The personality traits of consensually supportive people

We investigated the personality traits of supportive providers, assessed as the consensus among observers. Each provider was rated by three perceivers who knew the provider well in a round robin design (16 groups of 4 apartment mates; N = 64). Perceivers rated providers on providers' supportiveness, a subjective judgment that a provider would assist in times of trouble. Perceivers also rated providers on five-factor personality traits. Consensually supportive providers were more agreeable, extroverted and emotionally stable. The link between provider supportiveness and agreeableness was sufficiently strong to suggest that supportiveness is an aspect of agreeableness. We also examined the aspects of personality and support that reflected unique relationships among apartment mates. Relationally supportive providers were seen as highly open to experience. Thus, the trait markers of supportiveness depended upon whether supportiveness was assessed as the consensus among observers or as a feature of relationships. Implications for integrating research on social support and structural models of personality were discussed.