Accuracy in Perceptions of Fundamental Social Motives: Comparisons to Perceptions of Big Five Traits and Associations With Friendship Quality

Accurately perceiving others’ personalities helps people to successfully navigate their social relationships. However, it is not yet clear whether people can accurately perceive one aspect of people’s personalities that may be especially important to understand: motivations. Using the fundamental social motives framework, we examined the extent to which people accurately perceived a friend’s motivations (vs. big five traits) and how this was related to friendship quality. A sample of friend dyads completed both self- and friend-assessments of the big five traits and the fundamental motives, and rated friendship quality. Perceivers accurately detected their friend’s unique, self-reported ordering of motives (i.e., distinctive accuracy), though to a lesser extent than traits. However, accuracy for motives and traits was positively associated with greater friendship quality to a similar extent. Importantly, these associations emerged above and beyond tendencies to view others highly normatively, as socially desirable, and as similar to the self.

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RELATIONS BETWEEN BIG FIVE TRAITS AND FUNDAMENTAL MOTIVES

Psychological Reports ◽

10.2466/pr0.95.7.795-802 ◽

2004 ◽

Vol 95 (7) ◽

pp. 795 ◽

Cited By ~ 11

Author(s):

KENNETH R. OLSON

Keyword(s):

Big Five ◽

Big Five Traits ◽

Fundamental Motives

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Sexual Self-Labels and Personality Differences Among Chinese Lesbians

Social Behavior and Personality An International Journal ◽

10.2224/sbp.2011.39.7.955 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 39 (7) ◽

pp. 955-961 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

Yong Zheng ◽

Lijun Zheng

Keyword(s):

Sexual Behavior ◽

Big Five ◽

Active Role ◽

The Self ◽

Strong Preference ◽

Behavior Patterns ◽

Personality Differences ◽

Sexual Roles ◽

Big Five Traits ◽

Lesbian Community

Distinctions are commonly made regarding preferences for active or receptive sexual roles within the Chinese lesbian community. Three sexual self-labels are typically specified among Chinese lesbians: “T”, meaning a lesbian who prefers the active role, “P”, meaning a lesbian who prefers the receptive role, and “H”, meaning a lesbian without a strong preference for either role. The aim in this study was to examine personality differences within Chinese lesbian sexual self-labeled groups. Among the participants, comprising 217 Chinese lesbians, significant differences were found between sexual self-labeled groups in gender-related and Big Five traits. Ts scored higher than Ps in masculinity and self-ascribed masculinity/femininity; Ps scored higher than Ts in femininity; Hs gained intermediate scores in a gender-related traits compared to those of Ts and Ps. There were significant differences in the Big Five traits of extraversion, conscientiousness, and emotional stability among the self-labeled groups. Sexual self-labels appear not only to distinguish sexual behavior patterns but may also suggest personality differences among Chinese lesbians.

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Has Average Joe Got Inner Conflicts? Positioning the Self and the Meaning of Mid-Range Scores on the Big Five Traits

Journal of Constructivist Psychology ◽

10.1080/10720537.2013.877364 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 28 (2) ◽

pp. 152-165 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Peter T. F. Raggatt ◽

Theresa Weatherly

Keyword(s):

Big Five ◽

The Self ◽

Big Five Traits

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Personality and psychosocial functioning in early adolescence: Age-differential associations from the self- and parent perspective

European Journal of Personality ◽

10.1177/08902070211005636 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 089020702110056

Author(s):

Anne Israel ◽

Naemi D Brandt ◽

Simon Grund ◽

Olaf Köller ◽

Oliver Lüdtke ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Social Relationships ◽

Psychosocial Adjustment ◽

Big Five ◽

Early Adolescence ◽

Psychosocial Functioning ◽

Regression Models ◽

The Self ◽

Parent Perspective ◽

Specific Effects ◽

Latent Regression

Although psychosocial functioning and personality are indisputably interrelated in adulthood, much less is known about these associations in early adolescence. Accordingly, the goal of the current study was twofold. First, we investigated associations between adolescents’ personality and three broad indicators of psychosocial functioning: academic achievement, social relationships, and psychosocial adjustment. Second, we tested differential effects by comparing these associations across three different cohorts (Grades 5, 7, and 9) and across two raters of adolescents’ personality: self- and parent reports. Our sample consisted of N = 2667 students and their parents. According to latent regression models, adolescents’ personality traits showed significant associations with all psychosocial functioning variables: Achievement was most consistently associated with emotional stability, openness, and conscientiousness; social relationships were most consistently associated with agreeableness and conscientiousness; and psychosocial adjustment was related to all of the Big Five traits. Most associations did not vary across grades, whereas self-reported extraversion showed lower associations in later grades. Looking at rater-specific effects, we found fewer and usually smaller associations with parent- than with self-rated personality, again with the most significant differences with extraversion. We discuss the consistent interrelatedness between adolescents’ personality and psychosocial functioning but also highlight important exceptions in grade- and rater-specificities.

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Relations between Big Five Traits and Fundamental Motives

Psychological Reports ◽

10.2466/pr0.95.3.795-802 ◽

2004 ◽

Vol 95 (3) ◽

pp. 795-802 ◽

Cited By ~ 14

Author(s):

Kenneth R. Olson ◽

Dale A. Weber

Keyword(s):

Physical Activity ◽

University Students ◽

Big Five ◽

Social Contact ◽

Openness To Experience ◽

Big Five Traits ◽

Family Activity ◽

Fundamental Motives

Relations were examined between configurations of Big Five Traits (Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Neuroticism, Openness to Experience) and 16 fundamental motives (Social Contact, Curiosity, Honor, Power, Order, Idealism, Independence, Status, Vengeance, Romance, Family, Activity, Saving, Acceptance, Eating, Tranquility) in 138 university students (93 women, 45 men; M age = 20.3 yr., SD = 4.5). Big Five traits were measured with the NEO-PI–R and motives were measured with the Reiss Profile of Fundamental Goals and Motivation Sensitivities. The traits were significantly related with all the motives (adjusted R2 = .06 to .43) except Physical Activity. Four motives were related with only one trait and nine configurations of two or more traits were correlated with the remaining 11 motives. Total motive scores across all participants, an index of the strength of overall motivation, were positively correlated with Extraversion and Neuroticism and negatively with Agreeableness.

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Social Motives Predict Loneliness During a Developmental Transition

Swiss Journal of Psychology ◽

10.1024/1421-0185/a000201 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 76 (4) ◽

pp. 145-153 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Jana Nikitin ◽

Alexandra M. Freund

Keyword(s):

Social Relationships ◽

Well Being ◽

Social Avoidance ◽

Social Approach ◽

Social Motives ◽

Developmental Transitions ◽

Avoidance Motivation ◽

Negative Effect ◽

Low Levels

Abstract. Establishing new social relationships is important for mastering developmental transitions in young adulthood. In a 2-year longitudinal study with four measurement occasions (T1: n = 245, T2: n = 96, T3: n = 103, T4: n = 85), we investigated the role of social motives in college students’ mastery of the transition of moving out of the parental home, using loneliness as an indicator of poor adjustment to the transition. Students with strong social approach motivation reported stable and low levels of loneliness. In contrast, students with strong social avoidance motivation reported high levels of loneliness. However, this effect dissipated relatively quickly as most of the young adults adapted to the transition over a period of several weeks. The present study also provides evidence for an interaction between social approach and social avoidance motives: Social approach motives buffered the negative effect on social well-being of social avoidance motives. These results illustrate the importance of social approach and social avoidance motives and their interplay during developmental transitions.

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Measuring the Big Five in Self-Report and Other Ratings

European Journal of Psychological Assessment ◽

10.1027//1015-5759.16.1.31 ◽

2000 ◽

Vol 16 (1) ◽

pp. 31-43 ◽

Cited By ~ 24

Author(s):

Claudio Barbaranelli ◽

Gian Vittorio Caprara

Keyword(s):

Big Five ◽

Structural Equation ◽

Structural Equation Models ◽

Error Variance ◽

The Self ◽

Self Report ◽

Sources Of Information ◽

Third Person ◽

Fit Indexes ◽

Response Modes

Summary: The aim of the study is to assess the construct validity of two different measures of the Big Five, matching two “response modes” (phrase-questionnaire and list of adjectives) and two sources of information or raters (self-report and other ratings). Two-hundred subjects, equally divided in males and females, were administered the self-report versions of the Big Five Questionnaire (BFQ) and the Big Five Observer (BFO), a list of bipolar pairs of adjectives ( Caprara, Barbaranelli, & Borgogni, 1993 , 1994 ). Every subject was rated by six acquaintances, then aggregated by means of the same instruments used for the self-report, but worded in a third-person format. The multitrait-multimethod matrix derived from these measures was then analyzed via Structural Equation Models according to the criteria proposed by Widaman (1985) , Marsh (1989) , and Bagozzi (1994) . In particular, four different models were compared. While the global fit indexes of the models were only moderate, convergent and discriminant validities were clearly supported, and method and error variance were moderate or low.

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The Interdependence of Personality and Satisfaction in Couples

European Psychologist ◽

10.1027/1016-9040/a000261 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 21 (4) ◽

pp. 284-295 ◽

Cited By ~ 21

Author(s):

Rebekka Weidmann ◽

Thomas Ledermann ◽

Alexander Grob

Keyword(s):

Relationship Satisfaction ◽

Personality Traits ◽

Big Five ◽

Gender Effects ◽

Big Five Traits ◽

Personality Similarity ◽

Interpersonal Effects

Abstract. Personality has been found to play an important role in predicting satisfaction in couples. This review presents dyadic research on the association between Big Five traits and both life and relationship satisfaction in couples focusing on self-reported personality, partner-perceived personality (how the partner rates one’s own personality), and personality similarity. Furthermore, special attention is given to possible gender effects. The findings indicate the importance of self-reported as well as partner-perceived reported personality for the satisfaction of both partners. Specifically, the majority of studies found intrapersonal and interpersonal effects for neuroticism, agreeableness, and conscientiousness on life or relationship satisfaction. For the partner-perceived personality, intrapersonal and interpersonal effects were present for all Big Five traits. Partners’ similarity in personality traits seems not to be related with their satisfaction when controlling for partners’ personality.

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