D. S. Moskowitz

Situational influences on gender differences in agency and communion.

Gender differences were examined in the context of situational effects. Participants monitored interpersonal behavior for 20 days, using an event-sampling strategy. The monitored behaviors reflected dominance and submissiveness (components of agency) and agreeableness and quarrelsomeness (components of communion). The situations reflected differences in the status of work roles: interactions with boss, co-worker, and supervisee. Status influenced agency. Individuals were most agentic when with a supervisee and least agentic when with a boss. Gender did not influence agency but did influence communal behaviors. Women were more communal regardless of social role status; women were especially communal with other women, compared with men with men. Findings about agency supported a social role theory interpretation of gender differences. Results for communion were consistent with accounts of the influence of sex segregation on interpersonal relationships.

On the dynamic covariation between interpersonal behavior and affect: prediction from neuroticism, extraversion, and agreeableness.

It was posited that the traits of Neuroticism, Extraversion, and Agreeableness are predictors of dynamic intraindividual processes involving interpersonal behavior and affect. Hypotheses derived from the behavioral concordance model that individuals with high scores on a trait would experience more positively valenced affect when engaging in behavior concordant with that trait than individuals with low scores on the trait were tested. Participants completed a questionnaire measure of the traits and reported on behavior and affect during interpersonal interactions using event-contingent sampling forms approximately 6 times a day for 20 days. Trait scores were related to indexes of the association between each dimension of interpersonal behavior and affect calculated for each individual. Previous findings concerning the trait of Agreeableness were replicated, and results strongly supported the behavioral concordance model for the trait of Neuroticism. Thus, at least some traits can provide information about intraindividual processes that vary over time.

Autonomous motivation for therapy: A new common factor in brief treatments for depression

Abstract The authors propose a new common treatment factor, autonomous motivation (Deci & Ryan, 2000), defined as the extent to which patients experience participation in treatment as a freely made choice emanating from themselves. Ninety-five depressed outpatients were randomly assigned to receive 16 sessions of manualized interpersonal therapy, cognitive–behavior therapy, or pharmacotherapy with clinical management. Self-report and interviewer-based measures of depressive severity were collected at pretreatment and posttreatment. Autonomous motivation, therapeutic alliance, and perceived therapist autonomy support were assessed at Session 3. Autonomous motivation was a stronger predictor of outcome than therapeutic alliance, predicting higher probability of achieving remission and lower posttreatment depression severity across all three treatments. Patients who perceived their therapists as more autonomy supportive reported higher autonomous motivation.

Flux, pulse, and spin: dynamic additions to the personality lexicon.

Personality constructs were proposed to describe intraindividual variability in interpersonal behavior. Flux refers to variability about an individuals mean score on an interpersonal dimension and was examined for the 4 poles of the interpersonal circumplex. Pulse and spin refer to variability about an individuals mean extremity and mean angular coordinate on the interpersonal circumplex. These constructs were measured using event-contingent recording. Latent state-trait analyses indicated high stability of flux in submissive, agreeable, and quarrelsome behaviors and some stability in the flux of dominance. Further analyses indicated moderate to high stability in pulse and spin. Neuroticism predicted greater pulse, spin, and submissive behavior flux. Extraversion predicted greater flux in agreeable behavior. In contrast, Agreeableness predicted reduced spin and quarrelsome behavior flux. Social environmental variables predicted greater flux in dominant behavior. Flux, pulse, and spin provide reliable and distinctive additions to the vocabulary for describing individual differences.

The effect of tryptophan on social interaction in everyday life: a placebo-controlled study.

In monkeys increasing serotonin function enhances affiliative interactions and promotes the acquisition of dominance. To examine whether similar effects occur in humans, we treated 98 subjects for 12 days with the serotonin precursor tryptophan (1g TID) and for 12 days with placebo in a double-blind, cross over study. Agreeableness/quarrelsomeness and dominance/submission were measured using an event-contingent method, in which subjects reported on various behaviors during important social interactions throughout their day. Tryptophan decreased quarrelsome behavior, but only when placebo was given first, suggesting that a decrease in quarrelsomeness when tryptophan was given first may have carried over into the subsequent placebo period. Tryptophan increased dominant behavior, an effect that was independent of the order of treatment, the broad social context, and the subjects and partners sex. Our results suggest that serotonin may enhance dominance in humans, as in monkeys, and illustrate the advantages of the event contingent methodology in studying the associations between biology and human social interaction.

Do interpersonal traits predict affect : a comparison of three models

Predictions from interpersonal traits to affect were examined in the context of 3 models. In the global trait model, traits were used to predict affect aggregated over a 20-day period. In the situational congruence model, traits were used to predict affect in trait-relevant situations. In the behavioral concordance model, the co-occurrence between behaviors and affect was examined for individual participants, and then traits were used to predict the degree to which behavior and affect co-occurred. No support was found for the global trait and situational congruence models. Support was found for the behavioral concordance model for 3 of the 4 traits. Individuals high on agreeableness and quarrelsomeness experienced pleasant affect when they engaged in behaviors concordant with their traits. Individuals high on agreeableness, quarrelsomeness, and dominance experienced unpleasant affect when they engaged in behaviors opposite to their traits.

Generativity in midlife and young adults: links to agency, communion and subjective well-being.

Three questions stimulated by Erik Eriksons theory of generativity were addressed: 1) Is generativity associated with greater subjective well-being? 2) Are agency and communion additive or interactive predictors of generativity? 3) Does generativity play a distinct role during the midlife period? Among ninety-eight midlife adults, generativity was positively related to positive affectivity, satisfaction with life, and work satisfaction. Generativity was independently predicted by agentic (masculine) and communal (feminine) traits. Among fifty-eight young adults, generativity predicted positive affect at home. Generativity was independently predicted by agentic (power) and communal (love) interpersonal orientations. Using event-contingent recording of agentic and communal behavior at work, agency was a stronger predictor of generativity for young adult men, and communion was a stronger predictor for young adult women. The studies demonstrate that generativity has similar relations to agency and communion in young and midlife adults; however, generativity may be a stronger predictor of subjective well-being in midlife adults.

Does unhappiness make you sick ? The role of affect and neuroticism in the experience of common physical symptoms

The relative strength of both affective state and the personality trait neuroticism in predicting common physical symptoms was tested. The authors used an event-sampling design to overcome methodological limitations of past research in the area. Contrary to much previous research, neuroticism was found to be unrelated to reports of physical symptoms, although it was found to be related to unpleasant affective state. Unpleasant affect bore a strong concurrent relation to the frequency of reported symptoms. Temporal relations between experiences of unpleasant affect and subsequent symptoms were found for some individuals, but wide individual variability was seen in both the strength and direction of this linkage. The findings suggest that when individuals are asked to report their subjective experiences of physical illness without the necessity to retrospect over significant periods of time, unpleasant affective state is more strongly related to experiences of symptoms than is the trait neuroticism.

Dynamic stability of behavior : The rhythms of our interpersonal lives

The authors examined whether variations in day-to-day estimates of personality characteristics, which are often treated as error, are instead predictable and meaningful. Using event-sampling and spectral analysis, they found that variations in interpersonal behavior over weekly periods were cyclic and normative. Dominant, submissive, agreeable, and quarrelsome behaviors rose during the week and fell on the weekend. The more general dimensions of agency and communion exhibited opposite patterns of cyclicity, with agency rising and communion falling during the week. Interpersonal traits were not useful in predicting behavior cyclicity. Extraverts exhibited a daily cycle, partially mediated by more varied partners and social behaviors during evenings. Findings are discussed with reference to conceptions of personality expression as dynamic yet stable processes.

Social rank strategies in hierarchical relationships.

Social rank theorists propose that threat appraisals evoke escalation behavior toward subordinates and de-escalation behavior toward superiors. These hypotheses were examined among records of behavior sampled ecologically from the work environments of 90 individuals. At the level of the event, situated threat appraisals (feeling criticized) predicted different kinds of behavior across status situations. Individuals tended to quarrel when criticized by subordinates and to submit when criticized by superiors. At the level of the person, aggregated rank appraisals (feeling inferior) predicted different kinds of behavior across status situations. Individuals who typically felt more inferior tended to quarrel more frequently with subordinates and to submit more frequently with superiors. Findings implicated inferiority and threat as fundamental dimensions underlying the behavior of the social rank system.