35th Annual Student Research Conference
What Types of Conversations Do People Find Satisfying?
Claire M. Parson*, Morgan W. Ireland, and Rachel C. Whaley
Dr. Jeffrey Vittengl, Faculty Mentor
Good conversations with others help build positive social relationships, which in turn support well-being. But what makes a “good” conversation varies among individuals. We hypothesized that more extraverted undergraduates (extraverts) would find shallower conversations more satisfying, and less extraverted undergraduates (introverts) would find deeper conversations more satisfying. Undergraduates (N = 241) completed an extraversion scale with six facets (gregariousness, activity-level, assertiveness, cheerfulness, excitement-seeking, friendliness), described a recent conversation, and completed measures of conversation depth (self-disclosure and conversation topic substantiveness) and success (partner satisfaction and quality of communication). Conversation depth, overall extraversion, and their interaction predicted conversation success significantly. Gregariousness and excitement-seeking demonstrated the same significant interaction, but activity-level, assertiveness, cheerfulness, and friendliness did not. While both extraverts and introverts preferred deeper conversations, introverts were more sensitive to conversation depth. Future studies should clarify why excitement-seeking and gregariousness interact more strongly with conversation depth than do other extraversion facets.
Keywords: extraverts, introverts, conversation success, facets of extraversion, well-being, conversation depth
Topic(s):Psychology
Presentation Type: Poster Presentation
Session: 3-1
Location: SUB Activities Room
Time: 3:00