I'm Outgoing and She's Reserved: The Reciprocal Dynamics of Personality in Close Friendships in Young Adulthood

ABSTRACT Close college‐age friendships provide differential opportunities for reinforcing dispositional tendencies and fostering accommodation or change. This finding was obtained from a cross‐sectional study of 66 pairs of same‐sex college‐age friends (58% female). Each pair of friends was extreme...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of personality 2011-10, Vol.79 (5), p.1113-1148
Main Authors: Nelson, Paul A., Thorne, Avril, Shapiro, Lauren A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Accommodation
Adolescent
Adult
Adults
Biological and medical sciences
California
Close friendships
Cross-Sectional Studies
Extraversion, Psychological
Female
Friends
Friends - psychology
Friendship
Friendships
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Humans
Interpersonal perception
Interpersonal Relations
Interviews as Topic
Introversion, Psychological
Male
Peer Group
Peer groups
Personality
Personality psychology
Personality traits
Personality. Affectivity
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Reciprocity
Regression Analysis
Role
Students
Universities
Young Adult
Young adults
Youth
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Summary:ABSTRACT Close college‐age friendships provide differential opportunities for reinforcing dispositional tendencies and fostering accommodation or change. This finding was obtained from a cross‐sectional study of 66 pairs of same‐sex college‐age friends (58% female). Each pair of friends was extreme and either very similar or different with regard to extraversion‐introversion. Interviews with each friend were analyzed for references to each other's role in various friendship domains, including the setting of the friendship and position with regard to chatting, disclosing, expressing opinions about peers, and energizing the friendship. Matched friends mutually reinforced each other's similar dispositional tendencies. Friends with contrasting personalities showed patterns of personality accommodation as well as complementary reinforcement. Implications are discussed for embedding reciprocal theories of personality development in close friendships.
ISSN:0022-3506
1467-6494
DOI:10.1111/j.1467-6494.2011.00719.x