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How do individual differences interact with situational factors to shape social behavior? Are people with certain traits more likely to form lasting marriages; experience test-taking anxiety; break the law; feel optimistic about the future? This handbook provides a comprehensive, authoritative examination of the full range of personality variables associated with interpersonal judgment, behavior, and emotion. The contributors are acknowledged experts who have conducted influential research on the constructs they address. Chapters discuss how each personality attribute is conceptualized and assessed, review the strengths and limitations of available measures (including child and adolescent measures, when available), present important findings related to social behavior, and identify directions for future study.
A hypothesized need to form and maintain strong, stable interpersonal relationships is evaluated in light of the empirical literature. The need is for frequent, nonaversive interactions within an ongoing relational bond. Consistent with the belongingness hypothesis, people form social attachments readily under most conditions and resist the dissolution of existing bonds. Belongingness appears to have multiple and strong effects on emotional patterns and on cognitive processes. Lack of attachments is linked to a variety of ill effects on health, adjustment, and well-being. Other evidence, such as that concerning satiation, substitution, and behavioral consequences, is likewise consistent with the hypothesized motivation. Several seeming counterexamples turned out not to disconfirm the hypothesis. Existing evidence supports the hypothesis that the need to belong is a powerful, fundamental, and extremely pervasive motivation.