One of the most frequently identified, yet frustratingly intractable, problems impeding the development of an adequate psychology of personality is identifying the important ways in which features of the interpersonal environment enter into correspondence with attributes of persons. The overarching purpose of this proposal is to develop a new approach (conceptual framework, research design, specific measures) for studying person-environment correspondence. Three aspects of person-environment correspondence will be examined: 1) the domains within which attributes of persons and features of the social environment come into correspondence; 2) the mechanisms (processes) and media (actions, communications) by which these correspondences are brought about; and 3) the consequences of obtained person-environment correspondence for social conflict and subjective distress. Four related empirical studies are proposed using a sample of 100 newlywed couples and 200 of their close peers. Study I examines selection (of mates and peers) as a mechanism of person-environment correspondence. Study II operationalizes evocation and shaping as mechanisms and tests specific predictions about social coercion, conflict, and stress. Study III assesses the subjectively perceived interpersonal environment, and tests its correspondence with the frequencies of actions directed by spouses and peers. Study IV proposes to follow up this sample of 100 newlywed couples to answer a set of questions for which no data yet exist: How stable are the interpersonal environments of persons? How consistent are selections, evocations, and shapings as mechanisms that create person-environment correspondence? And what are the longer-term consequences of these environments and correspondences for subjective distress and social conflict?
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