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Abstract

People spend much of their day interacting with other people, and such social interactions are pivotal for health and well-being. While previous research thoroughly elaborated on stable interindividual differences in social relationships, such as associations between personality and the composition of people’s social networks, much less research has focused on the processes governing daily social interactions and interindividual differences therein. In this dissertation, three empirical studies, involving more than 1,000 adults from a broad age range and diverse backgrounds, examined the interplay between personality, daily social interactions, as well as micro-, meso-, and macro-context factors. The dissertation extends previous research in two ways: First, various methodological approaches to measuring daily social interactions and social traits are compared and their unique strengths and weaknesses are elaborated. Second, context effects on daily social interactions are empirically demonstrated on various timescales and analysis levels (i.e., micro, meso, and macro). Following the general introduction, the three studies are presented in five chapters: In Chapter 2, three different methods for the assessment of social interactions in daily life are compared: day reconstruction, experience sampling, and mobile sensing. Measurements of face-to-face interactions showed substantial agreement and agreement between measurements of smartphone-mediated interactions was high. Yet, none of the methods comprehensively measured social interactions, that is, many social interactions were captured by only one of the methods, and qualitative aspects of social interactions remained difficult to capture with smartphone sensors. Chapter 3 focuses on a comparison of social traits related to dynamic social processes in daily life. The chapter describes the development of a brief self-report questionnaire of social dynamics, the Social Dynamics Scale, and examines its predictive validity regarding changes in social contact across time and different social relationships. The results showed considerable overlap between social traits. Additionally, the new scale measured individual differences in social dynamics reliably, validly, and with predictive value for changes in daily contact. Still, next to the assessment of social traits, the measurement of processes at a higher time resolution is needed for understanding processes governing social interactions as they occur in daily life. Chapter 4 examines the temporal dynamics of momentary social desires and social interactions within and across days, accounting for social traits as well as contributions of the micro-context, i.e., situational affordances. The affiliation motive predicted momentary social desires but no changes in future social interactions, except when social interactions were VII assessed with mobile sensing. Situational affordances, such as the valence and voluntariness of social interactions, predicted social desires and future contact. Chapter 5 explores how aspects of the meso-context, that is, the number of relationships people maintain and the density of people’s living arrangements, contribute to social interactions in daily life. While transitions from solitude to social interactions were faster for people living in densely populated households, contrary to expectations, they were slower for people living in dwellings with more homes. Additionally, people living in densely populated households transitioned slower from social interactions to solitude. Current social desires predicted subsequent social interactions within days, but not across days—independent of individuals’ social network size or social density. Chapter 6 examines changes in social contact, life satisfaction, and depressivity/anxiety during a time that was characterized by the macro-context of the COVID-19 pandemic and associated pervasive social contact restrictions. The affiliation motive, need to be alone, and social anxiety moderated the resumption of personal contact under loosened restrictions, as well as associated changes in life satisfaction and depressivity/anxiety. Overall, the chapters demonstrate how innovative multi-method intensive longitudinal studies can provide unprecedented opportunities for researchers to study social behaviors in the contexts they are embedded in. The results call for a greater integration of specific context factors in theories on the dynamic regulation of social interaction in daily life and for a continued development of measurement and analysis methods.