Studying personality and social structure

Abstract

People's personalities are expressed and develop amidst a range of social structures, such as laws, social networks, cultural practices, and institutions, which produce and maintain hierarchies in society. In turn, the purpose and form of social structures are impacted by people's personalities. Yet, research on how personality and social structure interact is still rare. Here, I introduce theoretical framework that can help guide research on this topic. I first define personality and social structure and then use concepts from theoretical work on person–environment transactions to describe how personality and social structure interact. I highlight selection, manipulation, evocation, and socialization as transactions between personality and social structure through which hierarchies are enhanced or attenuated. Supported by this conceptual work, I describe two examples of dynamics in which personality and social structure reinforce each other in the U.S.: Conscientiousness and voting, and Openness and protest. Finally, to motivate future research, I propose novel questions that psychologists can ask about how personality and social structure interact, and I address possible limitations of the framework.