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Extraversion, social support processes, and stress
Abstract
This study was designed to determine the role extraversion plays in influencing the utilization of social support and how this support might then subsequently influence extraverts' and introverts' differential experience of stress. Ninety-nine undergraduate introductory psychology students served as participants in the study. Participants were administered questionnaires that assessed level of extraversion, perceived available support, enacted support, social network characteristics, and stress, as measured by daily hassles. Results of the study revealed positive correlations between extraversion and perceived availability of support (Belonging and Tangible), enacted support (Directive Guidance, Nondirective Support, Positive Social Interaction, Tangible Assistance), and social network characteristics (network size and contact with network members). Extraversion was also positively correlated with stress. Results of path analyses suggested that perceived availability of support, in particular Belonging support, might mediate the relationship between extraversion and stress.
... Extraversion reflects one's tendency to be outgoing, socially engaged, energetic, and experience positive emotions. Highly extraverted individuals tend to have wider social networks and actively participate in social activities [15]. In contrast, introverts prefer solitary activities and tend to be independent and reserved. ...
... Beyond direct relationships, researchers have proposed that personality traits influence well-being indirectly through social support processes [15]. Social support denotes feeling cared for, esteemed, and part of a network providing emotional and instrumental assistance [11,37]. ...
... Perceptions of available social support cultivate positive self-regard, a sense of belonging, and effective coping with life stressors-all of which bolster wellness [22]. Empirically, prior works have shown that social support mediates the links between extraversion, neuroticism, and subjective well-being [15,38]. Extraverted individuals likely garner greater support through sociability, whereas neuroticism may elicit conflict and social isolation. ...
University life is a critical period for personality development and psychological well-being. This study, which investigated the relationships between the Big Five personality traits, social support, and psychological well-being, particularly the mediation role of social support, has yielded significant findings. A total of 848 university students (570 females, 67.2%) were conveniently sampled in Taiwan. The results, which showed that female students scored significantly higher on conscientiousness, neuroticism, and social support than male students, with no gender differences for other traits and psychological well-being, provide valuable insights. The mediation analysis, when controlling for gender, demonstrated that social support only mediates the two personality traits (extraversion and agreeableness). Specifically, under the control of social support, the Big Five traits, except for agreeableness, still directly affect psychological well-being. Further, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness can directly affect students’ psychological well-being without being mediated by social support, while extraversion can affect psychological well-being in both direct and indirect pathways. Moreover, agreeableness can affect psychological well-being completely by an indirect pathway through social support. These findings not only contribute to the existing body of knowledge but also underscore the importance of personality traits and social support for higher education students’ mental health and adaptive functioning.
... Previous studies have found correlations between all Big Five personality traits and perceived social support dimensions (e.g., Hill et al., 2018;Swickert et al., 2010). That said, three traits in particular appear most linked to perceived support: extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism (see, e.g., Asendorpf & Van Aken, 2003;Bolger & Eckenrode, 1991;Swickert et al., 2002). Namely, more extraverted, agreeable, and emotionally stable (less neurotic) individuals tend to perceive higher levels of support. ...
... Individuals who reported greater support also tended to score higher on agreeableness, extraversion, and conscientiousness, but lower on neuroticism. These four traits have been implicated in the past work on support and personality (Asendorpf & Van Aken, 2003;Bolger & Eckenrode, 1991;Swickert et al., 2002). The current work provided two valuable additions to these cross-sectional associations. ...
The current study investigated how perceived social support was associated with personality trait development in a Swedish longitudinal sample ( n = 3914; mean age = 63.09 years) with six waves of data on individuals’ Big Five personality traits, and perceived support from family, friends, and a special someone. We employed random intercept cross-lagged panel models to consider the between- and within-person associations for these constructs over time. First, in almost all cases, between-person associations were found between the levels for personality traits and support variables. Moreover, findings did not differ much depending on the source of the relationship. Second, again in almost every model, significant within-person covariances were evidenced, suggesting that when individuals increased on support relative to their typical level at a given wave, they also tended to report higher levels than they typically do on these traits. Finally, however, little evidence was found for cross-lagged effects in either direction. Across models, only one cross-lagged association even reached significance. In sum, our findings support the close connection between personality and perceived social support in older adulthood, and they motivate future directions into when and why such associations occur using more proximal measurements.
... Supporting this position, there is a considerable body of evidence supporting the assertion that social wellbeing is indeed correlated with extraversion (Deng et al., 2021). People with higher extraversion have been shown to be more averse to aloneness; to respond to social stimuli with greater attention, reward, and positivity; and to have greater social capital and support compared to people with higher introversion (Dumitrache et al., 2018;Fishman et al., 2011;Fishman and Ng, 2013;Jacques-Hamilton et al., 2018;Lu et al., 2014;Smillie, 2013;Swickert et al., 2002;Teppers et al., 2013;Tulin et al., 2018). All of this evidence lends credibility to the belief that people with higher introversion enjoy solitude, whereas people with higher extraversion need social connection to thrive. ...
... The need for social support and to feel a sense of belonging and social inclusion may be better conceptualized as a universal human need (Baumeister and Leary, 1995). Indeed, even highly introverted individuals experience an increase in positive affect after socializing (Duffy et al., 2018) and the benefits of extraversion on happiness or coping with stress seem to be mediated by social support (Swickert et al., 2002;Tan et al., 2018)-suggesting that the challenge for people with higher introversion may lay in finding, recognising, and utilizing supportive social connections. Further, people with higher introversion have been shown to receive even a greater boost to happiness relative to people with higher extraversion when engaging in deeper conversations (Sun et al., 2020) and people with higher introversion who are instructed to act more extraverted experience more positive affect (similar to people with higher extraversion) than when they act more introverted (Zelenski et al., 2012). ...
This study examines whether extraversion moderates the association between subjective happiness and measures of social connectedness using data from Canadian residents, aged 16+, recruited online during the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic (21 April 2021–1 June 2021). To accomplish this aim we tested the moderating effect of extraversion scores on the association between Subjective Happiness scores and several social health measures: Perceived Social Support, Loneliness, social network size, and time with friends. Among 949 participants, results show that lower social loneliness ( p < .001) and higher social support from friends ( p = .001) and from family ( p = .007) was more strongly correlated with subjective happiness for people with low extraversion compared to those with high extroversion. Anti-loneliness interventions should consider the need to promote social connections among individuals across the introversion-extraversion continuum.
... In addition, introverted individuals might be better equipped to cope with decreased social interaction while maintaining healthy behaviors and mindsets, without resorting to risky behaviors like substance use [18]. On the other hand, extroverts tend to have higher levels of social supports [19] and perceive their social relationships more positively [20], which could also help reduce the extent of loneliness during quarantine. Therefore, our findings suggest that clinicians consider personalizing social recommendations to individual preferences. ...
The COVID-19 pandemic created unprecedented challenges for social connectivity and mental health, especially during mandated shelter-in-place periods. For patients engaged in mental health treatment, the social impact of their shelter-in-place experience remains an area of active investigation. This is particularly relevant in the context of social prescribing, a growing area of clinical intervention where healthcare providers actively refer patients to local social resources or activities to enhance mental health and wellbeing. Here, we investigated patient perspectives on their social supports during shelter-in-place, with an eye toward informing future social prescribing and counseling steps that mental health clinicians can take to foster social resiliency of patients. We conducted semi-structured phone interviews with 12 participants receiving mental health treatment at Kaiser Permanente San Jose Adult Psychiatry clinics. Interviews were transcribed and analyzed for themes. The sample consisted of 8 female and 4 male participants between the ages of 21 to 44, who received services including outpatient medication management, outpatient therapy, and/or outpatient group therapy. Analysis revealed two thematic categories that participants identified: (A) Specific ways that shelter-in-place impacted their social experience and (B) specific types of social relationships that participants felt were important to their mental health and wellbeing. In the first category, thematic factors that affected the social experience included (1) COVID-19-related health concerns, (2) participants’ baseline socialization patterns (degree of introversion/extroversion) and (3) the use of online and social media communication channels. For the second category of themes, specific functions of social relationships identified included those centered around (a) instrumental support, (b) emotional support, (c) community connection. Many relationships served more than one function during shelter-in-place, and many participants cited perceived community connection as a particularly important element in their mental health recovery. These themes highlight key contributors to the social experience of the shelter-in-place period for individuals in mental health recovery and inform future ways that clinicians can structure social prescribing practices to better assist the needs of patients.
... As pointed out by Saramäki et al., [27] social signatures' characteristics reflect the fact that ego networks are typically layered into a series of hierarchically inclusive subsets of relationships of different quality. One of the constraints shaping the social signatures seems to be the one arising from differences in personality traits, with some individuals preferring to have a few, intense, and stable relationships and others preferring more diverse, but less intense ones [45]. ...
Strong and supportive social relationships are fundamental to our well-being. However, there are costs to their maintenance, resulting in a trade-off between quality and quantity, a typical strategy being to put a lot of effort on a few high-intensity relationships while maintaining larger numbers of less close relationships. It has also been shown that there are persistent individual differences in this pattern; some individuals allocate their efforts more uniformly across their networks, while others strongly focus on their closest relationships. Furthermore, some individuals maintain more stable networks than others. Here, we focus on how personality traits of individuals affect this picture, using mobile phone calls records and survey data from the Mobile Territorial Lab (MTL) study. In particular, we look at the relationship between personality traits and the (i) persistence of social signatures, namely the similarity of the social signature shape of an individual measured in different time intervals; (ii) the turnover in egocentric networks, that is, differences in the set of alters present at two consecutive temporal intervals; and (iii) the rank dynamics defined as the variation of alter rankings in egocentric networks in consecutive intervals. We observe that some traits have effects on the stability of the social signatures as well as network turnover and rank dynamics. As an example, individuals who score highly in the Openness to Experience trait tend to have higher levels of network turnover and larger alter rank variations. On broader terms, our study shows that personality traits clearly affect the ways in which individuals maintain their personal networks.
... [46,47] Student-related circumstances are frequently referred to in student well-being research, including fear of failing and long hours of study [43] , social demands [44,45,48] and lack of social support. [49] Questionnaires have been developed explicitly for assessing student-specific circumstances that can impact well-being, such as the Inventory of College Students' Recent Life Experiences (ICSRLE), which includes factors such as time pressures, challenges to development, and social mistreatment. [50] Research using the ISCRLE has also shown that the variables involved should be acknowledged in managing stress by businesses whose employees may also be students, [51] further supporting the necessity of establishing the generalisability of the approach to other areas. ...
... Empirical evidence supports this claim, as extraversion has been found to be closely and positively linked to support reception: It is positively associated with support received from colleagues at work (Bowling, Beehr, and Swader 2005), with seeking social support when faced with a threat (Pow, Lee-Baggley, and DeLongis 2017) and with the general reception of social support in both student and community samples (Swickert et al. 2002;Williamson and O'Hara 2017). It has also been found to be a positive predictor for social support during the COVID-19 pandemic in students (Agbaria and Mokh 2022). ...
Social support can benefit its recipients and even its providers and is especially important in times of crisis. During the COVID‐19 pandemic, support from society and personal networks became particularly crucial but individuals greatly differed in their support reception and provision. The Big Five personality traits may be key to explaining these interindividual differences: In this study, we investigated their impact on the support provided, received and additionally needed during the COVID‐19 pandemic using data collected in October 2020 in a large German sample ( N = 3330). The Big Five personality traits predicted support received from the state, civil society and the social network, with extraversion and openness emerging as positive and conscientiousness and emotional stability as negative predictors. The need for additional support was predicted positively by openness and negatively by conscientiousness, emotional stability and agreeableness. Support provision was predicted by all traits, positively by extraversion and openness and negatively by conscientiousness and emotional stability. Notably, agreeableness showed positive associations with social but negative associations with societal support reception and provision. Our findings highlight the importance of personality in social support processes during crises and the need to distinguish between different support sources. Please refer to the Supplementary Material section to find this article's Community and Social Impact Statement .
... For instance, neuroticism, characterized by emotional instability, is linked to maladaptive coping strategies like avoidance and worry, hindering effective stress management (5). In contrast, extraversion, marked by sociability and assertiveness, encourages active problem-solving and optimism (6), while agreeableness, associated with cooperation and compassion, fosters social support and interpersonal effectiveness (5). Openness to experience, which includes creativity and intellectual curiosity, aids in adapting to complex situations. ...
Background
The impact of COVID-19 on older adults’ personality development is essential for emergency management but under-researched. This study seeks to explore the personality profiles of older adults living in the United States and how these profiles transitioned during the pandemic.
Methods
Longitudinal data were collected from 3,550 adults aged 60 and older who participated in both the 2016 and 2020 waves of the Health and Retirement Survey (61.18% female, mean age 65.85 in 2016). Personality traits were assessed using the Midlife Development Inventory. COVID-19-related experiences including pandemic concerns, restricted healthcare access, financial instability, work challenges, disrupted social connections, and mutual aid behaviors. Latent Profile Analysis and Transition Analysis were used for analysis.
Results
Three distinct personality profiles were identified: Well-adjusted, Moderate-adjusted, and Poor-adjusted. About 42% of respondents experienced personality changes during the pandemic. Higher levels of COVID-19 concern were linked to an increased likelihood of transitioning to Poor-adjusted from Moderate (OR=1.06, p<0.05) or Well-adjusted (OR=1.05, p<0.01). Challenges such as healthcare delays and financial hardships hindered transitions from Poor- to Moderate-adjusted (Healthcare delay: OR=0.39, p<0.05; Financial hardships: OR=0.67, p<0.05) but increased the likelihood of Moderate-adjusted individuals transitioning to Poor-adjusted (Healthcare delay: OR=1.46, p<0.05; Financial hardships: OR=1.51, p<0.05). However, Poor-adjusted individuals who provided help to others were more likely to transition to Moderate-adjusted (OR=2.71, p<0.01).
Conclusions
Personality transitions during crisis are significant among older adults. Future interventions should focus on addressing traumatic concerns, encouraging helping behaviors, and mitigating healthcare and financial challenges to support older adults’ personality development during crisis.
... Personality traits such as extraversion may also influence which behaviors ostracized individuals choose and how beneficial they are to their coping efforts. For instance, it could be that extraverted individuals are more likely to restore their belonging need from talking about their ostracism experiences than introverted individuals (Swickert et al., 2002). ...
Ostracism—being ignored and excluded—is part of many individuals’ daily lives. Yet, ostracism is often studied in laboratory settings and rarely in natural settings. Here, we report one of the first investigations into ostracism in everyday life by documenting how often and where ostracism occurs; who the sources of ostracism are; and how ostracism affects targets’ feelings and behaviors. Two experience sampling studies using event-contingent (N = 323, k = 1,107 ostracism experiences in 14 days) and time-signaling sampling approaches (N = 272, k = 7,943 assessments including 767 ostracism experiences in 7 days) show that ostracism is an aversive experience that takes place in a range of contexts and relationships, as often as two to three times per week on average. Reconciling previously mixed findings regarding ostracism’s effects on behavior and extending existing theory, we propose a novel framework of behavioral reactions based on need-threat levels: When psychological needs are severely threatened, individuals react to everyday ostracism with avoidance (i.e., withdrawal) and antisocial inclinations (i.e., they exhibit significantly stronger antisocial intentions, although they do not engage in antisocial behavior more frequently). Conversely, when psychological needs are threatened to a lesser extent, individuals are more likely to adopt approach behaviors (i.e., prosocial behavior, talking to others, or connecting with them on social media). Our findings considerably extend present theorizing in ostracism research as they allow to understand when and how individuals experience everyday ostracism and how behavioral reactions after ostracism form in real life.
... This supports the notion that personality traits, especially high levels of neuroticism (i.e., low levels of emotional stability), contribute to burnout risk, as it acts as a negative filter through which daily work activities are viewed (Semmer, 2006). Furthermore, extroverts, with their outgoing and sociable nature, may also experience lower levels of somatic complaints, because of their strong social support networks and positive coping strategies (Swickert et al., 2002). To this effect, the current results support Roloff et al. (2022) and suggest that interventions should take a preventative approach when considering personality traits and burnout. ...
Orientation: Research indicates that personality strengths and weaknesses can be a good starting point in reducing burnout risk and the resulting somatic symptoms that lower employee health and organisational outcomes. Research purpose: The current study investigated the relationship between burnout, personality traits, and somatic symptoms in a South African sample. Motivation for the study: Despite burnout’s influence on employee health and organisational outcomes, no study has been conducted within the South African context investigating these phenomena together. Knowledge of the specific personality traits that increase burnout risk and somatic symptoms is essential, as it can help create interventions to prevent and lower burnout risk for South African employees. Research approach/design and method: A quantitative cross-sectional design was followed by a purposive sample ( N = 249) of South African employees who were at least 18 years old. They completed a short form Big Five personality traits and the Burnout Assessment Tool. Main findings: The results indicate a strong link between burnout and somatic symptoms, but that increased emotional stability and openness lowered burnout risk. Extraversion and emotional stability also lowered employees’ experiences of somatic symptoms, whereas conscientiousness increased somatic symptoms. Practical/managerial implications: The results inform South African organisations on possible personality traits that increase burnout risk and can inform practice and create interventions and training for employees. Contribution/value-add: The results contribute to burnout research in South Africa and create a basis for future research.
... and others(Amichai-Hamburger & Vinitzky, 2010;Bolger & Eckenrode, 1991;Kalish & Robins, 2006;Swickert, Rosentreter, Hittner, & Mushrush, 2002).2.2.1. Study 2 method2.2.1.1. ...
Research on individual differences in face recognition has provided important foundational insights: their broad range, cognitive specificity, strong heritability, and resilience to change. Elusive, however, has been the key issue of practical relevance: do these individual differences correlate with aspects of life that go beyond the recognition of faces, per se? Though often assumed, especially in social realms, such correlates remain largely theoretical, without empirical support. Here, we investigate an array of potential social correlates of face recognition. We establish social relationship quality as a reproducible correlate. This link generalises across face recognition tasks and across independent samples. In contrast, we detect no robust association with the sheer quantity of social connections, whether measured directly via number of social contacts or indirectly via extraversion-related personality indices. These findings document the existence of a key social correlate of face recognition and provide some of the first evidence to support its practical relevance. At the same time, they challenge the naive assumption that face recognition relates equally to all social outcomes. In contrast, they suggest a focused link of face recognition to the quality, not quantity, of one’s social connections.
... Miloseva and colleagues (2017) found that high levels of perceived support moderated the association between adverse events and distress. Similarly, Swickert et al. (2002) demonstrated that social support might mediate the relationship between extraversion and stress. However, Ioannou and colleagues (2019) provide an alternative perspective, suggesting that high levels of perceived support can be associated with increased distress due to the perception of being unable to take care of one's circumstances. ...
There is a common belief that experiencing stressful life events can lead to mental distress. However, we wanted to explore whether all individuals who encounter SLEs will also experience mental distress. Also, we were curious to explore the contribution of social and individual characteristics in the prediction of mental distress above or beyond SLEs. The current study investigated if rumination, extraversion, perceived social support, stressful life events, and neuroticism can predict levels of mental distress independently from one another. A sample of 183 university students was recruited, and questionnaires on neuroticism, extraversion, rumination, perceived social support, and stressful life events were completed. A regression analysis was conducted to test whether these variables can predict levels of mental distress. Not all participants who experienced stressful life events would experience mental distress. Also, regression analysis revealed that stressful life events, social support, neuroticism, and rumination all independently predicted levels of mental distress when controlling for age and levels of extraversion. The present study sheds light on how various internal factors, such as neuroticism and rumination, and external factors, such as stressful life events and social support, may and may not contribute to mental distress.
... Therefore, extraversion is another personality trait with an affective component. Individuals with high levels of extraversion also seek social participation and involvement with others; consequently, they are more likely to perceive and gain actual social support (Swickert et al., 2002). Our findings indicate that the entire sample exhibits a positive correlation between extraversion and perceived stress, and specifically among students, extraversion has a small negative association with life satisfaction. ...
This article investigates the links between the Big Five personality traits and self‐efficacy, perceived stress, and life satisfaction during the COVID‐19 pandemic on a large sample of Czech university students and lecturers ( N = 11,824). The study's findings indicate that during the pandemic, negative emotionality was strongly associated with both perceived stress and life satisfaction. The study also reveals a positive link between extraversion and perceived stress across the entire sample, and in the student group specifically, extraversion was negatively associated with life satisfaction. This suggests that a high level of extraversion may not act as a protective factor in situations of limited social contact, for example, under the social restriction mandates during the COVID‐19 pandemic. Additionally, self‐efficacy was associated with higher satisfaction with life but also higher perceived stress. This finding contradicts previous research conducted before and during the pandemic and warrants further investigation. Interestingly, the links between personality traits, self‐efficacy, perceived stress, and life satisfaction were not significantly moderated by professional position. Both lecturers and students experienced similar disruptions to their daily routines, social isolation, and financial concerns during the pandemic.
... This is consistent with the findings of some studies [31,32], which showed a positive association between extraversion and internet addiction. This could be from the inference that extroverts draw energy from interacting with others, which increases their levels of more extensive social networks [54], thereby facilitating online interaction [55], which is a prelude to internet addiction. Thus, adolescents with the trait of extraversion have arrays of social interaction, which increases the proposition of online interaction. ...
Objectives: Internet addiction is a behavioral addiction characterized by excessive and compulsive use of the internet. The risk of internet addiction among adolescents has risen recently due to an increase in technological advancement and globalization. However, previous studies have focused on the precipitating factors triggering the internet addiction without looking at the exogenous factors and boundary conditions, such as family functioning, that can either sustain or weaken such behavior. Thus, the present study aimed to examine the moderating role of family functioning in the relationship between personality traits and internet addiction among adolescents. Methods: This study is a cross-sectional study consisting of 3150 adolescent students in the grade/class level of JSS1-SS3 who were assessed with standardized measures of the Big-Five Personality Inventory, Internet Addictive Test, and Family APGAR Index. Pearson correlation was used to explore the bivariate relationships between the demographic variable and other variables of interest, while Hayes regression-based PROCESS macro for SPSS was used to test the Hypotheses. Results: (1) Openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, and neuroticism positively correlated with internet addiction, whereas agreeableness was negatively associated with internet addiction. (2) Positive family functioning correlated negatively with internet addiction. (3) Positive family functioning moderated the relationships of extraversion and agreeableness with internet addiction but not on openness to experience, conscientiousness, and neuroticism with internet addiction. Conclusions: Positive family functioning correlated negatively with internet addiction among adolescents, suggesting that improving family functioning would be a valuable tactic for reducing adolescents’ susceptibility to personality-related internet addiction.
... According to Rubin (1983), media use can be either instrumental or ritualistic, with instrumental media use being more goal-directed and habitual media use being more repetitive. Conscientiousness has been shown to negatively relate to time spent on the Internet and computer-mediated-communication, suggesting that media use for people high in conscientiousness may be more instrumental (Butt & Phillips, 2008;Landers & Lounsbury, 2006;Swickert et al., 2002). The study investigates the following hypotheses: ...
The research endeavors to investigate the relationship between big five personality traits and the motivations to use social media in a Pakistani context. The big five personality traits (agreeableness, extraversion, openness to experience, conscientiousness, and neuroticism) provide a broad framework for understanding and describing personality and its impact on individuals. The survey was conducted among 910 respondents from the major cities of Pakistan. The respondents were students aged from 18 to 35 years, active social media users. There were positive correlations between personality traits and motivations to use social media. Agreeableness was a significant predictor of motivations to use social media. All personality traits depict a moderate to strong relationship with information seeking. Neuroticism tends to have a low to moderate correlation with motivations to use social media. Gender differences were sought among the personality traits, and neuroticism was a predictor of gender difference. The study’s findings suggest that personality traits significantly influence the utilization and involvement in social media.
... The first model implies that personality initiates processes that increase the risk of developing a particular disorder. For example, low scorers on Extraversion tend to experience less social support (Swickert et al., 2002), which increases the risk of depression (Rueger et al., 2016). The second model targets developmental aspects of the disorder itself, such as severity or duration (see Klein et al., 2011). ...
Depressive symptoms and personality traits covary in adolescents, but our understanding of the nature of this relation is limited. Whereas a predisposition explanation posits that specific personality traits increase the vulnerability for developing depression, a scar explanation proposes that depression may alter premorbid personality. Attempts to test these explanatory models have relied on analyses that conflate within-person changes and between-person differences, which limits the implications that can be drawn. Moreover, research on the early adolescent years is lacking. The present study therefore examined within-person associations between depressive symptoms and Big Five personality traits across ages 10 to 16. Children ( n = 817; 49.9% boys) and parents from two birth cohorts in Trondheim, Norway, were assessed biennially with clinical interviews capturing symptoms of major depressive disorder and dysthymia, and self-reported Big Five personality traits. Analyses were conducted using a random intercept cross-lagged panel model, which accounts for all unmeasured time-invariant confounding effects. Increased Neuroticism predicted an increased number of depressive symptoms—and increased depressive symptoms predicted increased Neuroticism—across ages 10 to 14. Moreover, increased depressive symptoms forecast reduced Extraversion across ages 10 to 16, and reduced Conscientiousness from ages 12 to 14. Increases in Neuroticism may contribute to the development of depressive symptoms—in line with the predisposition model. As regards the scar model, depression may have an even wider impact on personality traits: increasing Neuroticism and reducing Extraversion and Conscientiousness. These effects may already be present in the earliest adolescent years.
... In contrast, so-called introverts, individuals with a low expression of this factor, tend to be reserved, socially independent and fluctuate in their pace of work, although they are not sluggish [31,37]. In relation to the limitations imposed by the pandemic on social interaction and social support, extraverts could be more heavily influenced by the pandemic as they rely on social support in stressful situations [38], and the perceived accessibility to such social support is responsible for the extent to which extraverts can cope with negative stressful situations [39]. Accordingly, in the context of the initial lockdown of the 2020 emerging pandemic, extraverts experienced higher stress levels [40][41][42]. ...
Introduction: As a result of the protective measures taken to contain the COVID-19 pandemic, German students experienced home study in the spring of 2020. The present study addressed the relation between coping with the home study situation and personality. Methods: The interrelations of the Big Five factors with students’ well-being, study satisfaction and academic performance were examined in 287 German online participants. Results: The results showed significant positive correlations of positive affect and conscientiousness, as well as of better academic performance and academic satisfaction. For extraversion, a positive supporting effect on the affective level emerged, although previous studies suggested negative influences of extraversion on affect in home study settings in other phases of the pandemic. Furthermore, in contrast, neuroticism showed a negative relation to study satisfaction and mood in home study. Conclusion: In summary, the personalities of students should be considered in order to provide protective measures and avoid negative coping effects.
... They have a stable component across the lifespan (21). Extraversion, for example, characterizes outgoing and optimistic individuals who tend to utilize social support more often (22) and has been associated with positive emotions (23), higher life satisfaction (24) and well-being (25,26), less stressor-related negative affect (27), as well as with recovery (28) and growth following trauma (29). Based on this, some studies hypothesized that extraversion could positively impact psychological distress levels (30)(31)(32)(33)(34). Numerous studies conducted before and after the onset of the pandemic have shown that women tend to experience more psychological distress (35)(36)(37)(38)(39)(40) and to have greater fears and negative expectations about the health consequences of COVID-19 compared to men (41). ...
Background
Over the past years, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused significant disruptions in daily routines. Although the pandemic has affected almost everyone, it has been particularly challenging for people with pre-existing mental health conditions. Therefore, this study investigated the long-term impact of resilience and extraversion on psychological distress in individuals diagnosed with mental health disorders (MHD) compared to the general population. In addition, possible gender-specific differences were investigated.
Methods
123 patients with pre-existing MHD and 343 control subjects from Austria and Italy participated in three online surveys that had been conducted after the initial wave of the COVID-19 pandemic (t0), during the second lockdown in both countries (t1), and one year thereafter (t2). Participants completed standardized questionnaires on psychological distress (Brief-Symptom-Checklist), resilience (Resilience Scale), and extraversion (Big Five Inventory). A mediation model was employed to test the primary hypothesis. Possible gender-specific differences were analyzed using a moderated mediation model.
Results
The prevalence of psychological distress was consistently higher in patients compared to controls (t0: 37.3% vs. 13.2%, t1: 38.2% vs 11.7%, t2: 37.4% vs. 13.1%). This between-group difference in psychological distress at the first follow-up was fully mediated by baseline resilience scores (65.4% of the total effect). During the second-follow up, extraversion accounted for 18% of the total effect, whereas resilience slightly decreased to 56% of the total effect. Gender was not a significant moderator in the model.
Conclusion
Next to showing that people with MHD were particularly affected by the pandemic, these findings indicate that higher degrees of resilience and extraversion are related to less long-term psychological distress. Our findings stress the relevance of strengthening resilience and extraversion and to provide mental health support in times of crises, both to patients with MHD and the general population.
... For example, students high in extraversion (extraverts) tend to be more assertive [6,7] and successful in forming satisfying interpersonal relationships [8], even suffering when they cannot pursue their inherent urge for social contact [9]. In contrast, students low in extraversion (introverts) experience higher rates of social anxiety [10] and are less likely to draw upon social support in an effort to cope with their problems [11]. Thus, extraverts may be more likely to act in ways that help them connect with peers, integrate on campus, and develop a secure sense of belonging. ...
Having a secure sense of belonging at school supports students’ academic achievement and well-being. However, little research has examined how students’ personalities relate to their feelings of school belonging. We address this gap in the literature by leveraging data from a large sample of first-year college students (N = 4,753) from a diverse set of North American colleges and universities (N = 12). We found that both extraversion and agreeableness were positively associated with belonging, while neuroticism was negatively associated with belonging. In an exploratory analysis, we examined differences between large and small schools. Students who were more extraverted, less neurotic, and less open were more likely to attend large schools. Additionally, the association between extraversion and belonging was stronger for students at large schools. These findings advance our understanding of who comes to feel like they belong at college and how school context may influence these relationships. We emphasize the need for continued research on the relationship between personality and belonging. Additionally, we highlight the implications of these results for higher education institutions.
... The relationship between social support and stress was likely to reflect shared familial and genetic effects, rather than causal effects. Some previous non-genetically informative research showed that personality traits (e.g., extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and neuroticism) might influence perceived stress because of the tendency to gain perceived or actual social support as resources to cope with stressful situations or not (Bowling et al., 2005;Swickert et al., 2002). This indicates that the experience of stress related to social support may be at least partially attributable to personality factors, whose genetic components were found to make substantial contribution to the genetic variance in perceived stress (Roberts et al., 2009). ...
Exposure to stressful life events is common, and it is linked to increased psychological issues. As most likely people respond to stressors depending on environmental and genetic factors, we assessed in a twin study the association of some personal characteristics such as resilience and self-perception with anxiety, depression and stress in the late Covid pandemic period, to verify the underlying genetic and shared familial components. With this design, the strength of the associations was compared between individual-level and intrapair-level analyses. From June 2020 to December 2021, the Italian Twin Registry conducted a three-wave longitudinal study among adult twins using validated questionnaires, and 1,763 adult twins participated in the study (mean age 46 years, 67 % females, 70 % monozygotic). A regression-based within-pair differences model was applied to control for genetic and shared environmental confounding. Results showed that anxiety was linked negatively with resilience, social support and perceived health, and positively with risk perception and hypochondria. Depression was associated negatively with resilience, social support and perceived health, and positively with financial concern and hypochondria. Stress was associated negatively with resilience and perceived health, and positively with financial concern, risk perception and hypochondria.
These results suggest potential etiological effects of the above-mentioned risk factors. While our findings need to be confirmed by longitudinal studies, they propose potential etiological models for mental disorders, indicating that addressing in the clinical practice factors such as self-perception, personality traits (resilience), environmental resources (social support), and comorbid disorders (hypochondria) could have therapeutic benefits while treating certain common mental disorders.
... It's reported that individual factors, family factors and school factors are closely related to adolescents' school refusal behavior [6][7][8]. Previous studies have shown that extraversion, neuroticism and psychoticism are related to school refusal: extroverted adolescents who fail to meet academic requirements may turn their interest to other things besides learning in order to pursue happiness, resulting in school refusal [9,10]. Highly neuroticism adolescents have a higher prevalence of school refusal because they are emotionally unstable and are often accompanied by a sense of victimization [8]; Highly psychoticism adolescents show maladjustment nature. ...
Background
This study aims to explore the psychological characteristics, related emotional problems and potential NIR brain function mechanism of adolescents who refuse to attend school.
Methods
The study included 38 adolescents (12–18 years old) who were not attending school and 35 healthy controls (12–18 years old) who are attending school regularly. Participants completed (1) general demographics, (2) Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ), (3) Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS), (4) Zung Self-Rating Anxiety Scale (SAS), and (5) Symptom Checklist-90 (SCL-90). In addition to the clinical tests, participants completed functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). Mental health, personality, and emotional state were evaluated in both groups to explore the differences and to understand the underlying mechanisms of school refusal during adolescence.
Results
Adolescents who did not attend school had higher neuroticism scores on the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire than healthy controls ( p(FDR) < 0.001), introversion and concealment scores were lower than those of healthy controls ( p(FDR) < 0.001), there was no significant difference in psychoticism scores between groups. SDS, SAS, SCL-90 scores and factor scores were higher than those of healthy control group ( p(FDR) < 0.001), NIR functional brain imaging was different from healthy control group in the 12 and 27 channels ( p(FDR) = 0.030, p(FDR) = 0.018), and no difference was found in the remaining channels ( p(FDR) > 0.05). There were statistically significant differences in age and gender between the adolescents who refused school and the control group ( p(FDR) < 0.001).
Conclusion
School refusal adolescents are relatively introverted and sensitive and need more attention in daily life. Although the adolescents’ emotional problems did not reach the diagnostic criteria of depressive disorder and anxiety disorder, their scores were still higher than those of the control group, suggesting that we should pay more attention to their emotional problems in order to better help them return to school. Using fNIRS, it was found that abnormalities in frontal lobe regions in adolescents with school refusal behaviors, which would contribute to early diagnosis and timely intervention of school refusal behaviors.
... The cumulative advantage mechanism that drives the dispersion of tie strength can be thought to effectively result from people putting more emphasis on their closest relationships, which arise in part due to similarities in any number of sociodemographic, behavioral, and intrapersonal characteristics 59 . Generally, the heterogeneity of tie strengths in ego networks has been attributed to cognitive, temporal, and other constraints [11][12][13][15][16][17] , and different personality traits 60,61 and their relative stability have been proposed as one possible reason for the persistent individual variation in this heterogeneity 20 . ...
Tie strengths in social networks are heterogeneous, with strong and weak ties playing different roles at the network and individual levels. Egocentric networks, networks of relationships around an individual, exhibit few strong ties and more weaker ties, as evidenced by electronic communication records. Mobile phone data has also revealed persistent individual differences within this pattern. However, the generality and driving mechanisms of social tie strength heterogeneity remain unclear. Here, we study tie strengths in egocentric networks across multiple datasets of interactions between millions of people during months to years. We find universality in tie strength distributions and their individual-level variation across communication modes, even in channels not reflecting offline social relationships. Via a simple model of egocentric network evolution, we show that the observed universality arises from the competition between cumulative advantage and random choice, two tie reinforcement mechanisms whose balance determines the diversity of tie strengths. Our results provide insight into the driving mechanisms of tie strength heterogeneity in social networks and have implications for the understanding of social network structure and individual behavior.
... Obtaining energy through social interactions is referred to as extraversion, and it is well-established that these individuals need more social support to achieve psychological stability and stress. [34][35][36] Previous studies have demonstrated that extraverted individuals participate strongly in social activities and exercise. 37 In addition, individuals with better cognitive function participate more in social activities, which has a positive effect on mental health among older adults. ...
Objective:
Contact frequency with adult children plays a critical role in late-life depression. However, evidence on possible moderators of this association remains limited. Moreover, considering alterations in contact modes after the coronavirus disease-2019 pandemic, there is a need to investigate this association post-pandemic to develop effective therapeutic interventions.
Methods:
This study included 7,573 older adults who completed the Living Profiles of the Older People Survey in Korea. Participants' contact frequency and depressive symptoms were analyzed. Regression analysis was performed after adjusting for covariates. The moderating effects of variables were verified using a process macro.
Results:
Multivariable logistic regression analysis revealed that infrequent face-to-face (odd ratio [OR]=1.86, 95% confidence interval [CI]=1.55-2.22) and non-face-to-face contact (OR=1.23, 95% CI=1.04-1.45) in the non-cohabitating adult children group was associated with a higher risk of late-life depression compared to that in the frequent contact group. Linear regression analysis indicated consistent results for face-to-face and non-face-to-face contact (estimate=0.458, standard error [SE]=0.090, p<0.001 and estimate=0.236, SE= 0.074, p=0.001, respectively). Moderation analysis revealed that the association between late-life depression and frequency of face-toface contact was moderated by age, household income quartiles, number of chronic diseases, physical activity frequency, presence of spouse, nutritional status, and whether the effect of frequency of non-face-to-face contact on late-life depression was increased by participation in social activity, frequent physical activity, and good cognitive function (p for interaction<0.05).
Conclusion:
Frequent contact with non-cohabitating children lowers the risk of depression later in life. Several variables were identified as significant moderators of contact frequency and depression symptoms.
... For example, one strategy during the first weeks of the pandemic was to rely on social networks, such as planning face-to-face contact at school. Restrictions made these strategies ineffective (Swickert et al., 2002;Vollrath, 2001). Throughout the pandemic, however, it seems plausible that extraverts in particular were more able than others to use alternative and more successful coping strategies in the long run. ...
The COVID-19 pandemic had varied but significant effects on the lives of adolescents. This study aimed to examine the effects of extraversion and neuroticism on changes in loneliness and negative affect among adolescents during the pandemic. Longitudinal data were collected in three waves from 673 German adolescents and young adults (Mage = 16.8 years, SDage = 0.91; female = 59%), affected by local lockdowns. The data collection was one time before (T1) and two times during the pandemic (T2, T3). Change score models were used to assess the relationship between loneliness and negative affect with consideration of extraversion and neuroticism. Results showed that pre-pandemic loneliness was predictive of changes in negative affect during the pandemic, with higher loneliness predicting increases in negative affect. Negative affect did not predict later loneliness. Extraverts showed an increase in negative affect over time, particularly between pre-pandemic measurement and the first phase of the pandemic. Higher neuroticism appeared to have increased vulnerability for negative affect during the pandemic, as a rise in negative affect were found among these adolescents throughout the course of the pandemic. In conclusion, the study highlights the significant impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health of adolescents and suggests that managing the pandemic during this specific developmental period is a challenge.
... La apertura a la experiencia y la extroversión muestran asociaciones positivas con la compasión empática, lo cual puede deberse a que las personas con alta apertura a la experiencia estén abiertas a nuevas formas de pensar y a cambios en el ambiente y en otros, lo que los lleva a ser sensibles ante las condiciones de los demás (Costa et al., 2013). Por su parte, la relación con extroversión puede deberse a que altos niveles de extroversión suelen estar relacionados con mayores niveles de apoyo social y lazos sociales más amplios (Swickert et al., 2002). Las relaciones entre los factores de la ece y el iri son especialmente altas entre los factores que miden dimensiones equivalentes. ...
Díaz-Loving et al. (1986) diseñaron la Escala Multidimensional de Empatía (ease), un instrumento culturalmente válido para población mexicana inspirado en la estructura conceptual del Índice de Reactividad Interpersonal (iri) (Davis, 1980). En esta investigación presentamos evidencias de validez y confiabilidad de la Escala Corta de Empatía (ece), una versión breve de la ease aplicada a 674 participantes (50.8 % mujeres) mexicanos (m = 22.8 años, de = 9.2), además del iri, preguntas de conductas prosociales y el Inventario de Personalidad de diez ítems como criterios externos de validez. El análisis factorial exploratorio mostró tres factores —malestar personal, toma de perspectiva y compasión— con niveles de confiabilidad adecuados. El análisis factorial confirmatorio verificó la estructura con indicadores de bondad de ajuste aceptables, obteniendo evidencias de equivalencia estructural para mujeres y hombres. Las relaciones de los tres factores de ece con prosocialidad, personalidad y sexo proporcionan criterios de validez externa del instrumento.
... In addition, extraverted individuals also tend to experience more positive effects (Steel et al., 2008), are less vulnerable to mental illnesses (Malouff et al., 2005;Spinhoven et al., 2014) and are generally happier (Anglim et al., 2020;Steel et al., 2008). Finally, extraverted individuals tend to have more friends and social networks, higher quality of relationships (Harris et al., 2017;Lang et al., 1998;Swickert et al., 2002;Tan et al., 2017) and thus higher social support, which may result in better mental health. ...
Objective:
The aim of the current study is to investigate the associations between personality traits associated with mental health in people with asthma and compare it with people without asthma.
Methods:
Data came from UKHLS with 3929 patients with asthma with a mean age of 49.19 (S.D. = 15.23) years old (40.09 % males) and 22,889 healthy controls (42.90 % males) with a mean age of 45.60 (S.D. = 17.23) years old. First, the current study investigated the difference in Big Five personality traits and mental health between people with and without asthma using a predictive normative modeling approach with one-sample t-tests. Second, a hierarchical regression accompanied by two multiple regressions was used to determine how personality traits may relate to people with and without asthma differently.
Results:
The current study found asthma patients have significantly higher Neuroticism, higher Openness, lower Conscientiousness, higher Extroversion, and worse mental health. Asthma status significantly moderated the association between Neuroticism and mental health with this relationship being stronger in people with asthma. Moreover, Neuroticism was positively related to worse mental health and Conscientiousness and Extraversion were negatively associated with worse mental health in people with and without asthma. However, Openness was negatively associated with worse mental health in people without asthma but not in people with asthma.
Limitations:
The limitations of the current study include cross-sectional designs, self-reported measured, and limited generalizability to other countries.
Conclusion:
Clinicians and health professionals should use findings from the current study to come up with prevention and interaction programs that promote mental health based on personality traits in asthma patients.
... Emotional stability indicates a tendency to experience fewer negative emotions and to be more resistant to stress [33]; therefore, emotionally stable women might be less susceptible to an escalation of psychopathological symptoms during the peripartum period. More extroverted individuals engage in social interactions more actively and experience more positive emotions [34][35][36]. Therefore, extraversion is associated with greater social support and acts as a buffer against depression. ...
Antenatal depression may be distinct from postpartum depression in terms of prevalence, severity of symptoms, comorbidities, prognosis, and risk factors. Although risk factors for perinatal depression have been identified, it is unclear whether there are differences in the onset of perinatal depression (PND). This study explored the characteristics of women requiring mental health support during pregnancy or postpartum. A sample of 170 women (58% in pregnancy; 42% postpartum) who contacted the SOS-MAMMA outpatient clinic was recruited. Clinical data sheets and self-report questionnaires (EPDS, LTE-Q, BIG FIVE; ECR; BSQ; STICSA) were administered, hypothesizing possible risk factors, such as personality traits, stressful life events, body dissatisfaction, attachment style, and anxiety. Hierarchical regression models were carried out in the pregnancy (F10;36 = 8.075, p < 0.001, adjR2 = 0.877) and postpartum groups (F10;38 = 3.082, p < 0.05, adjR2 = 0.809). Recent stressful life events and conscientiousness were associated with depression in both the pregnant (29.3%, 25.5% of variance) and postpartum groups (23.8%, 20.7% of variance). In pregnant women, “openness” (11.6%), body dissatisfaction (10.2%), and anxiety (7.1%) symptoms were predictive of depression. In the postpartum group, “neuroticism” (13.8%) and insecure romantic attachment dimensions (13.4%; 9.2%) were the strongest predictors. Perinatal psychological interventions should consider the differences between mothers with depression during pregnancy and postpartum.
... Extraversion was the strongest unique predictor of change in wellbeing over one year while covarying for all other predictors. Extraversion has been linked to perceived social support, which has in turn been shown to reduce perceived stress 24 . Longitudinal studies examining the role of personality in transitional periods, such as retirement, have shown that having higher extraversion can www.nature.com/scientificreports/ ...
Various sociodemographic, psychosocial, cognitive, and life event factors are associated with mental wellbeing; however, it remains unclear which measures best explain variance in wellbeing in the context of related variables. This study uses data from 1017 healthy adults from the TWIN-E study of wellbeing to evaluate the sociodemographic, psychosocial, cognitive, and life event predictors of wellbeing using cross-sectional and repeated measures multiple regression models over one year. Sociodemographic (age, sex, education), psychosocial (personality, health behaviours, and lifestyle), emotion and cognitive processing, and life event (recent positive and negative life events) variables were considered. The results showed that while neuroticism, extraversion, conscientiousness, and cognitive reappraisal were the strongest predictors of wellbeing in the cross-sectional model, while extraversion, conscientiousness, exercise, and specific life events (work related and traumatic life events) were the strongest predictors of wellbeing in the repeated measures model. These results were confirmed using tenfold cross-validation procedures. Together, the results indicate that the variables that best explain differences in wellbeing between individuals at baseline can vary from the variables that predict change in wellbeing over time. This suggests that different variables may need to be targeted to improve population-level compared to individual-level wellbeing.
... Furthermore, compared with socially excluded participants, those who were socially accepted reported an equal or a greater tendency to anthropomorphize nonhuman agents (Kwok et al., 2018;Ruijten et al., 2014). Dispositional traits closely related to belongingness and enthusiasm about new experiences, such as extroversion (Swickert et al., 2002), have been found to positively predict general tendencies toward anthropomorphism (Kaplan et al., 2019). Overall, anthropomorphism may not necessarily be driven by a sense of social deficits, but by one's genuine interest in exploring the social world. ...
Anthropomorphism has traditionally been viewed as a means to compensate for a lack of social connection; therefore, social deficits are considered to facilitate anthropomorphism. In the present research, we adopted an alternative growth-oriented perspective of anthropomorphism. We posited that anthropomorphism operates as a means to explore the social world, and thus hypothesized that social connectedness promotes robot anthropomorphism. To test this hypothesis, we conducted three studies (total N = 599) examining the effect of social connectedness on robot anthropomorphism. We found that social connectedness increased robot anthropomorphism. Importantly, genuine interest in social interactions with robots accounted for this effect. In addition, anthropomorphism elicited by social connectedness predicted more favorable attitudes toward robots. These findings enrich the current understanding of anthropomorphism and have practical implications.
... People who score high in Extroversion even maintain positive emotions for a longer period of time compared to people who score low in Extroversion, particularly during a crisis [16]. Moreover, as people who score high in Extroversion have more friends and social networks, they may be more likely to seek social-emotional support to cope with the stress caused by COVID-19 pandemic [75]. ...
The COVID-19 epidemic was first reported in 2019 and rapidly spread across the globe. Many studies have shown that the COVID-19 pandemic adversely affected mental health. Individual differences such as personality could influence people’s responses to the pandemic. For example, the results of a previous study by Shokrkon and Nicoladis (2021) showed that the personality trait of Extroversion positively and Neuroticism negatively contributed to the mental health of Canadians. The goal of our study was to replicate this study using the same tasks and a similar population and extend it by including all 5 personality traits in our analysis and also controlling for the variable of Response to COVID-19 Stress (in addition to demographic variables). Our results were similar to Shokrkon and Nicoladis (2021) and we also found that Extroversion positively and Neuroticism negatively are associated to the mental health of Canadians. We also found that Agreeableness, Openness to Experience, and Conscientiousness are positively and significantly related to the mental health of Canadians. Our results could provide a guide for the screening of people more at risk for mental health issues based on personality traits.
... Thus, individuals in our sample who had higher scores on extraversion may have already had (and continued to seek out) more quality social experiences and social support during the pandemic than introverted individuals-even though socialization and social support may have looked different than social experiences prior to the pandemic (Shokrkon & Nicoladis, 2021). Further, given that extraversion is associated with having a greater number of social connections and greater perceived availability of social support (Shokrkon & Nicoladis, 2021;Swickert et al., 2002), experiencing changes in socialization during the pandemic may be less disruptive to highly extraverted individuals. Conversely, individuals who are more introverted may be more affected by changes in their usual patterns of socialization (e.g., by experiencing heightened stress and anxiety during the pandemic). ...
Purpose
The present study examined the prospective direct and interactive effects of personality (neuroticism, extraversion) and experiencing changes in friendships during the pandemic on symptoms of stress, anxiety, and depression.
Methods
A sample of patients (N = 77) at an outpatient treatment clinic who had received a diagnostic assessment in the 6 months prior to the COVID-19 lockdown was re-contacted during the pandemic (May–June 2020) and completed a survey assessing stressors and symptoms of internalizing psychopathology.
Results
Neuroticism had main effects on anxiety, whereas experiencing changes in friendships had main effects on stress and depression. Extraversion did not have main effects on stress, depression, or anxiety. The relationship between experiencing changes in friendships and stress and anxiety was moderated by extraversion, such that the strength of the relationship between changes in friendships and stress and anxiety waned as the level of extraversion increased. Neuroticism was not a moderator of the association between changes in friendships and emotional disorder symptoms.
Conclusion
These results suggest that higher levels of extraversion may protect against symptoms of stress reactivity and anxiety that are associated with COVID-related changes in friendships, while neuroticism may have limited prospective associations with symptoms during the pandemic.
... While several studies pointed out, that extraverted individuals have an online addiction (Wilson et al., 2010;Blackwell et al., 2017), this study shows that this effect is reversed due to the pandemic conditions. A possible interpretation is that, although extraverts crave social interaction and are more likely to use social media, during the pandemic, this behavior changed, possibly because extraversion is positively correlated with stressed life conditions and situations (i.e. the pandemic) and the need for social support (Swickert et al., 2002). ...
Purpose
This study aims to explore the relationship between social commerce purchase intention and consumer psychological factors (i.e. resilience, vulnerability and personality traits) during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Design/methodology/approach
Drawing on social cognitive theory (SCT), an econometrical behavioral model was developed to explore the key determinants of online purchase behavior of 303 students in Greece. The research data were collected with a two-wave online survey (pre- and during the pandemic) which was distributed randomly to students in Generation Z.
Findings
A series of regression analyses revealed a positive effect of openness and a negative impact of extraversion and neuroticism on internet, Instagram and Facebook purchases during the pandemic. Findings suggest that loneliness serves as a moderator, while resilience and vulnerability have a positive effect on social media purchase behavior.
Practical implications
This study provides insights and implications for social commerce marketers and sheds light on the determinants of online purchase intentions of young consumers during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Originality/value
Elaborating on SCT, this study provides novel insights into young consumers’ internet use and online purchase behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic (i.e. longitudinal approach), by focusing on consumer vulnerability and resilience while also embedding personality traits and mental health aspects (i.e. loneliness levels during the pandemic).
... The cumulative advantage mechanism that drives the dispersion of tie strength can be simply thought to result from people putting more emphasis on their closest relationships. Generally, the heterogeneity of tie strengths in ego networks has been attributed to cognitive, temporal, and other constraints [11][12][13][15][16][17], and different personality traits [61,62] and their relative stability have been proposed as one possible reason for the persistent individual variation in this heterogeneity [20]. ...
Tie strengths in social networks are heterogeneous, with strong and weak ties playing different roles at both the network and the individual level. Egocentric networks, networks of relationships around a focal individual, exhibit a small number of strong ties and a larger number of weaker ties, a pattern that is evident in electronic communication records, such as mobile phone calls. Mobile phone data has also revealed persistent individual differences within this pattern. However, the generality and the driving mechanisms of this tie strength heterogeneity remain unclear. Here, we study tie strengths in egocentric networks across multiple datasets containing records of interactions between millions of people over time periods ranging from months to years. Our findings reveal a remarkable universality in the distribution of tie strengths and their individual-level variation across different modes of communication, even in channels that may not reflect offline social relationships. With the help of an analytically tractable model of egocentric network evolution, we show that the observed universality can be attributed to the competition between cumulative advantage and random choice, two general mechanisms of tie reinforcement whose balance determines the amount of heterogeneity in tie strengths. Our results provide new insights into the driving mechanisms of tie strength heterogeneity in social networks and have implications for the understanding of social network structure and individual behavior.
... The increased amount of students with mental health issues nationwide (Vestal 2021) means that these issues will carry over into the college environment where many campuses are not equipped to deal with the issues (Abrams 2022). Research shows that introverts, in particular, are less likely to seek help (Swickert et al., 2002;Atik and Yalçin, 2011;Kakhnovets, 2011). Faculty are at the front-line of this issue. ...
Student participation has been an important goal for many Political Science faculty in the classroom environment. Pre and post COVID, participation has been a challenge to measure and effectively gauge as a successful tool for student learning. Based on a Faculty Learning Community Workshop that examined increasing participation in the classroom, this paper proposes that faculty rethink how they measure participation, allowing students to actively assess their participation with faculty input.
This study contributes to sustainable entrepreneurship by examining the influence of entrepreneur personality on sustainability orientation in a digital finance market context. Extraverted entrepreneurs exhibit strong social connectivity. Consistent with the upper echelons theory, we show that extraversion has significant explanatory power for commitment to a sustainability agenda in initial coin offerings (ICOs). Drawing on institutional difference theory, we find that regulatory change and social pressure moderate the relationship between the extraversion of ICO entrepreneurs and sustainability orientation. Importantly, extraversion plays a significant role in an ICO’s success. Our study highlights the impact of entrepreneur personality traits on driving sustainability efforts and fundraising success.
Background
There are positive and negative correlations in different directions between smoking, personality traits, and health-related quality of life (HRQOL), where smoking may mask the pathway between personality traits and HRQOL. Understanding the masking pathway of smoking between personality traits and HRQOL can elucidate the mechanisms of smoking’s psychosocial effects and provide new ideas for developing tobacco control strategies.
Objective
The purpose of this study was to investigate the correlation between Big Five personality traits and HRQOL and whether smoking mediates the relationship between them.
Methods
This was a cross-sectional study using data from 21,916 respondents from the 2022 Psychology and Behavior Investigation of Chinese Residents survey. Linear regression models were used to analyze the correlations between smoking, Big Five personality traits, and HRQOL while controlling for potential confounders. The mediating role of smoking on the association between Big Five Personality traits and HRQOL was analyzed using the Sobel-Goodman mediation test.
Results
Extraversion (β=.001; P =.04), agreeableness (β=.003; P <.001), and neuroticism (β=.003; P <.001) were positively correlated with HRQOL, whereas openness was negatively correlated with HRQOL (β=–.001; P =.003). Smoking was associated with a decrease in HRQOL and mediated the positive effect of HRQOL on extraversion ( z =−2.482; P =.004), agreeableness ( z =−2.264; P =.02), and neuroticism ( z =−3.230; P =.001). Subgroup analyses further showed that smoking mediated the effect of neuroticism on HRQOL in the population with chronic illnesses ( z =−2.724; P =.006), and in the population without chronic illnesses, smoking contributed to the effect of HRQOL on extraversion ( z =−2.299; P =.02), agreeableness ( z =−2.382; P =.02), and neuroticism ( z =−2.213; P =.03).
Conclusions
This study provided evidence that there is a correlation between personality traits and HRQOL. It also found that smoking plays a role in mediating the connection between personality traits and HRQOL. The development of future tobacco control strategies should consider the unique traits of each individual’s personality, highlighting the significance of extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism.
Objective
This study investigated whether forms of extraversion‐introversion produced different depression‐related outcomes before and during the COVID‐19 pandemic.
Method
One‐way MANCOVAs were conducted to investigate the relationship between extraversion‐introversion and depressive symptoms. These data were sourced from the NLSY97, consisting of 4846 individuals born between 1980 and 1984.
Results
During pre‐pandemic periods, high introversion increased the risk of depressive symptoms. During the pandemic, the risk for depressive symptoms was more equivalent, or less predominately high‐introvert‐based, among extraverted/low introverted and high introverted subjects.
Conclusions
Extraversion/low introversion was linked with increased depression, relative to high introversion, during the pandemic. The findings raise significant questions about how individuals with distinct personality traits may experience changes in their psychological well‐being during challenging public health events.
We propose a psychologically-informed concept of social health to join physical and mental components in a more comprehensive assessment of human health. Although there is an extensive literature on the importance of social relationships to health, a theoretical framework is needed to coalesce this work into a codified conceptualisation of social health, defined here as adequate quantity and quality of relationships in a particular context to meet an individual’s need for meaningful human connection. Informing this novel conceptualisation, we outline eight key propositions to guide future research and theory on social health, including five propositions focused on the conceptualisation of social health and three focused on its population patterning. The former five propositions include that social health is an outcome in its own right, that health interventions can have divergent effects on social versus physical and mental aspects of health, that social health has independent effects on quality of life, that it is a dynamic and contextual construct, and that it is embedded and encoded in the human body (and mind). The utility of the social health concept is further revealed in its significance for understanding and addressing population health concerns, such as health inequalities experienced by marginalised groups.
Decades of research have shown that abusive supervision hurts employees' well‐being. However, little is known about whether employees can recover from abuse during their leisure time. Building on the perspective of recovery paradox and the conservation of resources (COR) theory, we theorize that as an intense social stressor, daily abusive supervision depletes employees' resources and triggers their need for recovery, which in turn reduces physical and social recovery activities but increases low‐effort activities. We also propose that employees' extraversion influence employees' choices of recovery activities when facing a paradoxical recovery situation (i.e., feeling too exhausted to engage in active recovery activities. To test our hypotheses, we employed the experience sampling method to collect 1511 daily responses from 203 full‐time employees. The results of the multilevel path analyses indicated that (a) abusive supervision increased employees' need for recovery, which in turn increased next‐day positive moods via facilitating low‐effort activities, and reduced next‐day positive moods via inhibiting social activities; and (b) these indirect effects were strengthened for employees with lower (vs. higher) extraversion. Theoretical and practical implications are further discussed.
Drawing on conservation of resources theory, this study aims to investigate the impact of online customer engagement on brand love via dual mediating mechanisms, empowerment (bright side) and stress (dark side). The roles of perceived brand quality and extroversion as weakener and facilitator respectively on the dark side effect are also examined. An online survey is conducted, targeting people who have experience in participating in online engagement activities. The dual mediation and moderation analysis are examined. The results confirm the proposed dual mediating mechanisms. Perceived brand quality and extroversion also significantly moderate the engagement–stress link. This study explains the mediating mechanisms between online customer engagement and brand love, with a focus on the fast-moving consumer goods industry. This calls for further research on other industries. Findings provides marketers with insights that online customer engagement strategies are not always good and that they should be more careful in formulating such strategies. The research advances the understanding of the relationship between customer engagement and brand love in the virtual community especially in the social media context.
Purpose
Drawing on conservation of resources theory, this study aims to investigate the impact of online customer engagement on brand love via dual mediating mechanisms, empowerment (bright side) and stress (dark side). The roles of perceived brand quality and extroversion as weakener and facilitator respectively on the dark side effect are also examined.
Design/methodology/approach
An online survey is conducted, targeting people who have experience in participating in online engagement activities. The dual mediation and moderation analysis are examined.
Findings
The results confirm the proposed dual mediating mechanisms. Perceived brand quality and extroversion also significantly moderate the engagement–stress link.
Research limitations/implications
This study explains the mediating mechanisms between online customer engagement and brand love, with a focus on the fast-moving consumer goods industry. This calls for further research on other industries.
Practical implications
This study provides marketers with insights that online customer engagement strategies are not always good and that they should be more careful in formulating such strategies.
Originality/value
This study advances the understanding of the relationship between customer engagement and brand love in the virtual community especially in the social media context.
We integrate behavioral agency research and the five‐factor model of personality to re‐visit investment analysts' efficacy as a mechanism for reducing agency costs. We highlight the role of personality in shaping how CEOs respond to analyst recommendations, leading to boundary conditions for the efficacy of analysts as external monitors. We theorize that the extent to which a CEO perceives a threat from more positive analyst recommendations is contingent upon their personality, which shapes their subjective interpretation of the recommendation and their use of income‐increasing earnings management in response. Our findings suggest that personality is critical to understanding how CEOs respond to external monitors and the agency costs associated with the positive analyst recommendations.
Objective:
Social support has been linked to a vast range of beneficial health outcomes. However, the physiological mechanisms of social support are not well characterized. Drawing on fMRI and health-related outcome data, this study aimed to understand how neural measures of "yielding" - the reduction of brain activity during social support - moderates the link between social support and health.
Methods:
We employed a dataset where seventy-eight participants around the age of 24 were exposed to the threat of shock when holding the hand of a partner. At age 28 - 30, participants returned for a health visit where inflammatory activity and heart rate variability were recorded.
Results:
Findings showed a significant interaction between dACC-related yielding and perceived social support on C-reactive protein levels (β = -0.95, se = 0.42, z = -2.24, p = 0.025, 95% CI [-1.77, -0.12]). We also found a significant interaction between hypothalamus-related yielding and perceived social support on baseline heart rate variability (β = 0.51, se = 0.23, z = 2.19, p = 0.028, 95% CI [0.05, 0.97]).
Conclusions:
Greater perceived social support was associated with lower CRP levels and greater baseline heart rate variability among individuals who were more likely to yield to social support in the dACC and hypothalamus years earlier. The current study highlights the construct of yielding in the link between social support and physical health.
Objective:
War may raise the level of distress and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The study explores the extent to which 4 factors determine levels of PTSD and distress symptoms of Ukraine civilians (without developing PTSD) during the current war.
Method:
The data were collected via a Ukrainian internet panel company. 1001 participants responded to a structured online questionnaire. Path analysis was conducted to identify predictive indicators of PTSD scores.
Results:
PTSD symptoms positively correlated with respondents' level of exposure to the war and their sense of danger, and negatively correlated with well-being, family income, and age. Females scored higher on PTSD symptoms. Path analysis showed that higher exposure to war and higher sense of danger increase PTSD and distress symptoms, whereas higher well-being, higher individual resilience, and being a man, as well as older age decrease their level. Despite the strong effects of the coping suppressing factors, most respondents did not reach the critical level of PTSD or distress symptoms.
Conclusion:
At least 4 positive and negative factors account for people's coping with stressful experiences: previous traumatic experiences, individual level of pathology, personality attributes, and socio-demographic characteristics. The balance of these factors protects most people from PTSD symptoms despite their being affected by war traumas.
A conceptual model was developed to address 2 issues that have received relatively little attention in the social support literature. First, an attempt was made to assess the interrelationships among 3 types or dimensions of supportive social relations. In addition, the impact of selected psychological and social factors on social support use was examined. Findings from a nationwide survey of older adults in the United Kingdom suggest that social contact tends to increase the amount of received support, and received support in turn tends to bolster perceptions of support availability in the future (i.e., anticipated support). With regard to the second issue, social roles (especially marital status) and social extraversion emerged as potentially important correlates of social support use in later life.
Cross-sectional analyses of data collected from a large sample of incoming college freshmen were used to determine (a) whether the perceived availability of social support protects persons from stress-induced depressive affect; (b) whether social competence, social anxiety, and self-disclosure are responsible for the stress-protective effect of perceived social support; and (c) whether these social skill measures discriminate among persons for whom support will help, hinder, or be ineffective in the face of stress. Prospective analyses based on the original testing (beginning of school year) and 11- and 22-week follow-ups of a randomly selected subsample were used to determine how the same social skill factors influence the development and maintenance of support perceptions and of friendships. Evidence is provided for a stress-buffering role of the perceived availability of social support. The stress-buffering effect is unaffected by controls for the possible stress-protective influences of social anxiety, social competence, and self-disclosure. Although these social skill factors do not discriminate among persons for whom support will help, hinder, or be ineffective, they are prospectively predictive of the development of both social support and friendship formation. These prospective relations between social skills and the development of perceived availability of social support are only partly mediated by number of friends.
Describes the Social Support Questionnaire (SSQ) and 4 empirical studies employing it. The SSQ yields scores for (a) perceived number of social supports and (b) satisfaction with social support that is available. Three studies (N = 1,224 college students) dealt with the SSQ's psychometric properties, its correlations with measures of personality and adjustment, and the relation of the SSQ to positive and negative life changes. The 4th study (40 Ss) was an investigation of the relation between social support and persistence in working on a complex, frustrating task. The research reported suggests that the SSQ is a reliable instrument and that social support is (a) more strongly related to positive than negative life changes, (b) more related in a negative direction to psychological discomfort among women than men, and (c) an asset in enabling a person to persist at a task under frustrating conditions. Clinical implications are discussed. (47 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved).
Covariance structure analyses were carried out on the Inventory of Socially Supportive Behaviors (ISSB; Barrera, Sandler, & Ramsey, 1981) to corroborate a hypothesized four-factor measurement model of received social support. Examination of the influence of the separate dimensions of the ISSB indicated that the four dimensions correlated in opposite directions with depression. Aggregation across the full set of ISSB items yielded a composite ISSB score that failed to predict depression and obscured the dynamics of these differential relations. By contrast, all four dimensions of the ISSB exhibited positive relations with life satisfaction, and total ISSB scores explained as much variance in life satisfaction as did the individual subscales. In general, the four ISSB dimensions proved to be differentially related to depression and life satisfaction in ways that were predictable, informative, and theoretically meaningful. The results of the present investigation illustrate the utility of a multidimensional conceptualization of the construct of enacted social support.
Bumper stickers reading "Friends can be good medicine!" were distributed by the California Department of Mental Health in 1981 as part of a statewide health promotion initiative (California Department of Mental Health, 1981). The objectives of the initiative were to increase awareness of the health-promoting influence of supportive relationships and to encourage personal involvement providing support to others. Although the ultimate success of this project is unknown, its implementation reflects the degree to which a link between social support and health has become part of our belief system. Correlations between social support and health outcomes have been found in a range of contexts and using a variety of methods (for recent reviews, see Broadhead et al. Although links between social support and health are consistently found, our understanding of the nature of this relation remains limited. A problem in past research was that social support was conceptualized unidimensionally, although it was operationalized in many different ways (e.g., marital status, community involvement, availability of confidants). More recent efforts have analyzed social support into component functions. Theorists differ somewhat with respect to the specific functions served by social support, but most conceptualizations include emotional sustenance, self-esteem building, provision of information and feedback, and tangible assistance (e.g.. Once support is defined in terms of its functions, it is possible to generate hypotheses concerning the psychological processes through which social support has its effects. Although clear theoretical formulations of the helping functions served by relationships arc crucial in the generation of hypotheses, these predictions cannot be empirically tested without appropriate assessment instruments. As described in House and Kahn's (1985) recent review, a number of social support measures have been developed. The measures differ widely in their implicit models of social support, some assessing number of supporters, others tapping frequency of supportive acts, and still others measuring degree of satisfaction with support. A number of problems have plagued these measurement efforts. At the theoretical level, the authors of social support measures have rarely articulated the assumptions underlying their instruments. For example, if a measure assesses the number of supportive individuals, the assumption is that better outcomes are associated with the quantity of support sources. If a measure taps satisfaction with support, the assumption is that better outcomes are associated with the perception that support is adequate for one's needs, regardless of tile number of supporters. Although these differences are rarely articulated, different research questions are posed and answered as a function of the manner in which social support is assessed. Inconsistencies in the literature nay be related to differences in the aspects of social support that are assessed in different studies (see Cohen & Wills, 1985).
179 undergraduates completed a social network list, an inventory of socially supportive behaviors, the Extraversion and Neuroticism scales of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire, the Marlowe-Crown Social Desirability Scale, and the UCLA Loneliness Scale. Both social network variables and individual differences measures (extraversion, neuroticism, and self-disclosure) were predictive of self-reported loneliness in Ss. Of the social network variables, the density of the network showed the strongest and most consistent relation to loneliness, with denser networks being associated with less loneliness. Both extraversion and neuroticism were correlated with loneliness. The relation of extraversion and loneliness was mediated largely by social network variable; partialing out variance attributable to the social network variables reduced the relation of extraversion and loneliness. The relation of neuroticism and loneliness, however, was not mediated by social network variables. Results support W. H. Jones's (1982) conclusion that lonely college students are not necessarily socially isolated. (31 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Undergraduates (
N = 211) responded to a "decontaminated" hassles scale plus measures of trait anxiety, reactivity, perceived stress, psychiatric symptomatology, and minor physical ailments. All but the anxiety and reactivity scales were time referenced to the past month. Major findings were as follows: (1) Hassles and trait anxiety both contributed positively to perceived stress, jointly accounting for 58% of the variance; (2) hassles and reactivity both had a significant positive impact on minor ailments, together explaining 23% of the variance; and (3) hassles and trait anxiety had a significant interactive effect on psychiatric symptomatology, which along with the nonsignificant marginal main effects accounted for 67% of the variance. The positive impact of hassles on psychiatric symptomatology increased as trait anxiety rose; likewise, the pathogenic effect of trait anxiety increased with greater exposure to hassles. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Growing research interest in social support underscores the need for reliable and valid measures of this concept. It is argued that measures that assess what indivMuals actually do by way of providing support make unique contributions to our understanding of natural helping processes. A 40item scale, the Inventory of Socially Supportive Behaviors (ISSB), was developed in which respondents report the frequency with which they were the recipients of supportive actions. Results suggest that the ISSB has adequate test-retest and internal consistency reliability and is significantly correlated with network size and perceived support of the family. Although further research is needed to further substantiate its utility, the ISSB is seen as a promising tool for understanding natural helping processes. When people are asked to indicate who they turn to in times of crisis and emotional distress, they typically cite key family members and friends who they consider "natural helpers" (Gurin, Veroff, & Feld, 1960; Croog, Lipson, & Levine, 1972; Keefe, Padilla, & Carlos, 1978). Particularly since Caplan's (1974) influential work, the term social support has been popularized to connote the various forms of aid and assistance supplied by family members, friends, neighbors, and others. Support networks formed by these informal helpers are thought to have a major
Hans J. Eysenck and Jeffrey A. Gray have proposed influential theories of the biological bases of personality traits. Eysenck's theory concerns the extraversion, neuroticism and psychoticism traits, whereas Gray proposes the use of new, rotated axes of impulsivity and anxiety. Eysenck uses multiple arousal systems as the central explanatory constructs, whereas Gray describes more specific systems related to behavioural inhibition and activation. This article reviews the evidence relating to these theories provided by studies of c.n.s. and a.n.s. psychophysiology, subjective affect, conditioning and attention and performance. It discusses key predictive successes and failures and methodological problems which may impede theory-testing. It is concluded that there is a solid core of predictive support for the Eysenck theory in some paradigms, such as the moderator effect of stimulation level on individual differences in phasic electrodermal response and eyelid conditioning. In other settings, the theory fails to explain empirical data adequately, especially in studies of subjective response and attention and performance. Gray's theory has advanced research through stimulating interest in moderation of personality effects by motivational variables. It also provides a better explanation than Eysenck's theory for certain data, such as instrumental conditioning to reward stimuli and the positive affectivity of extraverts. Overall, however, Gray's theory explains a narrower range of findings than Eysenck's. There is little evidence that Gray's revised personality axes are generally more predictive of psychophysiological and performance criteria than Eysenck's original dimensions. Finally, it is suggested that the assumptions of the biological approach to personality are in need of reassessment. It is possible that the biological theories may be improved through developments in methodology or through discriminating multiple systems underpinning traits. For example, extraversion may have distinct “reticulo–cortical” and “dopaminergic” aspects. Alternatively, the biological approach may not in fact be adequate for explaining behavioural correlates of traits. In this case, trait research should place more emphasis on cognitive or social bases for personality.
Although it is commonly believed that social relationships buffer the effects of stress on mental health, these apparent buffering effects may be spurious reflections of personality or prior mental health. This possibility was investigated in a prospective study of a medical school entrance examination. Five weeks before the examination, Ss (N = 56) rated their personality (extraversion and neuroticism) and social relationships (number of social contacts and perceived support). They then rated their anxiety for 35 days surrounding the examination. Controlling for personality and prior anxiety, social contacts buffered against increases in anxiety, whereas perceived support did not. Further analyses revealed that discretionary social contacts were beneficial whereas obligatory contacts were not.
The development and validation of a new decontaminated hassles measure, the Inventory of College Students' Recent Life Experiences, are described. An initial pool of 85 items was administered to 100 undergraduates along with the Perceived Stress Scale. Forty-nine items were selected based on significant correlations against the Perceived Stress Scale. The alpha reliability of the resultant final form of the Inventory of College Students' Recent Life Experiences and its correlation against the Perceived Stress Scale were both high. In a separate cross-replication sample of 108 undergraduates, the alpha reliability of the Inventory and its correlation against the Perceived Stress Scale showed little shrinkage. Furthermore, separate analyses for male and female subjects supported the reliability and validity of the Inventory of College Students' Recent Life Experiences across gender. Factor analysis of the Inventory yielded seven interpretable factors. Intercorrelations among sub-scales based on these factors were generally modest, though in all cases significant, suggesting that the Inventory is relatively free of contamination by psychological distress.
Although there has been a substantial effort to establish the beneficial effects of social support on health and well-being, relatively little work has focused on how social support influences physical health. This article outlines possible mechanisms through which support systems may influence the etiology of physical disease. I begin by reviewing research on the relations between social support and morbidity and between social support and mortality. I distinguish between various conceptualizations of social support used in the existing literature and provide alternative explanations of how each of these conceptualizations of the social environment could influence the etiology of physical disease. In each case, I address the psychological mediators (e.g., health relevant cognitions, affect, and health behaviors) as well as biologic links (e.g., neuroendocrine links to immune and cardiovascular function). I conclude by proposing conceptual and methodological guidelines for future research in this area, highlighting the unique contributions psychologists can make to this inherently interdisciplinary endeavor.
Key words: social support, physical disease, psychosocial models
Cross-sectional analyses of data collected from a large sample of incoming college freshmen were used to determine whether the perceived availability of social support protects persons from stress-induced depressive affect; whether social competence, social anxiety, and self-disclosure are responsible for the stress-protective effect of perceived social support; and whether these social skill measures discriminate among persons for whom support will help, hinder, or be ineffective in the face of stress. Prospective analyses based on the original testing (beginning of school year) and 11- and 22-week follow-ups of a randomly selected subsample were used to determine how the same social skill factors influence the development and maintenance of support perceptions and of friendships. Evidence is provided for a stress-buffering role of the perceived availability of social support. The stress-buffering effect is unaffected by controls for the possible stress-protective influences of social anxiety, social competence, and self-disclosure. Although these social skill factors do not discriminate among persons for whom support will help, hinder, or be ineffective, they are prospectively predictive of the development of both social support and friendship formation. These prospective relations between social skills and the development of perceived availability of social support are only partly mediated by number of friends.
Theoretical models emphasize the importance of person and environmental variables in stress and coping processes. This article examines individual differences (extraversion and neuroticism), environmental factors (social support and work demand), and situational characteristics (type of stressful episode and its perceived importance) as predictors of three self-report measures of coping (general coping, direct coping, and suppression) derived from the Ways of Coping Questionnaire. The data analyzed were collected from 135 first-year female student nurses. Individual differences were assessed prior to exposure to the ward environment, and information about stressful episodes was obtained during the initial period of nursing practice. Multiple regression analyses showed that individual differences and environmental and situational factors were significant predictors of the coping scores and that patterns of main and interactive effects were different for each type of coping. For direct coping and suppression, predicted interactions across person, environmental, and situational variables contributed significantly to the explained variance. Curvilinear interactions between work demand and neuroticism were significant for both direct coping and suppression; interactions of social support and extraversion with perceived importance predicted direct coping; and interactions between neuroticism and extraversion and between work demand and importance predicted suppression. These findings are discussed in relation to current substantive and methodological issues in the study of coping and adaptation.
The purpose of this article is to determine whether the positive association between social support and well-being is attributable more to an overall beneficial effect of support (main- or direct-effect model) or to a process of support protecting persons from potentially adverse effects of stressful events (buffering model). The review of studies is organized according to (a) whether a measure assesses support structure or function, and (b) the degree of specificity (vs. globality) of the scale. By structure we mean simply the existence of relationships, and by function we mean the extent to which one’s interpersonal relationships provide particular resources. Special attention is paid to methodological characteristics that are requisite for a fair comparison of the models. The review concludes that there is evidence consistent with both models. Evidence for a buffering model is found when the social support measure assesses the perceived availability of interpersonal resources that are responsive to the needs elicited by stressful events. Evidence for a main effect model is found when the support measure assesses a person’s degree of integration in a large social network. Both conceptualizations of social support are correct in some respects, but each represents a different process through which social support may affect well-being. Implications of these conclusions for theories of social support processes and for the design of preventive interventions are discussed.
Synopsis
One hundred and two first-year students at an independent college in Taiwan participated in a questionnaire study. Measurements of stressors (major life events, minor daily hassles and perceived university stress), personality (locus of control, extraversion and neuroticism) and mental health (depression, anxiety and somatic symptoms) were taken. Using multivariate analyses, we found that: (1) life events predicted anxiety, while daily hassles predicted depression; (2) locus of control and extraversion correlated negatively, while neuroticism correlated positively with university stress; and (3) neuroticism had a main effect on symptom reportings across the board, while extraversion had a vulnerability effect on somatic symptoms. Relationships between life events and daily hassles, and the roles of personality in the stress process, are discussed.
Convergent electroencephalographic, performance, and psychometric measures of arousal were used to test predictions based on H. J. Eysenck's (1967) theory. Twelve introverts and 12 extraverts had their brainstem auditory evoked responses (BAERs) monitored under 3 levels of caffeine administration (0.0, 1.5, and 3.0 mg/kg) and 3 levels of task demand (resting, simple response time, and complex response time). Results revealed a decrease in the latency of Wave V of the BAER as a function of personality, with introverts evidencing significantly shorter latency of Wave V as compared with extraverts. Faster conduction time between Waves I-III and I-V were also found in introverts. Caffeine at either the 1.5 or 3.0 mg/kg level was associated with decreased latency of Wave V, compared with the placebo condition. No personality differences in subjective arousal or reaction time performance were found across any of the conditions.
Systematic random-sampling procedures were used to gather a sample of 191 community residents in Kaohsiung city, Taiwan, and survey them regarding (a) amount of social support given and received; (b) perceived reciprocity of support in relationships with family members, friends, and colleagues; (c) negative affect; and (d) psychological symptoms. Extraversion and social desirability were also measured. Both receiving and giving support were related to negative affect after controlling for the effects of extraversion and social desirability. These two personality factors also substantially masked the negative impact of support on psychological symptoms. Reciprocity of support within the family domain was related to well-being. Individual differences in support exchanges were noted, and women received more support than men.
The growth of research on social support has led to a comparable proliferation in the ways it is conceptualized and operationalized. The overall purpose of the present paper was to bring some clarity to this concept by critically examining how it has been presented in the literature and by proposing both rationally and empirically derived typologies for organizing social support functions. From a review of prominent discussions of support functions, a rational typology was proposed that included six categories: Material Aid, Behavioral Assistance, Intimate Interaction, Feedback, and Positive Social Interaction. To empirically examine the structure of social support, a factor analysis was conducted on items from a scale of socially supportive behaviors. The four factors that subsequently emerged were labeled Directive Guidance, Non‐directive Support, Positive Social Interaction, and Tangible Assistance. Application of these findings to the assessment of support and future research on support/well‐being relationships were discussed.
People’s perceptions of the social support they have available can have an important impact on their social adjustment and their ability to cope with stress. Moreover, this influence appears independent of the social support that actually exists. Indeed, there is often little relation between perceived and actual support availability. Individuals’ general perceptions of the support they receive are only weakly correlated with their ratings of the supportiveness conveyed in specific events that have occurred (Dunkel-Schetter & Bennett, 1990; Lakey & Cassady, 1990; Sarason, Shearin, Pierce, & Sarason, 1987). Moreover, these perceptions are often better predictors of coping effectiveness than are either persons’ own or others’ ratings of the support that has actually been provided them in specific experiences they have had (Antonucci & Israel, 1986; Sandler & Barrera, 1984; Wethington & Kessler, 1986). Thus, providing persons with a supportive social environment is insufficient to ensure their ability to cope with stress and to acquire a sense of well-being. To attain these objectives, one must also understand the factors that influence people’s perceptions of social support availability. This understanding requires an identification of not only the cognitive bases of perceived social support but also the processes that give rise to it.
It has been suggested that the trait of extraversion is associated with physiological arousal (Eysenck, 1967). Both psychophysiological and behavioral studies have generally supported this statement (Eysenck & Eysenck, 1985). However, recent research has suggested that the trait of impulsivity is the trait most closely linked to the physiological arousal mechanisms believed to underlie extraversion (Revelle, Humphreys, Simon, & Gilliland, 1980). This study utilized brainstem auditory evoked responses (ABRs) to investigate which trait (extraversion, impulsivity, sociability) is most closely related to hypothesized ascending reticular activating system-regulated arousal processes. The results indicated that the full scale of extraversion was related to ABR wave V activity,r= .27,p< .025, with extraverts exhibiting slower ABR latencies compared to introverts. Analyses of the subscales indicated that sociability (r= .27,p< .025), rather than impulsivity (r= .05,p< .70), contributed more to this effect.
Extraversion was positively correlated with the latency of wave I of the auditory brainstem evoked response (BER) at 75, 80 and 85 dB of intensity. Extraverts also tended to display longer latency for wave V than introverts to high frequency, 80-dB tone bursts and to click stimuli at intensity levels which ranged from 55 to 85 dB (SPL). These results are consistent with reports of greater auditory sensitivity (d') and enhanced amplitude of the late (N1-P2) cortical evoked response for introverts. The absence of differences in interpeak latency, or central transmission time. center the effects on wave I which is thought to be generated by the cochlear nerve. The present findings may require the elaboration of the neurophysiological bases of extraversion, which presently focuses on differences in cortico-reticular arousal systems, to accomodate individual differences in axonal or synaptic transmission.
Objective:
To examine the hypothesis that diverse ties to friends, family, work, and community are associated with increased host resistance to infection.
Design:
After reporting the extent of participation in 12 types of social ties (eg, spouse, parent, friend, workmate, member of social group), subjects were given nasal drops containing 1 of 2 rhinoviruses and monitored for the development of a common cold.
Setting:
Quarantine.
Participants:
A total of 276 healthy volunteers, aged 18 to 55 years, neither seropositive for human immunodeficiency virus nor pregnant.
Outcome measures:
Colds (illness in the presence of a verified infection), mucus production, mucociliary clearance function, and amount of viral replication.
Results:
In response to both viruses, those with more types of social ties were less susceptible to common colds, produced less mucus, were more effective in ciliary clearance of their nasal passages, and shed less virus. These relationships were unaltered by statistical controls for prechallenge virus-specific antibody, virus type, age, sex, season, body mass index, education, and race. Susceptibility to colds decreased in a dose-response manner with increased diversity of the social network. There was an adjusted relative risk of 4.2 comparing persons with fewest (1 to 3) to those with most (6 or more) types of social ties. Although smoking, poor sleep quality, alcohol abstinence, low dietary intake of vitamin C, elevated catecholamine levels, and being introverted were all associated with greater susceptibility to colds, they could only partially account for the relation between social network diversity and incidence of colds.
Conclusions:
More diverse social networks were associated with greater resistance to upper respiratory illness.
Although many studies have been directed toward investigating different dimensions of adults' social networks, little has been done with studying children's social networks. The present paper describes a scale which has been developed for assessing the social networks of children. Results indicate that a network where one is not similar to one's peers (on age, sex, and race), and one which contains a large number of members who provide physical assistance is predictive of adjustment in school-age children. The implications of the findings for special services providers in schools are discussed.
Two previous studies, one of nitrous oxide and the other of amylobarbitone sodium, had shown that tolerance of these drugs, assessed by the ‘sedation threshold’ procedure, was influenced by an interaction between introversion-extraversion and neuroticism: tolerance was negatively correlated with E in High N subjects and positively with E in low N subjects. In a study described in the first part of this paper the same result was found for thiopentone among a group of 50 surgical patients, tested as part of their routine pre-operative procedure. The remainder of the paper is devoted to a more detailed analysis of this interactive effect, undertaken by combining the personality and sedation threshold scores from three studies. In this larger sample the previously observed results were broadly maintained, in that neurotic extraverts and normal introverts proved to have very low drug tolerance; the highest tolerance was found, however, in introverts with moderate, rather than very high, neuroticism. Comparison with similar data for a large group of neurotic patients revealed a somewhat different picture: the sedation thresholds of patients were sometimes predictable from their personality scores and sometimes from their diagnoses, the two not always coinciding. The results as a whole are discussed with reference to the possible neurophysiological mechanisms mediating depressant drug action and personality differences. Specifically it is suggested that some parts of the observed variation in drug tolerance might be explained by combining certain features of the modifications to Eysenck's theory of extraversion and neuroticism proposed, respectively, by Gray and by Claridge. However, it is considered that not all of the variation can be explained in this way and that other personality characteristics, probably those associated with ‘psychoticism’, are likely to prove important determinants of drug tolerance differences.
A perceived availability of social support measure (the ISEL) was designed with independent subscales measuring four separate support functions. In a sample of college students, both perceived availability of social support and number of positive events moderated the relationship between negative life stress and depressive and physical symptomatology. In the case of depressive symptoms, the data fit a “buffering” hypothesis pattern, i.e., they suggest that both social support and positive events protect one from the pathogenic effects of high levels of life stress but are relatively unimportant for those with low levels of stress. In the case of physical symptoms, the data only partially support the buffering hypothesis. Particularly, the data suggest that both social support and positive events protect one from the pathogenic effects of high levels of stress but harm those (i.e., are associated with increased symptomatology) with low levels of stress. Further analyses suggest that self-esteem and appraisal support were primarily responsible for the reported interactions between negative life stress and social support. In contrast, frequency of past social support was not an effective life stress buffer in either the case of depressive or physical symptomatology. Moreover, past support frequency was positively related to physical symptoms and unrelated to depressive symptoms, while perceived availability of support was negatively related to depressive symptoms and unrelated to physical symptoms.
The main aim of the present study is threefold: (a) to investigate the relationship between personality variables (extraversion, neuroticism, achievement motivation), perceived social support and overall psychosocial adjustment to university life (measured in terms of absence of loneliness and overall subjective satisfaction with several social and academic aspects of university life; (b) to investigate the relationship between coping with examination stress, psychosocial adjustment and academic performance; and (c) to predict psychosocial adjustment to university life from a number of demographic, personality, coping and social support variables. One hundred and eighty three first year home students completed a questionnaire at the end of the academic year, measuring: (a) neuroticism, extraversion, achievement motivation, perceived social support, loneliness, overall adjustment to university life, and ways of coping with the examination stress. The results indicated that: (a) personality variables correlated significantly with social support and psychosocial adjustment to university life. However, none of the personality variables, perceived social support measures or other psychosocial adjustment indices correlated with academic performance. (b) Emotion-focused coping correlated positively with neuroticism and problem-focused coping correlated positively with achievement motivation. Several correlations were reported between personality and the different ways/strategies of coping with the examinations stress. Distancing oneself from examination stress was the only variable that significantly correlated with academic performance. (c) Finally, personality and social support contributed significantly to the prediction of psychosocial adjustment to university life. Results are discussed in relation to the relevant literature.
The main aim of the present study is twofold: (a) to investigate the relationship between the two broad personality dimensions of Neuroticism and Extraversion (and the extended concepts of Negative and Positive Affectivity) and Dysfunctional Attitudes, as well as the relationship between Dysfunctional Attitudes, perceived Social Support, Loneliness and General Well-Being during the transition to University; and (b) to study the contribution of such variables in the prediction of psychosocial Adjustment of Home students to University life. A total of 124 students completed a questionnaire that was distributed 10 weeks after arrival at university, which assessed: (a) Personality (Extraversion, Neuroticism, Interpersonal Trust, and Self-Esteem), (b) Dysfunctional Attitudes, (c) state Negative and state Positive Affectivity, (d) perceived Social Support, and (f) psychosocial Adjustment to University life. The results indicated that: (a) Dysfunctional Attitudes correlated significantly with all the personality and psychosocial adjustment variables, and (b) Personality (Extraversion, Neuroticism, Self-Esteem, Interpersonal Trust) and Dysfunctional Attitudes contributed significantly to the prediction of perceived Social Support and psychosocial Adjustment to university life, as assessed in terms of Loneliness, General Well-Being, and overall Adjustment. Results are discussed in relation to the relevant literature and implications for students' counselling.
The aim of this research is to examine the relationship between personality traits, stressful life events and coping styles in early adolescence. On a sample of 265 subjects, ranging in age from 11 to 14 years, a junior EPQ, questionnaire of coping styles and scale of subjective stress were applied.Using the path analysis, the direct and indirect effects of personality traits and perceived intensity and frequency of stressful life events (subjective stress) on three coping styles (problem-focused coping, emotion-focused coping and avoidance coping) were tested. The results obtained demonstrated that extraversion has a direct positive effect on problem and emotion-focused coping style while neuroticism and psychoticism have direct positive effects on avoidance coping style. The indirect effects of personality traits on coping styles through subjective stress are low for all three coping styles. Subjective stress has statistically significant positive effects on all three coping styles and the greatest independent effect is on avoidance coping.In general, the results of this research demonstrate that the relationship between personality traits, subjective stress and coping styles in early adolescence are similar to those obtained on the samples of adult subjects and that already in early adolescence coping can be meaningfully viewed in a larger dispositional context.
This study tested that adequacy of the “indirect method” of measuring stress appraisal, used in the Inventory of College Students' Recent Life Experiences (ICSRLE), whereby severity ratings are eschewed in favour of selecting items which correlate positively with an independent measure of perceived stress. Undergraduate volunteers (n = 183) responded to the following measures: the ICSRLE; separate emotional-impact ratings of that scale's items; the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS); the Hopkins Symptom Checklist (HSCL), a measure of psychiatric symptomatology; the Health Problem Inventory (HPI), a measure of common physical ailments; and the trait subscale of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI-T). Two distinct measures of hassles-based stress were compared: simple hassles-exposure, the ICSRLE, and a combination of hassles exposure and rated negative emotional impact, the ICSRLE-NEI. The ICSRLE correlated trivially and nonsignificantly higher with the PSS, the HSCL, and the HPI than did the ICSRLE-NEI. Furthermore, only the ICSRLE proved sensitive to a synergistic interaction effect of hassles and trait anxiety on psychiatric symptomatology. These findings support the adequacy of the indirect method of stress appraisal built into the ICSRLE.
Describes the Social Support Questionnaire (SSQ) and 4 empirical studies employing it. The SSQ yields scores for (a) perceived number of social supports and (b) satisfaction with social support that is available. Three studies (N = 1,224 college students) dealt with the SSQ's psychometric properties, its correlations with measures of personality and adjustment, and the relation of the SSQ to positive and negative life changes. The 4th study (40 Ss) was an investigation of the relation between social support and persistence in working on a complex, frustrating task. The research reported suggests that the SSQ is a reliable instrument and that social support is (a) more strongly related to positive than negative life changes, (b) more related in a negative direction to psychological discomfort among women than men, and (c) an asset in enabling a person to persist at a task under frustrating conditions. Clinical implications are discussed. (47 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
The relations between coping behaviors and personality characteristics (introversion/extroversion) were examined in 176 Japanese female college students. Multiple regression analysis indicated that extrovertive individuals more often used not only seeking social support but also avoidance than did introvertive subjects. An implication for further research would be to analyze the interactions between personality influences and situational factors in coping behaviors.
Predicting the everyday life events of people is a relatively unexplored topic, although several major theoretical approaches deal with related issues. The dispositional approach would assign a causal role to personality, while the situational approach would locate causation in the person's environment. Variations on these two extreme themes invoke an interactionist interpretation. Beyond this, a genuinely transactional approach focuses on the enduring person-environment relationship established as people deal with major and everyday life events. This study investigated a wide range of predictors of daily positive, negative, and ill-health events over time in a sample of 206 older adults. Results showed that personality variables played only a minor role in predicting daily events, although an interaction between extraversion and social network size was significant. Background demographic variables and the major stressors of recent conjugal bereavement and physical disability played a role in daily event occurrences. Overall, the strongest degree of predictability of events came from the events themselves: The high degree of event stability over time indicated the value of a genuinely transactional model in understanding the occurrence of everyday events.
A conceptual model was developed to address 2 issues that have received relatively little attention in the social support literature. First, an attempt was made to assess the interrelationships among 3 types or dimensions of supportive social relations. In addition, the impact of selected psychological and social factors on social support use was examined. Findings from a nationwide survey of older adults in the United Kingdom suggest that social contact tends to increase the amount of received support, and received support in turn tends to bolster perceptions of support availability in the future (i.e., anticipated support). With regard to the second issue, social roles (especially marital status) and social extraversion emerged as potentially important correlates of social support use in later life.
Recent evidence suggests a larger role for personality determinants of the coping response than has been traditionally held. In the two studies presented here, we examined the influence of personality on the use of social support and other coping strategies in samples of undergraduate students. The first study surveyed a range of coping responses to naturally occurring stressors and found that Extraversion was related to social support seeking, optimism (identified as germane to coping in prior research) was related to problem solving, and both dispositions were negatively related to avoidance. The second study used an experimental approach and multiple personality measures to correct for possible methodological problems in the first. Extraversion again proved to be associated with help seeking; moreover, this relationship accounted for that of another disposition, self-esteem--a construct considered crucial in the literature. The utility of personality variables, particularly Extraversion, in predicting and explaining the choice of a coping strategy is discussed.
