Women's personality traits, interpersonal competence and affection for dating partners: A test of the contextual model

This study utilized the contextual model to examine the relationship between distal (FiveFactor Model of Personality), proximal (interpersonal competence), and affective outcome (love, liking) factors in women's perception of their dating relationships. Respondents (n=123 females) completed a questionnaire packet to assess each of the factors. Results indicated that women's personality traits made direct and indirect contributions to liking and love for dating partners. Overall, the findings indicated that both distal and proximal factors contributed to relationship quality, and provided support for the contextual model.

Romantic relationships are of central importance in the lives of young adults. While both men and women participate in romances, there is evidence that women may be more involved in such relationships. Compared to men, women show greater responsiveness to partner needs (Vangelisti & Daly, 1997) and assume greater responsibility for nurturing and maintaining relationships (Hendrick & Hendrick, 1992). Given these trends, women's experiences of dating relationships are worthy of more attention.

The contextual model provides a framework for examining how individual and interpersonal characteristics play out in romantic relationships. According to the model, the distal context includes personality traits, and relationship beliefs that create a paradigm through which relational events are processed. In contrast, the proximal context includes the immediate responses a partner experiences during a relationship event (Bradbury & Fincham, 1989). The proximal context mediates linkages between the distal context and relationship outcomes; the importance of the distal context lies in its ability to impact the proximal context, which in turn affects relationship quality (Bradbury & Fincham, 1989).

The personality dimensions of the distal context affect not only the ways in which relationships are viewed, but also interpersonal processes. In the current study, the Five-Factor Model (FFM, Costa & McCrae, 1992) of personality was used to represent the distal context. The five factors are extraversion, neuroticism, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness. The authors chose to assess these factors because McCrae and John (1992) argued that they reflect basic dimensions of personality, and affect relationships.

The two traits of agreeableness and extraversion may be particularly salient for women's experiences in dating relationships. More specifically, agreeableness reflects a willingness to be pleasant and accommodating; extraversion is reflected by warmth and gregariousness (Costa, McCrae, & Dye, 1991). Consistent with these traits, women (more so than men) are expected to be warm, nurturant, and responsive to others in intimate relationships (Baber & Allen, 1992). Langston and Sykes (1997) argued that there exists adequate evidence to assume that the Fivefactors represent a sufficient taxonomy of basic personality traits, but that research to date has failed to examine how such traits affect proximal characteristics and behaviors. This gap was addressed by examining distal-proximal linkages in women's experiences in romantic relationships.

The proximal context has been expanded beyond the study of attributions to include the patterns of interaction in relationships (Fletcher & Fitness, 1990). Examining behaviors likely to affect relationship outcomes may expand our knowledge of the proximal context. Buhrmester, Furman, Wittenburg, and Reis (1988) identified self-disclosure, emotional support, assertion, and conflict resolution as four dimensions of competence that directly contribute to relationship quality. Given that past research typically showed that women more often engage in such interpersonal events (e.g., self-disclosure), the authors focused on how (in conjunction with personality traits) these proximal behaviors affect dating outcomes.

There is some evidence that the FFM is related to interpersonal competence. For example, in a study of self-perceptions, Sneed, McCrae, and Funder (1998) reported that one's own openness and extraversion were positively related to dimensions of self-disclosure and negatively related to expressing insecurity. Agreeableness was associated with more likable behaviors as well. Studying ongoing relationships, Bolger and Zuckerman (1995) found that high neuroticism was associated with more exposure and reactivity to conflict resolution across personal contacts for a 2-week period. Barrett and Pietromonaco (1997) reported that, across social interactions with multiple sources, (a) conflict was negatively related to extraversion and agreeableness, (b) intimacy was positively related to extraversion and openness, and (c) disclosure was positively associated with neuroticism.

While such research provides preliminary support for personality-competence linkages, there are several important limitations. For example, studies have often utilized cursory (e.g., one-item) measures of interpersonal competence, and examined these linkages in stranger or hypothetical encounters rather than in ongoing relationships. Of the research on extant relationships, there has been little effort to distinguish interactions in specific (e.g., romantic, friend, roommate) relationships. Further, theoretical models were rarely used to explain linkages between the Five-Factor Model and relational factors.