ABSTRACT
To each of our social interactions, we bring ourselves—a unique collection of numerous personal properties that will influence the relationship that develops. These relatively stable personal causal conditions include such properties as would appear in our partner’s description of us—our demographic properties, for example, including our age, sex, education, socioeconomic status, and occupation. Several of these easily discerned properties are likely to be associated with less visible dispositions to respond to others in certain ways; for example, age goes hand in hand with age-related beliefs, and socioeconomic status may be linked with political affiliation. Our visible attributes are just the tip of the personal property iceberg, which includes our temperament, personality traits, attitudes, expectations, beliefs, motivations, goals, and an array of relationship schemas. All of these may influence how we respond to others and how other people respond to us in interaction.
