Personality and Social Support Processes

Abstract

Investigators at the intersection of personality and social support research have developed a number of theoretical models to account for the role of a broad range of individual differences variables in social support processes. Such efforts have met with considerable success and underscore the notion that personality serves as an important influence on social behavior. Because other chapters in the present volume provide excellent summaries of these models, our goal in the present chapter is to take a broad view of how social support and personality research fit together, as well as to identify some of the key conceptual and methodological issues that need to be addressed in order to make continued progress.