What Predicts Support Selection: Examining Personality and Gender

Although research exists which examines whether people seek support in general and how they seek support from specific others, little research exists on how people seek support from among the many members of their social network when they're in need. Two novel aspects of support-seeking arise when one considers a person's entire network of potential supporters. The first is how many supporters a person seeks when a need arises. The second is how people choose which supporter(s) to seek. In order to investigate these issues, 171 participants were recruited for a daily diary study in which they reported on the people they had sought for support each day. We examined the effects of gender, Big Five personality traits and attachment style in predicting the number of supporters people sought per issue. In addition, we examined the effects of a potential supporter's past support quality, relational closeness and frequency of interaction in predicting the likelihood that the supporter would be selected. Gender, Big Five personality traits and attachment style were examined as potential moderators of this selection process.

Grantor dc:publisher

Wake Forest University

Year dc:date.issued

2013

Author dc:creator

• Armstrong III, Benjamin Franklin

• attachment style

Language dc:language.iso

en

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10339/38538

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:wakespace.lib.wfu.edu:10339/38538