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Interpersonal complementarity and affect in daily life

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Abstract

The current study examines the associations between interpersonal complementarity and affective reactions during social interactions in daily life, as well as contextual moderators of these associations. This research aims to understand how satisfaction/frustration of interpersonal motives (operationalized as interpersonal complementarity) impacts affect, using Contemporary Integrative Interpersonal Theory as a guiding framework. Participants (N = 227) rated actor and partner agency and communion in interpersonal interactions in 6 prompted surveys per day for 21 days. Results suggested that communal and agentic complementarity was associated with more positive affect valence, though this association was stronger for communal complementarity. Additionally, agentic complementarity impacted affect in cold interactions, while communal complementarity impacted affect in warm interactions, indicating that there are potentially more agentic motives driving cold interactions and communal motives driving warm interactions. An increase in communal complementarity was associated with an increase in affect arousal, while an increase in agentic complementarity was associated with a decrease in affect arousal, indicating affect arousal may communicate something other than satisfaction/frustration of motives. The moderating role of type of interaction partner was also explored. Overall, the results of this study support fundamental assumptions of Contemporary Integrative Interpersonal Theory.

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Data availability

All code for the data cleaning steps and multilevel models can be found on the Open Science Framework (https://osf.io/3gnqx/?view_only=2ea252c4ab4b4b169c0e862697d4e1d4). Use of the data requires a data sharing agreement. Please direct all requests to Dr. Emily Ansell (eba108@psu.edu).

Notes

  1. Actor-partner neutrality, which occurs when both individuals occupy the mid-point of the dominance-submissiveness dimension, is a special case of agentic complementarity.

  2. This maximum value only occurred in one interaction, where the participant rated both self and other agency as 100. Fifty was chosen as the midpoint (instead of 50.5, the actual midpoint of 1 and 100), in order to make it possible to have perfect complementarity at the midpoint (self and other ratings of agency = 50).

  3. Note that since higher numbers for complementarity are a decrease in complementarity, a negative estimate in these models indicates a positive relationship between complementarity and affect (i.e., as complementarity increases, there is more positive affect or higher arousal).

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Funding

This work was supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (K08 DA029641, R01 DA039924) and through a supplement from the National Institutes of Health/Office of Research on Women’s Health. This work was supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (K08 DA029641, R01 DA039924) and through a supplement from NIH/ORWH.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, 16802, USA

    Alexandra L. Halberstadt & Aaron L. Pincus

  2. Edna Bennett Pierce Prevention Research Center, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, 16802, USA

    Jacqueline Mogle

  3. Department of Biobehavioral Health, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, 16802, USA

    Emily B. Ansell

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  1. Alexandra L. Halberstadt
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  2. Aaron L. Pincus
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  3. Jacqueline Mogle
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  4. Emily B. Ansell
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Contributions

The authors confirm contribution to the paper as follows: Study conception and design: ALH, ALP. Data collection: EBA. Analysis and Interpretation: ALH, JAM, ALP. Draft manuscript preparation: ALH, ALP. All authors reviewed the results and approved the final version of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Alexandra L. Halberstadt.

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This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board and written informed consent was obtained prior inclusion in the study. This study was performed to ethical standards laid down in the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki.

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Halberstadt, A.L., Pincus, A.L., Mogle, J. et al. Interpersonal complementarity and affect in daily life. Motiv Emot 47, 270–281 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-022-10003-0

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