Differential Behavioral Pathways Linking Personality to Leadership Emergence and Effectiveness in Groups.

This study integrates leadership process models with process models of personality and behavioral personality science to examine the behavioral-perceptual pathways that explain interpersonal personality traits' divergent relation to group leadership evaluations. We applied data from an online group interaction study (N = 364) alternately assigning participants as leaders conducting brief tasks. We used four variable types to build the pathways in multiple mediator models: (a) Self-reported personality traits, (b) video recordings of expressed interpersonal behaviors coded by 6 trained raters, (c) interpersonal impressions, and (d) mutual evaluations of leadership emergence/effectiveness. We find interpersonal big five traits to differently relate to the two leadership outcomes via the behavioral-perceptual pathways: Extraversion was more important to leadership emergence due to impressions of assertiveness evoked by task-focused behavior being strongly valued. Agreeableness/emotional stability were more important to leadership effectiveness due to impressions of trustworthiness/calmness evoked by member-focused/calm behavior being stronger valued.

Variation in social media sensitivity across people and contexts.

Social media impacts people's wellbeing in different ways, but relatively little is known about why this is the case. Here we introduce the construct of "social media sensitivity" to understand how social media and wellbeing associations differ across people and the contexts in which these platforms are used. In a month-long large-scale intensive longitudinal study (total n = 1632; total number of observations = 120,599), we examined for whom and under which circumstances social media was associated with positive and negative changes in social and affective wellbeing. Applying a combination of frequentist and Bayesian multilevel models, we found a small negative average association between social media use AND subsequent wellbeing, but the associations were heterogenous across people. People with psychologically vulnerable dispositions (e.g., those who were depressed, lonely, not satisfied with life) tended to experience heightened negative social media sensitivity in comparison to people who were not psychologically vulnerable. People also experienced heightened negative social media sensitivity when in certain types of places (e.g., in social places, in nature) and while around certain types of people (e.g., around family members, close ties), as compared to using social media in other contexts. Our results suggest that an understanding of the effects of social media on wellbeing should account for the psychological dispositions of social media users, and the physical and social contexts surrounding their use. We discuss theoretical and practical implications of social media sensitivity for scholars, policymakers, and those in the technology industry.

A meta-analytic review of the associations of personality, intelligence, and physical size with social status.

Theories have proposed diverse reasons for why individual differences such as personality traits lead to social status attainment in face-to-face groups. We integrated these different theoretical standpoints into a model with four paths from individual differences to status: a dominance, a competence, a virtue, and a micropolitics path. To investigate these paths, we meta-analyzed over 100 years of research on bivariate associations of personality traits, cognitive abilities, and physical size with the attainment of status-related outcomes in face-to-face groups (1,064 effects from 276 samples including 56,153 participants). The status-related outcome variables were admiring respect, social influence, popularity (i.e., being liked by others), leadership emergence, and a mixture of outcome variables. The meta-analytic correlations we found were largely in line with the micropolitics path, tentatively in line with the competence and virtue paths, and only partly in line with the dominance path. These findings suggest that status attainment depends not only on the competence and virtue of an individual but also on how individuals can enhance their apparent competence or virtue by behaving assertively, by being extraverted, or through self-monitoring. We also investigated how the relations between individual differences and status-related outcomes were moderated by kind of status-related outcome, nature of the group task, culture (collectivism/individualism), and length of acquaintance. The moderation analysis yielded mixed and inconclusive results. The review ends with directions for research, such as the need to separately assess and study the different status-related outcomes. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Narcissists' affective well-being: Associations of grandiose narcissism with state affect level and variability.

Whereas grandiose narcissism has generally been found to be related to adaptive affective experiences (i.e., positive affective states), many theoretical conceptualizations have emphasized its associations with characteristics of low affective well-being (i.e., unstable, highly variable affective states). Empirical research on the association of grandiose narcissism with the mean level of and variability in affective states has been inconclusive, as studies have differed considerably in their conceptualizations and measurement of narcissism and affect dynamics and have suffered from methodological limitations. Here, we offer conceptual explanations for previously inconsistent findings, derive diverging hypotheses about different aspects of narcissism and affective well-being, and investigate these hypotheses in two daily diary and three experience-sampling data sets (overall N = 2,125; total measurements = 116,336). As hypothesized, we found diverging associations between agentic and antagonistic aspects of narcissism with affect levels: Whereas narcissistic admiration was related to more pleasant affective states, narcissistic rivalry was related to less pleasant ones. We also obtained some support for diverging effects of admiration and rivalry on affect variability. However, these associations were largely reduced when we corrected for (squared) mean levels of affective valence and arousal. In combination, these findings suggest that only the agentic aspect of grandiose narcissism is conducive to affective well-being, whereas its antagonistic aspect negatively influences affective well-being. Moreover, the assumed associations of grandiose narcissism with volatile affectivity seem to rely heavily on mean-level effects and primarily manifest in experiences of more diverse affective states rather than stronger or more frequent affective fluctuations in general. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Narcissistic dimensions and depressive symptoms in patients across mental disorders in cognitive behavioural therapy and in psychoanalytic interactional therapy in Germany: a prospective cohort study.

BACKGROUND: Narcissistic personality traits have been theorised to negatively affect depressive symptoms, therapeutic alliance, and treatment outcome, even in the absence of narcissistic personality disorder. We aimed to examine how the dimensional narcissistic facets of admiration and rivalry affect depressive symptoms across treatment modalities in two transdiagnostic samples. METHODS: We did a naturalistic, observational prospective cohort study in two independent adult samples in Germany: one sample pooled from an inpatient psychiatric clinic and an outpatient treatment service offering cognitive behavioural treatment (CBT), and one sample from an inpatient clinic providing psychoanalytic interactional therapy (PIT). Inpatients treated with CBT had an affective or psychotic disorder. For the other two sites, data from all service users were collected. We examined the effect of core narcissism and its facets admiration and rivalry, measured by Narcissistic Admiration and Rivalry Questionnaire-short version, on depressive symptoms, measured by Beck's Depression Inventory and Patient Health Questionnaire-Depression Scale, at baseline and after treatment in patients treated with CBT and PIT. Primary analyses were regression models, predicting baseline and post-treatment depression severity from core narcissism and its facets. Mediation analysis was done in the outpatient CBT group for the effect of the therapeutic alliance on the association between narcissism and depression severity after treatment. FINDINGS: The sample included 2371 patients (1423 [60·0%] female and 948 [40·0%] male; mean age 33·13 years [SD 13·19; range 18-81), with 517 inpatients and 1052 outpatients in the CBT group, and 802 inpatients in the PIT group. Ethnicity data were not collected. Mean treatment duration was 300 days (SD 319) for CBT and 67 days (SD 26) for PIT. Core narcissism did not predict depression severity before treatment in either group, but narcissistic rivalry was associated with higher depressive symptom load at baseline (ß 2·47 [95% CI 1·78 to 3·12] for CBT and 1·05 [0·54 to 1·55] for PIT) and narcissistic admiration showed the opposite effect (-2·02 [-2·62 to -1·41] for CBT and -0·64 [-1·11 to -0·17] for PIT). Poorer treatment response was predicted by core narcissism (ß 0·79 [0·10 to 1·47]) and narcissistic rivalry (0·89 [0·19 to 1·58]) in CBT, whereas admiration showed no effect. No effect of narcissism on treatment outcome was discernible in PIT. Therapeutic alliance mediated the effect of narcissism on post-treatment depression severity in the outpatient CBT sample. INTERPRETATION: As narcissism affects depression severity before and after treatment with CBT across psychiatric disorders, even in the absence of narcissistic personality disorder, the inclusion of dimensional assessments of narcissism should be considered in future research and clinical routines. The relevance of the therapeutic alliance and therapeutic strategy could be used to guide treatment approaches. FUNDING: IZKF Münster. TRANSLATION: For the German translation of the abstract see Supplementary Materials section.

Examining individual differences in metaperceptive accuracy using the social meta-accuracy model.

To what extent do individuals differ in understanding how others see them and who is particularly good at it? Answering these questions about the "good metaperceiver" is relevant given the beneficial outcomes of meta-accuracy. However, there likely is more than one type of the good metaperceiver: One who knows the specific impressions they make more than others do (dyadic meta-accuracy) and one who knows their reputation more than others do (generalized meta-accuracy). To identify and understand these good metaperceivers, we introduce the social meta-accuracy model (SMAM) as a statistical and conceptual framework and apply the SMAM to four samples of first impression interactions. As part of our demonstration, we also investigated the routes to and the correlates of both types of good metaperceivers. Results from SMAM show that, overall, people were able to detect the unique and general first impressions they made, but there was little evidence for individual differences in dyadic meta-accuracy in a first impression. In contrast, there were substantial individual differences in generalized meta-accuracy, and this ability was largely explained by being transparent (i.e., good metaperceivers were seen as they saw themselves). We also observed some evidence that good generalized metaperceivers in a first impression tend to be extraverted and popular. This work demonstrated that the SMAM is a useful tool for identifying and understanding both types of good metaperceivers and paves the way for future work on individual differences in meta-accuracy in other contexts. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Narcissistic status pursuit in everyday social life: A within-person process approach to the behavioral and emotional dynamics of narcissism.

Status pursuit has been emphasized as a key motivational factor underlying narcissism, but research has just begun to unravel the processes by which more narcissistic individuals pursue status in their everyday social interactions. In this article, we combine process models of narcissistic status pursuit with three-factor models of narcissism to test whether different aspects of narcissism (i.e., agentic, antagonistic, and neurotic narcissism) can be characterized by stronger reactivity to different kinds of status perceptions (i.e., the perceived assignment of status, attack on status, and neglect of status). Using data from two experience sampling studies, one involving college students (Nparticipants = 285; Nobservations = 18,036) and one in the general population (Nparticipants = 1,177; Nobservations = 36,074), we first found that the perceived assignment of status, attack on status, and neglect of status were related to status-relevant behaviors (i.e., expressive, combative, and avoidant behaviors) and emotions (e.g., pride, anger, and shame) within persons on average. Next, we found that both mean levels of perceptual, behavioral, and emotional states and status contingencies (i.e., the within-person relationships of status perceptions with behavioral and emotional states) varied considerably across individuals and that these individual differences were reliable and stable across time. Last, we found some associations between trait levels of agentic, antagonistic, and neurotic narcissism and individual differences in mean levels as well as status-emotion contingencies. Our findings emphasize the multifaceted and status-driven nature of narcissism and support the use of theoretically derived contingencies as more dynamic aspects of personality. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Extraversion, social interactions, and well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic: Did extraverts really suffer more than introverts?

A large body of research suggests that extraversion is positively related to well-being. However, it is unclear whether this association can be explained by social participation (i.e., more extraverted individuals engage in social interactions more frequently) or social reactivity (i.e., more extraverted individuals profit more from social interactions) processes. Here, we examined the role of social interactions for the extraversion-well-being relationship during the COVID-19 pandemic, an unprecedented time of reduced social contact. We analyzed data from an international, longitudinal study (Study 1: 10,523 assessments provided by 4,622 participants) and two experience sampling studies (Study 2: 29,536 assessments provided by 293 participants; Study 3: 61,492 assessments provided by 1,381 participants). Preregistered multilevel structural equation models revealed that extraversion was robustly related to well-being, even when social restrictions were in place. Across data sets, we found some support for the social participation hypothesis (i.e., the relationship between extraversion and well-being is mediated by social interactions), but the social reactivity hypothesis (i.e., extraversion moderates the relationship between social interactions and well-being) was not consistently supported. Strikingly, however, exploratory analyses showed that the social reactivity hypothesis was supported for specific facets of extraversion (i.e., sociability) and well-being (i.e., activated positive affect). Moreover, changes in social interaction patterns during the COVID-19 pandemic (e.g., decreases in face-to-face interactions and interactions with friends) were unrelated to extraversion, and more extraverted individuals did not suffer more from these changes. Taken together, these findings underline the robustness of the effect of extraversion on well-being during a societal crisis. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Age and gender differences in narcissism: A comprehensive study across eight measures and over 250,000 participants.

Age and gender differences in narcissism have been studied often. However, considering the rich history of narcissism research accompanied by its diverging conceptualizations, little is known about age and gender differences across various narcissism measures. The present study investigated age and gender differences and their interactions across eight widely used narcissism instruments (i.e., Narcissistic Personality Inventory, Hypersensitive Narcissism Scale, Dirty Dozen, Psychological Entitlement Scale, Narcissistic Personality Disorder Symptoms from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Version IV, Narcissistic Admiration and Rivalry Questionnaire-Short Form, Single-Item Narcissism Scale, and brief version of the Pathological Narcissism Inventory). The findings of Study 1 (N = 5,736) revealed heterogeneity in how strongly the measures are correlated. Some instruments loaded clearly on one of the three factors proposed by previous research (i.e., Neuroticism, Extraversion, Antagonism), while others cross-loaded across factors and in distinct ways. Cross-sectional analyses using each measure and meta-analytic results across all measures (Study 2) with a total sample of 270,029 participants suggest consistent linear age effects (random effects meta-analytic effect of r = -.104), with narcissism being highest in young adulthood. Consistent gender differences also emerged (random effects meta-analytic effect was -.079), such that men scored higher in narcissism than women. Quadratic age effects and Age × Gender effects were generally very small and inconsistent. We conclude that despite the various conceptualizations of narcissism, age and gender differences are generalizable across the eight measures used in the present study. However, their size varied based on the instrument used. We discuss the sources of this heterogeneity and the potential mechanisms for age and gender differences. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Applying multimodal social relations analyses in personality pathology research.

In this article, we introduce multimodal social relations analysis as a powerful tool for studying personality pathology that tackles several important limitations of existing research. By implementing a design in which groups of participants provide repeated ratings as they interact, researchers can gather data on individuals' mutual perceptions, affective experiences, and interpersonal behaviors in naturalistic social contexts. We demonstrate how the social relations model can be used to analyze and make conceptual sense of these complex, dyadic data and showcase how this may be used to address not only the experiences and behaviors of individuals diagnosed with a personality disorder but also the reactions these individuals evoke in others. We provide recommendations as to what settings and measures might be best suited when designing a study that applies multimodal social relations analysis, and we discuss practical and theoretical implications as well as possible extensions to this method. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

How we compare: A new approach to assess aspects of the comparison process for appearance-based standards and their associations with individual differences in wellbeing and personality measures.

We introduce a novel approach to assess habitual comparison processes, while distinguishing between different types of comparison standards. Several comparison theories (e.g., social) suggest that self-evaluations use different standards to inform self-perception and are associated with wellbeing and personality. We developed the Comparison Standards Scale for Appearance (CSS-A) to examine self-reported engagement with social, temporal, criteria-based, dimensional, and counterfactual comparisons for upward and downward standards in relation to appearance. The scale was completed by three hundred participants online alongside measures of appearance schemas, social comparison evaluations, depression, anxiety, stress, self-esteem, physical self-concept, narcissism, and perfectionism. The CSS-A was found to reliably assess individual differences in upward and downward comparison frequency and affective impact for multiple comparison standards. In line with theory, CSS-A upward comparisons were more frequent than downward comparisons and coincided with negative (versus positive) affective impact. Comparison intensity (i.e., comparison frequency × discrepancy) predicted negative and positive affective impact for upward and downward comparisons, respectively. This relationship was partially mediated by appearance concern for upward comparisons (a composite of appearance schemas and physical self-concept), yet moderated by negativity for downward comparisons (a composite of depression, anxiety, stress, and self-esteem). We offer a framework for measuring the comparison process that warrants further research on underlying comparison processes, for which the CSS(-A) and experience sampling methods should serve as useful tools.

Prospective associations between grandiose narcissism and perfectionism: A longitudinal study in adolescence.

The current study investigates the longitudinal association between grandiose narcissism and multidimensional perfectionism over 2 years in adolescence. We adopted the Narcissistic Admiration and Rivalry Concept, which differentiates between two aspects of grandiose narcissism. We also considered multiple dimensions of perfectionism, including Socially Prescribed Perfectionism (SPP) and two forms of Self-Oriented Perfectionism (SOP), namely the tendencies to set high standards of performance (SOP-Striving) and to engage in overly critical self-evaluations (SOP-Critical). The study was conducted in a sample of Italian high school students (n = 331). Concurrent correlations indicated that Admiration was positively related to SOP-Striving and, to a lesser extent, to SOP-Critical and SPP. Rivalry was also positively related to the three perfectionistic dimensions, although correlations were smaller in size than those found for Admiration. Prospective associations between narcissism and perfectionism were analysed using a Random-Intercept Cross-Lagged Panel Model. Results showed that the predominant direction of effects was from narcissism to perfectionism, particularly from Admiration to SOP-Striving and SPP. Findings were discussed in terms of their implications for the understanding of the narcissism-perfectionism link.

Discovering trends of social interaction behavior over time: An introduction to relational event modeling : Trends of social interaction.

Real-life social interactions occur in continuous time and are driven by complex mechanisms. Each interaction is not only affected by the characteristics of individuals or the environmental context but also by the history of interactions. The relational event framework provides a flexible approach to studying the mechanisms that drive how a sequence of social interactions evolves over time. This paper presents an introduction of this new statistical framework and two of its extensions for psychological researchers. The relational event framework is illustrated with an exemplary study on social interactions between freshmen students at the start of their new studies. We show how the framework can be used to study: (a) which predictors are important drivers of social interactions between freshmen students who start interacting at zero acquaintance; (b) how the effects of predictors change over time as acquaintance increases; and (c) the dynamics between the different settings in which students interact. Findings show that patterns of interaction developed early in the freshmen student network and remained relatively stable over time. Furthermore, clusters of interacting students formed quickly, and predominantly within a specific setting for interaction. Extraversion predicted rates of social interaction, and this effect was particularly pronounced on the weekends. These results illustrate how the relational event framework and its extensions can lead to new insights on social interactions and how they are affected both by the interacting individuals and the dynamic social environment.

Validation of the German Five-Factor Narcissism Inventory and Construction of a Brief Form Using Ant Colony Optimization.

Narcissism is a multifaceted construct commonly conceptualized as comprising grandiose and vulnerable aspects in a two-factor model. While the manifold correlates of these aspects imposed a challenge for research on the structure of narcissism, recent models converge in a three-factor structure of agentic-extraverted, antagonistic, and neurotic aspects, capturing variance in different conceptualizations and correlates of narcissism. We construct and validate a German adaptation of the Five-Factor Narcissism Inventory (FFNI), a measure assessing these aspects based on the Five-Factor Model. In eight samples (N = 2,921), we found the German FFNI to align with both, two- and three-factor models. The factors display good criterion validity with other narcissism measures, (non-)clinical personality dimensions, interpersonal styles, and (mal-)adaptive adjustment. Neurotic and antagonistic narcissism discriminated between individuals with/without mental disorder diagnoses, and displayed a characteristic profile in incarcerated offenders. Since the FFNI is comprehensive but long, we constructed a 30-item brief form (FFNI-BF) optimizing the internal structure and external validity using ant colony optimization. The FFNI-BF displayed good psychometric characteristics and similar, in certain aspects even advantageous criterion validity. We conclude that the German FFNI validly measures key aspects of narcissism, and the FFNI-BF captures these in a concise manner.

Well-being in social interactions: Examining personality-situation dynamics in face-to-face and computer-mediated communication.

Decades of research show that people's social lives are linked to their well-being. Yet, research on the relationship between social interactions and well-being has been largely inconclusive with regard to the effects of person-situation interactions, such as the interplay between contextual factors (e.g., interactions occurring in physical vs. digital contexts, different interaction partners) and dispositional tendencies (e.g., Big Five personality traits). Here, we report on exploratory and confirmatory findings from three large studies of college students (Study 1: N = 1,360; Study 2: N = 851; Study 3: N = 864) who completed a total of 139,363 experience sampling surveys (reporting on 87,976 social interactions). We focus on the effects of different modes of communication (face-to-face [FtF] interactions, computer-mediated communication [CMC], and mixed episodes [FtF + CMC]), and types of interaction partners (close peers, family members, and weak ties). Using multilevel structural equation modeling, we found that FtF interactions and mixed episodes were associated with highest well-being on the within-person level, and that these effects were particularly pronounced for individuals with high levels of neuroticism. CMC was related to lower well-being than FtF interactions, but higher well-being than not socializing at all. Regarding the type of interaction partner, individuals reported higher well-being after interactions with close peers than after interactions with family members and weak ties, and the difference between close peers and weak ties was larger for FtF interactions than for CMC. We discuss these findings with regard to theories of person-situation interactions and research on well-being and social interactions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on reading performance of second grade children in Germany.

In education, among the most anticipated consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic are that student performance will stagnate or decline and that existing inequities will increase. Although some studies suggest a decline in student performance and widening learning gaps, the picture is less clear than expected. In this study, we add to the existing literature on the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on student achievement. Specifically, we provide an analysis of the short- and mid-term effects of the pandemic on second grade reading performance in Germany using longitudinal assessments from over 19,500 students with eight measurement points in each school year. Interestingly, the effects of the pandemic established over time. Students in the first pandemic cohort even outperformed students from the pre-pandemic cohorts and showed a tendency towards decreased variances during the first lockdown. The second pandemic cohort showed no systematic mean differences, but generally had larger interindividual differences as compared to the pre-pandemic cohorts. While the gender achievement gap seemed unaffected by the pandemic, the gap between students with and without a migration background widened over time-though even before the pandemic. These results underline the importance of considering effects of the pandemic across cohorts, large samples, and fine-grained assessments. We discuss our findings considering the context-specific educational challenges and in terms of practical implications for teachers' professional development.

Individual differences in contingencies between situation characteristics and personality states.

Contingencies between situational variables and psychological states have been proposed as key individual difference variables by many theoretical approaches to personality. Despite their relevance, the basic properties, nomological correlates, and factor structure of individual differences in contingencies have not been examined so far. We address these fundamental questions in five studies with overall N = 952 participants and N = 32,052 unique assessments. Individual differences in situation characteristic-state contingencies (SCSCs) between DIAMONDS situation characteristics and Big Five personality states were examined in everyday life. SCSCs showed substantial variation across participants, and individual differences in them were moderately reliable (average meta-analytic reliability = .47) and short-term stable (average meta-analytic latent stability = .43). They were weakly and inconsistently related to average personality states, self-reported personality traits, subjective happiness, and sociodemographic variables across studies. However, there were meaningful intercorrelations among SCSCs that could be described by four factors: contingencies involving (1) positive states and situational problems, (2) positive states and situational rewards, (3) thinking/work and requirements of thinking/work, and (4) neurotic states. Overall, our findings support the notion of SCSCs as potentially important individual difference variables, and we sketch future lines of research on contingencies. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

The true role that suppressor effects play in condition-based regression analysis: None. A reply to Fiedler (2021).

Condition-based regression analysis (CRA) is a statistical method for testing self-enhancement effects. That is, CRA indicates whether, in a set of empirical data, people with higher values on the directed discrepancy self-view S minus reality criterion R (i.e., S-R) tend to have higher values on some outcome variable (e.g., happiness). In a critical comment, Fiedler (2021) claims that CRA yields inaccurate conclusions in data with a suppressor effect. Here, we show that Fiedler's critique is unwarranted. All data that are simulated in his comment show a positive association between S-R and H, which is accurately detected by CRA. By construction, CRA indicates an association between S-R and H only when it is present in the data. In contrast to Fiedler's claim, it also yields valid conclusions when the outcome variable is related only to the self-view or when there is a suppressor effect. Our clarifications provide guidance for evaluating Fiedler's comment, clear up with the common heuristic that suppressor effects are always problematic, and assist readers in fully understanding CRA. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Predicting Actual Social Skill Expression from Personality and Skill Self-Concepts.

Social skills are of key importance in everyday and work life. However, the way in which they are typically assessed via self-report questionnaires has one potential downside; self-reports assess individuals' global self-concepts, which do not necessarily reflect individuals' actual social behaviors. In this research, we aimed to investigate how self-concepts assessed via questionnaires relate to skill expression assessed via behavioral observations after short interpersonal simulations. For this, we used an alternative behavior-based skill assessment approach designed to capture expressions of predefined social skills. Self- and observer ratings were collected to assess three different social skills: agency (i.e., getting ahead in social situations), communion (i.e., getting along in social situations), and interpersonal resilience (i.e., staying calm in social situations). We explored how these skills were related to self-concepts by differentiating between a classic personality measure (i.e., Big Five Inventory 2; BFI-2) and a novel skill questionnaire (i.e., Behavioral, Emotional, and Social Skills Inventory; BESSI). The results (N = 137) showed that both personality and skill self-concepts predicted self-rated skill expression, with the BESSI showing incremental validity. For both personality and skills self-concepts, the relationships with observer-rated skill expression were significant for agency but not for communion or interpersonal resilience. We discuss these results and highlight the theoretical and practical importance of differentiating between skill self-concepts and actual skill expression.