Genetic and environmental influences on person-situation interactions

Genetic and environmental influences on person-situation and person-mode of response interactions for anxiety and for dominance were investigated in an adult twin sample. For anxiety, evidence of significant genetic variance was found for the person-situation interaction and the person-mode of response interaction. For dominance, evidence of shared sibling-environmental influences was found for the person-situation interaction. Sex differences in the patterns of findings were also examined. The data indicate that the factors influencing personsituation interactions vary depending on the specific trait studied, and the results provide empirical support for the “interactionist” hypothesis that an individual's behavior can be characterized by meaningful patterns of behavior across situations. In addition, the study illustrates that behavior-genetic research can be designed to address important theoretical questions about the nature of personality.     

Trait effects within potential sources of variance in transient depression

An S-R Inventory of Depression was designed to assess the experience of transient states of ‘normal unhappiness’ in non-clinical subjects and was administered to 80 men and 80 women. Differences between individuals in their overall proneness to depression and in their patterns of sensitivity to various provoking situations provided the larger sources of interpretable variance for each sex. The Neuroticism dimension of personality was involved in both sources, in the latter through the potentiation of a person's generalized response to any given situation. The argument depended upon correlations between personality dimensions and the grand means and variance components derived from a separate two-way analysis of variance in the S-R inventory for each person. This is one way to explore the effects of trait-like variables within the form of ‘interactional’ approach embodied in variance component analyses.     

Trait and other sources of variance in the S-R inventory of anxiousness.

The S-R Inventory of Anxiousness has a reliability of .95 but shows only 5% of its variance due to persons (traits). This strange combination of results is explored logically and empirically. A distinction is made between the Inventory as a test and as an experimental design. Some characteristics and problems of the Inventory as an experimental design are examined. These problems suggest that it is unwarranted to include variance from situations and modes of response in the total variance against which the component of variance due to individual differences is evaluated. It is such inclusions that have yielded the result of 5% of variance due to persons. It is concluded that results from the Inventory, when generalized to other omnibus inventories of anxiety, do not have the drastic implications that have been previously claimed.     

An interactionist approach to the study of anxiety An analysis of an S-R inventory applied to an adolescent sample

Abstract.— An inventory of anxiety was constructed according to the "S-R format", i.e., with situations and responses selected separately. The inventory employed 17 situation scales, supposed to induce different degrees of anxiety, and 18 response scales, supposed to represent different reactions to anxiety evoking stimuli. The Ss were a group of 128 pupils, 16years of age. The main purpose was to estimate the relative proportions of variance from the different variance sources. The results showed that individuals and situations contributed only about 6% each of the total variation, responses about 19%, the simple interactions about 30%, and the residual about 40%. Factor analyses of the situation and responsescales showed that these scales were multidimensional. For the response scales two main factors were isolated, interpreted as "Psychic anxiety", and "Somatic anxiety". For the situation scales three main factors were isolated, interpreted as "Threat of punishment", "Anticipation fear", and "Inanimate threat".     

Person, situation, and person-by-situation interaction components in person perception

The hypothesis that people store situation and person-by-situation interaction information as well as trait information about one another's behavior was tested by administering modified S-R Inventories of Anxiousness and Hostility to 54 male and 59 female undergraduates. Subjects rated the strength of affect that would be evoked by a series of situations in the two same-sex college students whom they knew best, the best-known opposite-sex person, a casually known same-sex person, and the “average college student.” Indices were constructed to measure the extent of (a) perceived average differences among people (traits), (b)perceived average differences over situations, and (c) perceived person-by-situation interaction. Analyses of variance showed that: (a) the ratings of the two best-known same-sex persons and the best-known opposite-sex person contained more interactive information than did the ratings of a casually known person and (b) females perceived more situational variability in the behavior of their own sex than did males. The amount of perceived person-by-situation interaction did not differ as a function of sex of rater or affect to be rated. It was concluded that the naive psychologist, like many professional psychologists, is an interactionist.     

Risk is relative: Risk aversion yields cooperation rather than defection in cooperation-friendly environments

Previous findings concerning the relation of risk aversion and cooperation in repeated prisoner's dilemma games have been inconclusive. We hypothesized that this was due to an interaction between personality and environment. Specifically, we argued that in cooperation-friendly environments--given certain beliefs--defection is more risky than cooperation. The main reason for this is that, in such a situation, defection potentially yields outcomes of higher variance (and vice versa, for cooperation-unfriendly environments). In line with this hypothesis, we showed, in two experiments and a reanalysis of a study by Fudenberg, Rand, and Dreber (American Economic Review, in press), that the degree of cooperation increases with dispositional risk aversion in cooperation-friendly environments, but not in cooperation-unfriendly environments. We also found similar person-situation interactions for neuroticism and extraversion.     

Effects of stimulus-response uncertainty on watchkeeping performance and choice reactions

The present study was conducted to assess the effects of S-R uncertainty on performance in watchkeeping and typical type-b choice-reaction situations. The assessment was based in part on measurements of S-R compatibility effects in the two performance conditions. Four levels of S-R uncertainty (1, 2, 3 and 4 bits/S-R event) were combined factorially with two levels of S-R compatibility (high and low) and the two kinds of tasks (watchkeeping and choice-reaction); 12 Ss were assigned at random to each of the 16 conditions. A matrix of lights was used as stimuli in the choice-reaction condition; Ss monitored the matrix for a I-h duration in the watchkeeping condition. In both tasks, Ss responded by pressing a corresponding key after the presentation of a stimulus or “critical signal.” Reaction time (RT) was found to be an increas ing linear function of S-R uncertainty in both tasks. and the effects of S-R compatibility were essentially identical in the two. However, choice reactions were significantly faster than watchkeeping responses, and the rate of gain of information in watchkeeping was greater than in the comparable choice-reaction situations. The results are interpreted as supporting the hypothesis that watchkeeping differs from the simpler choice-reaction task principally in presenting an additional source of (temporal) uncertainty for information processing.     

Validation studies of a multifactor cognitive-behavioral Anger Control Inventory

Two studies are reported on a new Anger Control Inventory based on a cognitive-behavioral person-situation interaction model. In Study 1, the inventory responses of 118 clinical subjects and 190 normal subjects were correlated with an anger problem criterion based on observable signs. Factor analyses were conducted to clarify the construct base of the inventory. In Study 2, comparisons were made between the inventory responses of 100 spouse batterers and 96 normal subjects. Significant differences between the pretreatment and posttreatment scores of 65 batterers given treatment in anger control were obtained on the inventory scales, which were found to be correlated with the problem criterion and discriminating between the clinical and normal groups. The construct validity and clinical utility of the Anger Control Inventory are discussed.     

Choice of situations and congruence models of interactionism

Recent studies of person-situation interactions have focused nearly exclusively on the statistical rather than reciprocal form of the concept. In an attempt to reverse this trend, two models of reciprocal interactionism are offered: choice of situations and congruence response models. The choice model proposes that individuals select situations and avoid others on the basis of certain underlying needs and dispositions. According to the congruence model, individuals should experience greater positive affect and less negative affect in situations which are congruent with their personality characteristics. Individuals indicated the frequency with which thay had recently participated in various recreation situations and also reported the affects they felt when in those situations. Some support was found for both models of interactionism, thus the choice of model appeared stronger. Implications of the choice model for the personality consistency issue and personality assessment are discussed, and suggestions for future research are offered.     

An analysis of situation and person components of jealousy

Previous studies on jealousy have focused on person factors or on situational factors, but none has compared their relative importance. Two studies are presented which analyze the contributions of persons, situations, and their interaction, with respect to jealous reactions. The first study examined intraperson variability in the intensity of jealous responses of 302 males and females when presented with four types of hypothetical jealousy situations (work, family, social, and sexual). The results of the first study supported a dispositional explanation of jealousy (i.e., substantial person and situational variance). In addition, a sizable interaction effect was revealed. Study 2 examined the nature of this interaction for sexual jealousy. Jealousy situations were broken down by distinguishing between the event, characteristics of the partner, and the relationship as separate components of the situation. Seventy-one female respondents indicated their perception of threat and their degree of upset when considering the same hypothetical jealousy-evoking events with three different partners. A substantial person component was found. In addition, responses to the jealousy-evoking events were found to vary as a function of which partner was being considered. The second study demonstrated that aspects of the relationship (i.e., relative involvement) were more important than personality characteristics of the partner in determining this intrasubject variability in the intensity of jealous rections.     

A suppressing effect of response selection on immediate arousal in a choice reaction task

A clear conflict exists between experiments showing either additive or interactive effects of foreperiod duration and S-R compatibility on choice reaction time. It is hypothesized that in principle S-R compatibility and foreperiod duration have additive effects but that the effect of foreperiod duration is reduced in conditions where a signal is immediately arousing and where the S-R relations are highly compatible. In the case of low S-R compatibility the effect of immediate arousal is supposed to be ineffective.This hypothesis is tested and confirmed in an experiment in which the combined effects of foreperiod duration and S-R compatibility were studied with either loud (85 dBA) or weak (45 dBA) auditory signals. As predicted, additive effects were found in the latter case, while an interaction was observed with 85 dBA signals.     

A variable mapping task produces symmetrical interference between global information and local information

When processing global and local aspects of compound visual figures, a robust finding is that global targets are detected faster and more accurately than local targets. Moreover, unidirectional interference is often observed. Despite the convincing evidence that global information and local information are available together, when attention is focused on the global level, items from the local level often have very little, if any, effect on behavior. If local information is available with global information, then why is global dominance so often observed under such a wide range of conditions? This paper is concerned with the fate of the ignored, and apparently ineffective, local distractors. In our experiments, at least one critical factor was stimulus-response (S-R) mapping. We compared a consistent S-R task, which facilitated a speed advantage for global, with a variable S-R task, which required a higher degree of semantic analysis for each stimulus. The two tasks produced large differences in behavior, showing unidirectional interference in the consistent S-R task, and strong bidirectional interference in the variable S-R task. Thus, the identity of ignored local distractors was available, even under conditions that favored focused attention to global information. The results provide support for a model in which global processing proceeds more quickly at early perceptual stages and in which local processing can catch up if processing demands are increased at later stages.     

Inhibition of return interacts with the Simon effect: an omnibus analysis and its implications

Previous research has reported that the Simon effect (a type of stimulus-response [S-R] compatibility effect) and the inhibition of return effect (IOR; a late cuing effect) do not interact. In this brief report, we analyzed published and unpublished experiments that have examined these effects and found that IOR actually increases the Simon effect. This is a remarkable finding because most factors that delay reaction times (as IOR does) actually decrease the Simon effect. We examine this interaction within the context of seven interpretations of the effect that IOR may have on the task-irrelevant S-R code and two interpretations of the effect that IOR may have on the task-relevant S-R code, two components that underlie the Simon effect. The results falsified more than half of these interpretations, thus permitting future investigations to further reduce the number of theoretical alternatives.     

The mind and heart (literally) of the negotiator: personality and contextual determinants of experiential reactions and economic outcomes in negotiation

The authors developed and tested a model proposing that negotiator personality interacts with the negotiation situation to influence negotiation processes and outcomes. In 2 studies, the authors found that negotiators high in agreeableness were best suited to integrative negotiations and that negotiators low in agreeableness were best suited to distributive negotiations. Consistent with this person-situation fit argument, in Study 1 the authors found that negotiators whose dispositions were a good fit to their negotiation context had higher levels of physiological (cardiac) arousal at the end of the negotiation compared with negotiators who were "misplaced" in situations inconsistent with their level of agreeableness, and this arousal was in turn related to increased economic outcomes. Study 2 replicated and extended the findings of Study 1, finding that person-situation fit was related to physiological (heart rate), psychological (positive affect), and behavioral activation (persistence) demonstrated during the negotiation, and these measures in turn were related to the economic outcomes achieved by participants.     

Shyness-environment interaction: A view from the shy side through auto-photography

It is proposed that shyness both induces and is induced by the perception of the environment This study of person-situation transaction used photographic images taken by shy and less shy subjects in response to the question, “Who are you?” A content analysis of the photographs showed that shy persons were less person-oriented, more aesthetically oriented, and showed a reduced range of orientations when compared to less shy persons The hierarchy of orientations for shy persons was aesthetic, people, self, and school, whereas for less shy persons it was people, self, aesthetic, and other persons Thus, the difference between shy and less shy persons is in the pattern of orientations rather than in orientations in and of themselves Moreover, one single difference between the groups, such as the lesser orientation toward people, does not justify the interpretation of shyness as a “people phobia”     

Stimulus-Response Compatibility and Motor-Programming Effects: A Test of Theoretical Accounts of Compatibility

Traditional mental coding accounts of stimulus-response (S-R) compatibility suggest that the S-R translation stage is the locus for the effect (Umilta & Nicoletti, 1990; Wallace, 1971). However, recent response-priming accounts have suggested that the S-R translation and response-programming stages may interact to produce S-R compatibility effects (Kornblum, Hasbroucq, & Osman, 1990; Wickens. 1984; Zelaznik & Franz, 1990). Our study investigated the nature of the relation between these two stages relative to the S-R compat- ibility effect. Subjects performed a choice reaction-time task in response to visual stimuli. The critical manipulations in the study were of compatibility and response programming. The analysis revealed a significant compatibility effect but no interaction between the factors affecting compatibility and those affect- ing response programming. The results were consistent with the notion that the S-R translation stage of information processing is the locus of S-R compatibility effects. Thus S-R compatibility is an effect of the mental operations that occur within the S-R translation stage of human information processing.     

Disentangling trait from state components in the assessment of egoistic and moralistic self-enhancement

A latent state-trait model has been used to assess the extent to which egoistic and moralistic self-enhancement represent: (a) stable individual differences and (b) systematic effects of the situation and/or the person-situation interaction. Analyses were conducted on a sample of 187 adults (64% females). Findings revealed that both self-enhancement tendencies mostly capture stable interindividual differences, although significant occasion-specific effects were observed. Egoistic self-enhancement presents a higher proportion of trait variance than moralistic self-enhancement. The egoistic dimension was mostly related with the stable (trait) components of conscientiousness and emotional stability. The moralistic dimension, on the contrary, was mostly related with the transient component of emotional stability. Potential explanations for the observed differences between egoistic and moralistic self-enhancement were discussed and interpreted in terms of their implications for personality assessment.     

Expectancy and frequency effects on perceptual and motor systems in choice reaction time

Three experiments investigated the effects of expectancy and stimulus frequency in character classification and identification tasks. Both expectancy and frequency were found to have effects on overall response latency, but the two factors had different patterns of interaction with two other experimental variables. The effect of visual quality was larger for low-frequency stimuli than for high-frequency stimuli, whereas the effect of quality was independent of expectancy. The effect of S-R compatibility was more strongly influenced by whether a stimulus was expected than by the frequency of the stimulus. The results suggest that expectancy and frequency have somewhat different effects on human information processing mechanisms. Expectancy allows temporary preparation for a specific S-R pair in response selection processes, but it has no effect on perceptual processes. Stimulus frequency, on the other hand, influences the efficiency of both perceptual and response selection processes. The overall effect of stimulus probability may be interpreted as having as components both expectancy and frequency effects.