and medicine was recruit. One-group and multigroup confirmatory factor analyses were carried out. The SPANE and the scales selected to assess depression, perceived stress, and satisfaction with life were applied. The bifactor model showed better goodness-of-fit indices than the two correlated factors model: Δχ²(11) = 121.436, p < . 001, Δχ²/Δdf = 11.04 > 5, ΔGFI = .034, ΔNFI = .025, ΔNNFI = .022, and ΔCFI = .023 >.01. The internal consistency for the general factor as well as for the factor of positive affect was excellent, whereas it was good for the factor of negative affect. The measurement model was valid across sexes. The general factor of affective balance had a very high correlation with depression, high with perceived stress, and medium with satisfaction with life. It is concluded that SPANE is reliable and shows evidence of validity among Mexican student of psychology and medicine, and the bifactor model is adequate to represent affective balance.

Zooming into Real-Life Extraversion – how Personality and Situation Shape Sociability in Social Interactions

What predicts sociable behavior? While main effects of personality and situation characteristics on sociability are well established, there is little evidence for the existence of person-situation interaction effects within real-life social interactions. Moreover, previous research has focused on self-reported behavior ratings, and less is known about the partner’s social perspective, i.e. how partners perceive and influence an actor’s behavior. In the current research, we investigated predictors of sociable behavior in real-life social interactions across social perspectives, including person and situation main effects as well as person-situation interaction effects. In two experience-sampling studies (Study 1: N = 394, US, time-based; Study 2: N = 124, Germany, event-based), we assessed personality traits with self- and informant-reports, self-reported sociable behavior during real-life social interactions, and corresponding information on the situation (categorical situation classifications and dimensional ratings of situation characteristics). In Study 2, we additionally assessed interaction partner-reported actor behavior. Multilevel analyses provided evidence for main effects of personality and situation features, as well as small but consistent evidence for person-situation interaction effects. First, extraverts acted more sociable in general. Second, individuals behaved more sociable in low-effort/positive/low-duty situations (vs. high-effort/negative/high-duty situations). Third, the latter was particularly true for extraverts. Further specific interaction effects were found for the partner’s social perspective. These results are discussed regarding their accordance with different behavioral models (e.g., Trait Activation Theory) and their transferability to other behavioral domains.

The Big Five, Everyday Contexts and Activities, and Affective Experience

Prior research shows that personality traits predict time spent with different people and frequency of engagement in different activities. Further, personality traits, company, and activity are related to the experience of affect. However, little research has examined personality, context, and affect together in the same study. In the current study, 78 people described their Big Five traits and took part in a 1-week experience sampling study using mobile phones as a means for data collection. Participants indicated their current company, activity, and momentary affect along the dimensions of energetic arousal (EA), tense arousal (TA), and hedonic tone (HT). Poisson regressions revealed that traits predicted higher frequencies of trait-consistent contexts: for example, extraversion was related to more frequently being with various types of company. Results predicting contexts from multilevel logistic regressions were sparser. Multilevel models revealed that traits and contexts had main effects on affect, yet there were relatively few interactions of traits X contexts predicting affect. We discuss more specific implications of these findings.

Toward understanding the relationship between personality and well-being states and traits

OBJECTIVE

Although there is a robust connection between dispositional personality traits and well-being, relatively little research has comprehensively examined the ways in which all Big Five personality states are associated with short-term experiences of well-being within individuals. We address three central questions about the nature of the relationship between personality and well-being states: First, to what extent do personality and well-being states covary within individuals? Second, to what extent do personality and well-being states influence one another within individuals? Finally, are these within-person relationships moderated by dispositional personality traits and well-being?

METHOD

Two experience sampling studies (N = 161 and N = 146) were conducted over 2 weeks.

RESULTS

Across both studies, all Big Five personality states were correlated with short-term experiences of well-being within individuals. Individuals were more extraverted, emotionally stable, conscientious, agreeable, and open in moments when they experienced higher well-being (greater self-esteem, life satisfaction and positive affect, and less negative affect). Moreover, personality and well-being states dynamically influenced one another over time within individuals, and these associations were not generally moderated by dispositional traits or well-being.

CONCLUSIONS

Behavior and well-being are interconnected within the context of the Big Five model of personality.

Integrating Personality Structure, Personality Process, and Personality Development

In this target article, we argue that personality processes, personality structure, and personality development have to be understood and investigated in integrated ways in order to provide comprehensive responses to the key questions of personality psychology. The psychological processes and mechanisms that explain concrete behaviour in concrete situations should provide explanation for patterns of variation across situations and individuals, for development over time as well as for structures observed in intra–individual and inter–individual differences. Personality structures, defined as patterns of covariation in behaviour, including thoughts and feelings, are results of those processes in transaction with situational affordances and regularities. It cannot be presupposed that processes are organized in ways that directly correspond to the observed structure. Rather, it is an empirical question whether shared sets of processes are uniquely involved in shaping correlated behaviours, but not uncorrelated behaviours (what we term ‘correspondence’ throughout this paper), or whether more complex interactions of processes give rise to population–level patterns of covariation (termed ‘emergence’). The paper is organized in three parts, with part I providing the main arguments, part II reviewing some of the past approaches at (partial) integration, and part III outlining conclusions of how future personality psychology should progress towards complete integration. Working definitions for the central terms are provided in the appendix. Copyright © 2017 European Association of Personality Psychology

Investigating the association between social interactions and personality states dynamics

The recent personality psychology literature has coined the name of personality states to refer to states having the same behavioural, affective and cognitive content (described by adjectives) as the corresponding trait, but for a shorter duration. The variability in personality states may be the reaction to specific characteristics of situations. The aim of our study is to investigate whether specific situational factors, that is, different configurations of face-to-face interactions, are predictors of variability of personality states in a work environment. The obtained results provide evidence that within-person variability in personality is associated with variation in face-to-face interactions. Interestingly, the effects differ by type and level of the personality states: adaptation effects for Agreeableness and Emotional Stability, whereby the personality states of an individual trigger similar states in other people interacting with them and complementarity effects for Openness to Experience, whereby the personality states of an individual trigger opposite states in other people interacting with them. Overall, these findings encourage further research to characterize face-to-face and social interactions in terms of their relevance to personality states.

Age Differences in the Effects of Self-Esteem

Abstract. This study examined the link between physical symptoms, affect, and self-esteem in everyday life across adulthood. The sample consisted of young, middle-aged, and older adults. Results indicated a significant Self-Esteem × Physical Symptoms interaction on positive affect (PA). The effect of self-esteem on PA was lower with increasing physical symptoms. For negative affect (NA), the Self-Esteem × Physical Symptoms × Age interaction was significant. In older adults, the effect of self-esteem on NA was lower with increasing physical symptoms. Thus, the effect of self-esteem ran opposite to the expected buffering effect. In addition, the age difference in the effect of self-esteem on NA presents potential challenges to the adaptive capacity of older adults in emotional well-being.

Happy Now, Tired Later? Extraverted and Conscientious Behavior Are Related to Immediate Mood Gains, but to Later Fatigue

OBJECTIVE

Experience sampling studies on Big Five-related behavior show that people display the whole spectrum of each trait in their daily behavior, and that desirable Big Five states-especially state Extraversion-are related to positive mood. However, other research lines suggest that extraverted and conscientious behavior may be mentally depleting. The present research examined this possibility by extending the time frame of the measured personality processes.

METHOD

A 12-day experience sampling study (N = 48; observations = 2,328) measured Big Five states, mood, stress, and fatigue five times a day.

RESULTS

Extraverted and conscientious behavior were concurrently related to positive mood and lower fatigue, but to higher fatigue after a 3-hour delay. These relations were not moderated by personality traits. The relation between extraverted behavior and delayed fatigue was mediated by the number of people the person had encountered. Whether the person had a goal mediated the relation between conscientious behavior and delayed fatigue.

CONCLUSION

Extraverted and conscientious behavior predict mental depletion after a 3-hour delay. The results help reconcile previous findings regarding the consequences of state Extraversion and provide novel information about the consequences of state Conscientiousness.

Velocity Explains the Links between Personality States and Affect

The present research examined whether perceived rate of progress toward a goal (velocity) mediated the relationships between personality states and affective states. Drawing from control theories of self-regulation, we hypothesized (i) that increased velocity would mediate the association between state extraversion and state positive affect, and (ii) that decreased velocity would mediate the association between state neuroticism and state negative affect. We tested these hypotheses in 2 experience sampling methodology studies that each spanned 2 weeks. Multilevel modeling analyses showed support for each of the bivariate links in our model, and multilevel path analyses supported our mediation hypotheses. We discuss implications for understanding the relations between personality states and affective states, control theories of self-regulation, and goal striving.