Extraversion, Self-Silencing, and Friendship Satisfaction: A Mediation Approach

Written by Lily Gates

Description

This repository contains materials for a study examining whether self-silencing mediates the relationship between extraversion and friendship satisfaction within a single close platonic friendship. It includes the dataset, SPSS outputs, figures, and the final manuscript.

Repository Contents

• written_report/extraversion_selfsilencing_friendship_mediation.pdf: Final APA manuscript in PDF format.
• appendix/: Figures, tables, questionnaire items, and regression diagrams.
• spss_outputs/: SPSS outputs for Cronbach’s alpha, inter-item correlations, descriptive statistics, and regression models (PDF and SPV files).
• raw_data/: Both cleaned and original datasets, questionnaire items, and dataset description.

APA Research Report

Abstract

This study examined whether extraversion predicted friendship satisfaction and whether self-silencing (the tendency to suppress personal thoughts, feelings, or needs) mediated this association. Adults completed an online questionnaire assessing extraversion, self-silencing, and friendship satisfaction within a close platonic friendship. It was hypothesized that higher extraversion would predict lower self-silencing and greater friendship satisfaction, and that self-silencing would mediate this relationship. Potential moderators, including participant gender and friend gender, were also explored. Results did not support the hypothesized mediation: extraversion did not significantly predict self-silencing or friendship satisfaction, and self-silencing did not predict friendship satisfaction. These findings suggest that extraversion may not influence satisfaction in close friendships through self-silencing. Implications for research on personality and relational processes have been discussed.

Methods Summary

• Participants: A total of N = 1,160 adults completed an online survey. The analytic sample was restricted to those reporting a platonic, non-romantic, non-sexual, non-biological friendship, yielding N = 201. Participants were recruited via Amazon Mechanical Turk with a minimum 90% prior approval rating. Cases were excluded for duplicate IP addresses, survey completion under 5 minutes, invariant responding, or failed attention checks.
• Procedure: Participants completed an online questionnaire (see Appendix D), with all measures presented in random order. Relationship-specific measures asked about a specified close friend.
• Measures:
  • Extraversion: 2 items from TIPI (α = .60, corrected item-total correlation = .44).
  • Self-Silencing: 9-item subscale adapted for friendship (α = .86).
  • Friendship Satisfaction: 4-item subscale of the Relationship Satisfaction Scale (α = .87).
  • Analysis: Linear regression and mediation analyses using SPSS, with Monte Carlo simulations (20,000 resamples) to test indirect effects.

Results Summary

• No statistically significant evidence that suggests self-silencing mediates the relationship between extraversion and friendship satisfaction.
• Extraversion was not significantly associated with self-silencing or friendship satisfaction.
• Suggests that mechanisms linking personality to friendship satisfaction may be more complex, especially in platonic friendships.

Usage

1. Clone or download the repository.
2. Explore spss_outputs/ for analysis outputs or replicate analyses in SPSS using friendship_dataset.sav.
3. Refer to appendix/ for figures, tables, and questionnaire items.
4. The written_report/ folder contains the full manuscript for reference.

Citation

If you use this repository or its data, please cite as:

Lily X. Gates. (2025). Extraversion, self-silencing, and friendship satisfaction: A mediation analysis [Data and code]. GitHub. https://github.com/lilyxgates/extraversion-self-silencing-friendship

Acknowledgements

Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, College Park

PSYC 420: Social Psychology Laboratory, Dr. Edward Lemay (Fall 2025)