An experimental investigation of the role of personality and attributions in influencing the evaluation of social support

Social support is a valuable resource for coping with stress, but many do not benefit from the receipt of supportive behaviors. Characteristics of the individual may cause variations in reactions to support. The purpose of this project was to examine how individual characteristics such as neuroticism, extraversion, and general support expectations can influence the evaluation of social support and the degree to which attributions mediate this effect. It was hypothesized that these individual difference variables would influence attributions for support which would subsequently influence the evaluation of supportive behaviors;This project utilized an experimental design in which participants were provided information that guided them toward support enhancing or support diminishing attributions. This permitted a test of whether prior findings on attributions and the evaluation of social support were truly causal or a function of a third variable. Furthermore, this design allowed a test of whether individual differences in personality and expectations influence the information people use to make attributions. Finally, by examining both traits and expectations in the same study, this project permitted a test of the causal relationship among these variables;The findings partially supported the major hypotheses. The attribution manipulation procedure influenced the evaluation of support, suggesting that attributions have a causal influence on perceptions of support. Participants high in neuroticism who were given negative information about their partner\u27s behavior evaluated the support they received more harshly than participants low in neuroticism, suggesting that neuroticism is associated with the greater utilization of negative information in making attributions. However, this effect was not found for extraversion or the general support expectation measures. Also, the results suggested that the influence of traits on attributions for support were mediated by expectations. The results suggest that attributions play an important role in the social support process