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Many faculty of color (FOC) lack the necessary social and professional support structures to facilitate their successful advancement on the tenure track. We present Flourish, a network for pre‐tenure social and personality psychologists of color, as a case study to illustrate how an affinity group model can aid in supporting FOC. We demonstrate that using social support to diffuse social identity threats can increase belonging and academic fit and, as a result, promote the success of early career FOC. As a field, psychological science has the potential to transcend the boundaries of academic institutions by leveraging our theories, methods, and applied expertise to build infrastructure to better support FOC. Attracting and retaining a diverse faculty workforce addresses racial inequities in higher education, diversifies research output, and makes our science more representative and reproducible. Thus, investing in affinity groups is essential for developing accessible social support systems and increasing role models for future scholars of color. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: There is a growing body of research regarding the situations that are linked to personality expression in daily life. We examined racialized young adults' experiences of racial and ethnic cues, and variables from prior personality expression research. Method: We assessed Big Five personality states in racialized undergraduate students (N = 180) in the Greater Toronto Area, Canada using experience sampling methodology. Participants (Mage = 19.85‐years‐old; 51% South Asian, 17% East Asian, 11% African, 11% Middle Eastern, 9% Southeast Asian, 8% Black‐North American, 5% Caribbean, 3% Afro‐Caribbean, 2% Central American, 2% White/European, 1% South American, 1% North African, 1% South and Central American, 1% Afro‐European, 3% another) provided five assessments daily over 12 days (Nobservations = 6980). Results: We observed within‐person associations from past personality expression research (e.g., participants exhibited greater conscientiousness when at school). Racial and ethnic cues from previous studies of racial and ethnic identity, stereotyping, discrimination, and prejudice were associated with situational characteristics (e.g., being in a majority White space was associated with being in public), and with Big Five personality states (e.g., racial identity salience was associated with extraversion). Conclusion: Results suggest that assessing sociocultural variables beyond the individual provides an opportunity for better understanding personality expression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Personality is not the most popular subfield of psychology. But, in one way or another, personality psychologists have played an outsized role in the ongoing “credibility revolution” in psychology. Not only have individual personality psychologists taken on visible roles in the movement, but our field’s practices and norms have now become models for other fields to emulate (or, for those who share Baumeister’s (2016, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2016.02.003) skeptical view of the consequences of increasing rigor, a model for what to avoid). In this article we discuss some unique features of our field that may have placed us in an ideal position to be leaders in this movement. We do so from a subjective perspective, describing our impressions and opinions about possible explanations for personality psychology’s disproportionate role in the credibility revolution. We also discuss some ways in which personality psychology remains less-than-optimal, and how we can address these flaws. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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 self-reports of their momentary social interactions, happiness, and feelings of social connectedness, 4 times each day for 1 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 self-reports 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. between-person) 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 multimethod evidence supporting the link between more frequent and deeper social interactions and well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is widely appreciated that extraversion is associated with greater subjective well-being. What is not yet clear is what mechanisms relate the two. In two longitudinal studies, we explored whether extraversion is prospectively associated with higher levels of satisfaction during college through influencing college social experiences using longitudinal cross-lagged mediation models. In both studies, students' extraversion at the beginning of college predicted their subjective well-being 4 years later. In both studies, extraversion at the beginning of college predicted a variety of self-reported and peer-reported social experiences (e.g. feelings of belonging and size of social network). We tested whether qualitative or quantitative aspects of social experiences explained the association between extraversion and subjective well-being. In the first study, neither type of social experience explained the effect of extraversion on satisfaction. Only qualitative social experiences in the second study were instrumental in explaining this effect. The results suggest that extraversion's ability to create better social experiences can play a role in extraverts' greater subjective well-being, but these experiences are not the only reason extraverts are happier and more satisfied. Copyright © 2017 European Association of Personality Psychology [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we argue that friendship should receive more attention in social/personality research. Here, we focus on our area of expertise, personality traits, and review the literature on how personality traits influence friendship formation, maintenance, and dissolution. Specifically, we examine how personality traits of the actor and partner influence friendship development (i.e., who is more likely to initiate and end friendships, and who is more likely to be the target of friendship initiation and termination). We also discuss dyadic effects, such as personality similarity, on friendship development. Throughout this review, we draw on the literature on personality and romantic relationships to identify the most important gaps in the literature on personality and friendships. Our review suggests that agreeableness has the most consistent effects on both romantic relationships and friendships, followed by neuroticism. Extraversion, conscientiousness, and openness to experience have all been shown to influence relationship development, but their effects are inconsistent. We end with a call for more research on friendship beyond the role of personality traits and suggestions for specific future directions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Who are the people who maintain satisfying friendships? And, what are the behaviours that might explain why those people achieve high friendship satisfaction? We examined the associations between personality (self-reports and peer-reports) and friendship satisfaction (self-reports) among 434 students. We also examined whether role personality (how people act with their friends) and quantity and quality of social interactions using ecological momentary assessment mediate the associations between personality and friendship satisfaction. Extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness and (low) neuroticism were associated with higher levels of friendship satisfaction. These associations could not be accounted for by individual differences in role personality. In addition, our results suggest that quantity of time spent with friends and quality of friend interactions (depth of conversation, self-disclosure and lack of emotion suppression), although associated with friendship satisfaction, do not account for the associations between trait personality and friendship satisfaction. Future research should examine other potential interpersonal processes that explain why some people are more satisfied with their friendships than others and the consequences of friendship satisfaction (e.g. for well-being). Copyright © 2015 European Association of Personality Psychology [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]