Happy Like a Fish in Water? The Role of Personality–Situation Fit for Momentary Happiness in Social Interactions across the Adult Lifespan

Mueller, Swantje; Ram, Nilam; Conroy, David E.; Pincus, Aaron L.; Gerstorf, Denis; Wagner, Jenny

doi:10.1002/per.2198

Cited by 40 publications

(71 citation statements)

References 115 publications

(260 reference statements)

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“…Recently, due to the more widespread use of smartphones, such data collection is gaining popularity, yet there are still not many published studies assessing the impact of different social situations on people's well-being. In a recently published study, Mueller et al (2019) obtained similar results to those of Study 1. In fact, participants in Mueller and collaborators' study (2019) also used smartphones to provide information about each faceto-face interaction lasting more than five minutes, as well as their resulting momentary affect levels.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 77%

“…Since the participants of Study 1 were predominately young university students, the strong negative feelings when not speaking to strong-ties could have been a result of participants' conflicts with parents or other family members. Studies pointed out that among strong-ties, people reported more positive affect when being around friends than when interacting with their families, and this association becomes more prevalent as people mature (Chui et al, 2014;Csikszentmihalyi & Hunter, 2003;Larsen, Mannell, & Zuzanek, 1986;Mueller et al, 2019). This is understandable, since being with friends is predominately associated with leisure activities, an ability to choose those activities and one's companions, while being with family is often underlined by duties, routines, and not always being around like-minded people (Larson et al, 1986;Saphire-Bernstein & Taylor, 2013).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, these authors did not include any measures of the non-talking around people or being alone situations in their study. Mueller et al (2019) found that their participants were: the happiest after interactions with friends; less happy when interacting with family; even less happy due to interacting with everybody else who did not fit in the three other categories; and they felt the least happy after interacting with colleagues or co-workers (Mueller et al, 2019). In both, Mueller's et al (2019) study and Study 1 of this dissertation, the highest PA was due to talking to strong-ties (friends and family) and the lower one was a result of talking to weak-ties (coworkers).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Mueller et al (2019) found that their participants were: the happiest after interactions with friends; less happy when interacting with family; even less happy due to interacting with everybody else who did not fit in the three other categories; and they felt the least happy after interacting with colleagues or co-workers (Mueller et al, 2019). In both, Mueller's et al (2019) study and Study 1 of this dissertation, the highest PA was due to talking to strong-ties (friends and family) and the lower one was a result of talking to weak-ties (coworkers). Mueller et al (2019) also found similar results regarding more extraverted and more neurotic participants, since in their study, similarly to my research, more extraverted and more emotionally stable people reported higher happiness than more introverted or more neurotic ones across situations.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Being Alone with Others: A Unique Form of Social Contact and Its Impact on Momentary Positive Affect

Sobocko¹

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Social relationships are essential to human well-being. Although people receive the most benefit from interactions with others who are close to them (Reis, Sheldon, Gable, Roscoe, & Ryan, 2000), the need for human contact can also be satisfied through minimal interactions with others (Sandstrom & Dunn, 2014a, 2014b. This dissertation extended the research regarding the benefits of contact with acquaintances by proposing that being alone with others, i.e. being around others without verbally interacting with them, could be an alternative way of satisfying the need for social contact and improving positive affect. In an experience sampling study (N = 453), being alone with others was associated with similar positive (PA) and negative affect (NA), and lower sense of belonging, than being completely alone. Additional results supported existing research associating the best affective outcomes with interactions with close others, and higher positive affect after talking to acquaintances than not talking to them (Sandstrom & Dunn, 2014a). A second study was designed to test: whether merely sharing a space with others produces a higher sense of belonging; whether this belongingness could explain better outcomes of being alone with others compared to being alone; whether effects depend on performing the same task as others. Participants (N = 265) were randomly assigned to watch a pleasant video: alone, together with a confederate, or alone when a confederate was doing something else. I found no differences in the amplification of PA and sense of belonging, or in reduction of NA between the social conditions; however, these outcomes were also not different in the alone condition. Sharing a space with others, regardless of simultaneously performing a task together, did not lead to better outcomes than being alone. Trait introversion-extraversion was also explored, and two main trends were found in both studies: extraverts reported higher PA and sense of belonging than introverts in all situations, and introverts and extraverts reported similar BEING ALONE WITH OTHERS iii amplifications of affective states in different social and experimental conditions. Overall, both studies revealed that being alone with others was worse for people's affective outcomes and sense of belonging than being completely alone, contrary to hypotheses. BEING ALONE WITH OTHERSiv Acknowledgements I would like to thank Dr. John Zelenski for his immense help, guidance, and patience during the many years of his supervision.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 77%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Being Alone with Others: A Unique Form of Social Contact and Its Impact on Momentary Positive Affect

Sobocko¹

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“…Thus, theoretically, the affiliative aspect of extraversion should predict greater enjoyment of warm, affectionate social interactions, whereas the agentic aspect may predict positive affect in social situations where goal pursuit and reward are especially salient. Future studies could investigate the extent to which specific aspects of extraversion-and other personality traits (e.g., neuroticism; Mueller et al, 2019;Shackman et al, 2018)-moderate the association between different aspects of social interactions and well-being.…”

Section: Searching For a Moderating Role Of Trait Extraversionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Is Well-Being Associated with the Quantity and Quality of Social Interactions?

Sun¹,

Harris²,

Vazire³

2019

Preprint

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Social relationships are often touted as critical for well-being. However, the vast majority of studies on social relationships have relied on self-report measures of both social interactions and well-being, which makes it difficult to disentangle true associations from shared method variance. To address this gap, we assessed the quantity and quality of social interactions using both self-report and observer-based measures in everyday life. Participants (N = 256, 3,206 observations) wore the Electronically Activated Recorder (EAR), an unobtrusive audio recorder, and completed experience sampling method (ESM) self-reports of their momentary social interactions, happiness, and feelings of social connectedness, four times each day for one week.Observers rated the quantity and quality of participants' social interactions based on the EAR recordings from the same time points. Quantity of social interactions was robustly associated with greater well-being in the moment and on average, whether they were measured with selfreports or observer reports. Conversational (conversational depth and self-disclosure) and relational (knowing and liking one's interaction partners) aspects of social interaction quality were also generally associated with greater well-being, but the effects were larger and more consistent for self-reported (vs. observer-reported) quality variables, within-person (vs. betweenperson) associations, and for predicting social connectedness (vs. happiness). Finally, although most associations were similar for introverts and extraverts, our exploratory results suggest that introverts may experience greater boosts in social connectedness, relative to extraverts, when engaging in deeper conversations. This study provides compelling multi-method evidence supporting the link between more frequent and deeper social interactions and well-being.

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