The interplay of personality and social relationships is as fascinating as it is complex and it pertains to a wide array of largely separate research domains. Here, we present an integrative and unified framework for analysing the complex dynamics of personality and social relationships (PERSOC). Basic principles and general processes on the individual and dyadic level are outlined to show how personality and social relationships influence each other and develop over time. PERSOC stresses the importance of social behaviours and interpersonal perceptions as mediating processes organized in social interaction units. The framework can be applied to diverse social relationships such as first encounters, short-term acquaintances, friendships, relationships between working group members, educational or therapeutic settings, romantic relationships and family relationships. It has important consequences for how we conceptualize, understand, and investigate personality and social relationships.

The interplay of personality and social relationships is as fascinating as it is complex and it pertains to a wide array of largely separate research domains. Here, we present an integrative and unified framework for analysing the complex dynamics of personality and social relationships (PERSOC). Basic principles and general processes on the individual and dyadic level are outlined to show how personality and social relationships influence each other and develop over time. PERSOC stresses the importance of social behaviours and interpersonal perceptions as mediating processes organized in social interaction units. The framework can be applied to diverse social relationships such as first encounters, short-term acquaintances, friendships, relationships between working group members, educational or therapeutic settings, romantic relationships and family relationships. It has important consequences for how we conceptualize, understand, and investigate personality and social relationships.

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Past research has shown that personality traits predict relationship quality in romantic couples. However, very little research has investigated psychological processes that underlie the link between personality and relationship satisfaction. The present study focused on the mediating role of spontaneous emotion regulation and positive interpersonal behaviour. This study applied a dyadic design with 137 couples who completed self-report questionnaires assessing Big Five personality traits at baseline. Subsequently, couples were asked to discuss a current relationship conflict during a laboratory session. Emotion regulation and relationship satisfaction were assessed via self-report directly after the discussion. Relationship satisfaction was additionally assessed at 6-month follow-up. Interpersonal behaviour during the conflict discussion was videotaped and coded by independent raters. As expected, emotion regulation (expressive suppression, perspective taking and aggressive externalisation), positive interpersonal behaviour and state relationship satisfaction during the conflict discussion mediated the relation between personality and long-term relationship satisfaction. In sum, this study provides evidence that personality is linked to relationship satisfaction through intrapersonal and interpersonal processes during social interactions. Aims and hypothesesThe present study aimed to investigate the processes that mediate the association between personality and relationship 202A. Vater and M. Schröder-Abé

Two studies investigated how discrepancies between implicit and explicit self‐esteem are related to mental and physical health. We found that, compared to congruent self‐esteem, discrepant self‐esteem was related to more anger suppression, a more depressive attributional style, more nervousness, and more days of impaired health. The result applies not only to fragile (high explicit, low implicit) self‐esteem, but also to damaged (low explicit, high implicit) self‐esteem. These findings show that high implicit self‐esteem is not necessarily advantageous. In individuals with low explicit self‐esteem having high implicit self‐esteem was related to more health problems than having low implicit self‐esteem. Taken together the results suggest that discrepancies between implicit and explicit SE are detrimental to mental and physical health. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.