10.1177/0146167203253474 ARTICLEPERSONALITY AND SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY BULLETINMarkey et al. / COMPLEMENTARITY OF INTERPERSO AL BEHAVIORS Complementarity of Interpersonal Behaviors in Dyadic Interactions

An important assumption of interpersonal theory is that during social interactions the behavior of one person tends to invite com-plementary behavior from the other person. Past research exam-ining complementarity has usually used either confederates or fictitious interaction partners in their designs and has produced inconsistent results. The current study used observational rat-ings of behaviors of 158 participants as they interacted with partners across three different dyadic social situations. Random-ization tests of hypothesized order relations found that the behav-iors exhibited during these interactions tended to occur in a cir-cular pattern predicted by the interpersonal circumplex. These tests also indicated support for Leary’s (1957) orientation of the control and affiliation dimensions of the interpersonal circumplex and Carson’s (1969) notion that dominant behav-ior induces submissive responses and friendly behavior encour-ages friendly responses