行为的跨情境一致性及人格与行为的关系——对人格内涵及其中西方差异的理论与实证分析

旨在对行为的跨情境一致性和人格的内涵等问题进行跨文化的理论和实证分析。人格内容被划分为4个层次,包括个体的外显行为、内心体验、动机和神经生理基础等,文化对人格的不同内容都会产生一定的影响。同时,不同情境下的行为由于受到来自个体内部不同动机（自我统一性动机与适应环境要求的动机）的影响而出现跨情境的一致或不一致。文中从理论和实证角度对上述问题进行了分析,并提出了进一步研究的方向     

The End of the Person–Situation Debate: An Emerging Synthesis in the Answer to the Consistency Question

We review the history and current status of the person–situation debate. We propose that the person–situation debate (1) is over and (2) that it ended in a ‘Hegelian’ synthesis. Specifically, we propose the following synthesis resolution: There are multiple types of consistency; behavior is consistent for some of those types and not for others; and personality and traits exist in the forms that produce the consistent behaviors. Incorporating both personality processes and trait structures in research will move personality research forward. In this article, we summarize the advances that the two perspectives have generated by working in opposition; we explain why both sides will suffer from continuing to work independently; and we anticipate several future directions that synthesis‐informed personality research can and should take.     

Nomothetic and idiothetic measurement in personality

Lamiell (1981, 1982a) has recently advanced an idiographic approach to the measurement of personality that he has labeled “idiothetic” In contrast to classical nomothetic strategies, the idiothetic method of scaling personality traits discounts normative transformations of attribute scores and, according to Lamiell, provides the basis for a useful index of cross–situational behavior consistency An analysis of Lamiell's procedures indicates several problems with the idiothetic approach to personality assessment and with the proposed measure of behavior consistency Notable is the fact that the method does not account for base rates of behavior in situations and, therefore, may suggest anomalous interpretations of personality characteristics and of behavior consistencies It is argued that conventional nomothetic methods are sufficient for the goals of explaining and predicting behavior     

Individual differences,status and assertive behavior

The current study examined assertive behavior and its relationship to two personality variables—need for social approval (nApp) and the defense mechanism “Turning Against Objects” (TAO)—and one situational variable—the status of the target person. The subjects, 51 female and 41 male undergraduates participated in role play situations which differed with regard to the status (lower, equal and higher) of the target person. They also completed the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability scale and the Defense Mechanism Inventory (Glesser and Ihilevich, 1969). The results revealed a significant interaction between TAO, the approach component of nApp, and the status of the target person. The equal-status situation seemed to be differentiated from both unequal-status situations. The high-nApp- high-TAO subjects differed from all other groups in being less rather than more assertive towards peers than towards others. The patterns that emerged confirmed the interactional approach that both situational and dispositional factors contribute to determining assertiveness of behavior. Tentative interpretations of the findings were suggested with reference to social comparison theory, and implications for further research applications were discussed.     

“Not in My Back Yard”: The Situational and Personality Determinants of Oppositional Behavior1

The present study considered situational and dispositional factors underlying behavioral opposition characteristic of a “not‐in‐my‐back‐yard” (NIMBY) response to a change having adverse personal consequences. Students considered the proposition of comprehensive exams required for graduation taking effect in the near or distant future (high and low vested interest, respectively). Although both groups had similarly negative attitudes toward the idea, the high vested interest group perceived greater personal consequence and expressed greater intention to oppose the plan. From a situational‐dispositional interactionist perspective, it was the impact of the situation (perceived stake), rather than personality traits presumed to underlie a NIMBY response, that proved to be the primary determinant of oppositional behavior.     

The effect of implementation intentions on physical activity among obese older adults: A randomised control study

The objective of this study is to quantify situational impacts on coping compared to the impact of personal characteristics. A facet design was used to systematically vary three situational features (ambiguity, social context, and concern at stake) in twenty vignettes of stressful situations that were presented to a sample of 430 healthy persons to elicit coping responses. In addition, relevant personal characteristics (mental health, self-esteem, perceived social support, and dispositional coping styles) were assessed. A series of variance component analyses demonstrated that for eight types of coping behavior, variability within individuals across situations was larger than variability between individuals. Multilevel analyses, accounting for both the person level and the situation level in the data, were employed to identify the situational features and personal characteristics that were responsible for situation-related variance and person-related variance respectively. Results demonstrate that all three situational features proved significant contributors to differentiated situation-specific coping patterns. No single personal factor could be identified as relevant in shaping coping behaviors, although the combined impact of personal factors explained a considerable amount of variance at the personal level. It is concluded that the study of situational features is a promising way to understand in which way situations shape coping behavior, and may be helpful in guiding the development of coping scales tailored to specific situations.     

The personality triad in balance: Multidimensional individual differences in situation–behavior profiles

A new methodology is proposed to study the full personality triad including persons, situations, and responses. It is based on a model of the structural mechanism underlying behavioral data in terms of eliciting power of situations, response thresholds, as well as quantitative and/or qualitative individual differences. The model is aimed at conceptually clarifying the personality triad and makes it possible to derive individual differences in situation–behavior profiles (or behavioral signatures) starting from empirically gathered person-by-situation-by-response data. It is particularly well-suited to capture multidimensional individual differences—implying complex person by situation and/or person by response interactions—and to examine the psychological mechanisms underlying them. In an application to anger-in and anger-out in interpersonal frustrating situations, three person types were derived that were characterized in terms of distinctive behavioral signatures. Part of the differences in behavioral signatures could be explained in terms of hostile encoding and hostile expectancy processes.     

Behavioral change and consistency across contexts

The degree to which behavior changes across situations is often conflated with the cross-situational consistency of individual differences. The current study assesses the extent of behavioral change and consistency, the relationship between them, and variables associated with behaviors’ differing patterns of change and consistency. Two hundred fifty-six participants were observed in three different, three-person interactions. In line with previous research, behaviors showed a great deal of both change and consistency. Behavioral change across situations was unrelated to the degree to which individual differences in these same behaviors were maintained, demonstrating that behavioral consistency does not imply lack of situational adaptation. Behaviors rated as relatively broad and as relatively automatic showed more consistency; behaviors rated as relatively controlled showed more change.     

Person perception and the bounded rationality of social judgment

In this article, we develop a bounded rationality view of the relation between person perception and social behavior. Two theses of this approach are that behaviors vary in their significance to observers, and that observers pursue bounded rather than global utility in forming personality impressions. Observers are expected to be sensitive to targets' overall behavioral tendencies and to the variability of their behavior across situations, but both sensitivities are bounded, being greater for behaviors that directly affect observers' outcomes. In two investigations involving extensive hourly and 6-s observations, we examined the bounded utility of people's impressions of personality, demonstrating how impression accuracy is linked to the significance of behaviors. Observers were sensitive to the organization of aggressive behaviors, but less sensitive to the organization of withdrawn behaviors, even when the consistency of those behaviors was comparable. The results clarify the relation between people's inferential shortcomings in laboratory paradigms and the bounded utility of person perception in the natural environment.     

A Big Five model of disposition and situation interaction: why a “helpful” person may not always behave helpfully

A “bottom-up” Big Five disposition-situation interaction model is introduced that highlights the interactive relation between an individual's behavioral trait tendencies and the different facets of a situation to which he or she may respond. In the proposed model, personality traits are considered markers for how an individual might interpret and respond to different facets of a situation. Given a complex situation with multiple response options, a person will respond to the part of the situation most salient to him or her at that time. The presented model illustrates how interactions between the trait dimensions of the Big Five model with the different facets of a situational context, as well as the intra-individual interactions between the different trait dimensions themselves, determine which facet of a situation will be salient. The model is expected to improve prediction of specific behaviors in specific situations using personality traits. Results from an illustrative study are presented.     

Effects of purpose on the organization and recall of information in person perception1

The first study investigated how the purpose for which information about a person is to be used affects the way a perceiver organizes the information. Subjects were asked to categorize and label episodes which described the behavior of a fictional person “Jill” in 64 different situations, and to summarize what each category meant to them. Half of the episodes were easily categorized according to the traits that Jill manifested, half according to features of the situations. One group (personality impression) expected later to describe Jill's personality, a second group (prediction) expected to make predictions about Jill's behavior, and a third group (recall) expected to be tested on their recall of the episodes. The results indicated that subjects in the behavior prediction group categorized the episodes primarily in terms of the personality characteristics Jill portrayed, just as the personality impression group did. In contrast, only the categories formed by the recall group paralleled the built-in structure of the episodes, i.e., they were as often based on features of the situation as on Jill's personality characteristics. A second study showed that the categorization strategies of the recall subjects actually did produce higher recall than those of the personality impression and behavior prediction subjects. The results were interpreted as suggesting that when making behavioral predictions, just as when forming impressions, the layman, like the traditional trait psychologist, prefers to organize information in terms of personality constructs rather than in a way that facilitates retrieval of everything that happened in specific situations. The cognitive costs as well as the gains produced by this strategy merit further scrutiny.     

Ambivalence About Interpersonal Problems and Traits Predicts Cross‐Situational Variability of Social Behavior

Multiple theoretical perspectives suggest that maladjusted personality is characterized by not only distress, but also opposing or “ambivalent” self‐perceptions and behavioral lability across social interactions. However, the degree to which ambivalence about oneself predicts cross‐situational variability in social behavior has not been examined empirically. Using the interpersonal circumplex (IPC) as a nomological framework, the present study investigated the extent to which endorsing opposing or “ambivalent” tendencies on IPC measures predicted variability in social behavior across a range of hypothetical interpersonal scenarios (Part 1; N = 288) and naturalistic social interactions (Part 2; N = 192). Ambivalent responding for interpersonal problems and traits was associated with measures of distress, maladaptive interpersonal tendencies, and greater variability of social behavior across both hypothetical and daily social interactions, though more consistently for interpersonal problems. More conservative tests suggested that ambivalence predicted some indexes of behavioral variability even when accounting for mean levels and squared means of social behaviors, vector length, gender, and depressive symptoms. Results suggest that processes theorized as typifying personality disorder may apply more broadly to personality maladjustment occurring outside of clinical samples.     

Toward an interactional psychology: Models from achievement motivation research1

Motivated by calls from interactional psychology for theories and studies involving both personality and situation variables, two achievement motivation theories of personality-by-situation interaction illustrated by data are presented. It is shown how a pure personological or situational approach can lead us astray, how differences in behavior from situation to situation or over time can be predicted from personality and situation variables incorporated in achievement motivation theory, and how achievement motivation research bears on issues of interactional psychology like situation analysis, the consistency issue, situations as activators of motivational forces, and stored/situational information in the mediating process. The mechanistic/dynamic interaction distinction is discussed, and it is asserted that there is not necessarily a contradiction between these conceptualizations.     

善良人格与网络利他行为的关系：有调节的中介模型

为探讨善良人格与网络利他行为的关系及其内在心理机制，研究采用实验法，将192名被试随机分配到不同风险情境中，并完成善良人格问卷、自我控制问卷和网络利他行为任务。结果表明：（1）善良人格正向预测网络利他行为；（2）自我控制在善良人格与网络利他之间起中介作用；（3）情境风险在善良人格与网络利他行为之间的直接路径以及自我控制中介效应的后半路径起调节作用。因此，善良人格对网络利他行为的影响是有调节的中介作用，该结果具有一定的理论和现实价值。     

Asian-Indian Parents’ Attributions About the Causes of Child Behavior: A Replication and Extension With Parents From Chennai,India

Using hypothetical vignettes, 152 parents of children 10–17 years old living in Chennai, India, made attributions about whether the origins of 2 positive and 2 negative behaviors performed by their own child or another child were due to the child's personality or the situation, or to parenting or nonparenting influences based on the frequency, intensity, and cross-situational consistency of the behavior. Parents attributed the positive behaviors of all children to the personality of the child and to parenting. Parents attributed negative behavior of their own children to situational influences and nonparenting effects, but attributed the negative behavior of other children to their personality and to parenting, a pattern that enhances and reinforces parent self-esteem. Results were discussed in terms of the self-serving bias and the actor–observer bias, cognitive distortions that protect and enhance parents’ views of themselves and their children.     

Integrating dispositions, signatures, and the interpersonal domain

A person's behavior across situations can be characterized in terms of a mean level (disposition), a dispersion within the person around that mean level, and a stable organization to the pattern of dispersion (signature). The authors' goals were to examine the structure and stability of behavior, both at the level of behavioral dispositions and at the level of behavioral signatures. Participants completed event-contingent records of their social interactions over a 20-day period. Participants recorded their own social behavior (dominant, agreeable, submissive, quarrelsome) in 4 situations defined by the perceived social behavior of their primary interaction partners (agreeable-dominant, agreeable-submissive, quarrelsome- submissive, quarrelsome-dominant). Findings suggest that (a) once the normative influences of situations on behavior are removed, the remaining behavioral variation reflects both consistent cross-situational differences between individuals (dispositions) and consistent situational differences within individuals (signatures); (b) both dispositions and signatures display a 2-dimensional structure in adherence to the interpersonal circle; and (c) both dispositions and signatures constitute stable aspects of personality functioning.     

What sources contribute to variance in observer ratings? Using generalizability theory to assess construct validity of psychological measures

Cronbach and Meehl (Psychol. Bull. 1955; 52:281–302) stated that the key question to be addressed when assessing construct validity is ‘What sources contribute to variance in test performance?’ We illustrate the utility of generalizability theory (GT) as a conceptual framework that encourages psychological researchers to address this question and as a flexible set of analytic tools that can provide answers to inform both substantive theory and measurement practice. To illustrate these capabilities, we analyze observer ratings of 27 caregiver–child dyads, focusing on the importance of situational (contextual) factors as sources of variance in observer ratings of caregiver–child behaviors. Cross‐situational consistency was relatively low for the categories of behavior analyzed, indicating that dyads vary greatly in their interactional patterns from one situation to the next, so that it is difficult to predict behavioral frequencies in one context from behaviors observed in a different context. Our findings suggest that single‐situation behavioral measures may have limited generalizability, either to behavior in other contexts or as measures of global interaction tendencies. We discuss the implications of these findings for research and measurement design in developmental psychology. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Expressive control,expressive consistency,and the correspondence between expressive behavior and personality1

Does expressive behavior reflect personality? This paper proposes that expressive control is an important “moderating variable” affecting expressive behavior, expressive consistency, and the correspondence between expressive behavior and personality. To demonstrate this, a study was carried out in which 68 subjects were selected, according to a 2×2×2 factorial design, who were low and high on assessed extraversion, neuroticism, and self-monitoring (a measure of expressive control). Subjects were then videotaped as they role-played being teachers. A number of specific expressive behaviors were measured (subjects' stride length, graphic expansiveness, percent of forward eye-contact, and percent of time talking), and also groups of naive judges rated how “extraverted” and “anxious” subjects appeared. The following results supported our hypothesis: (1) Self-monitoring was significantly related to subjects' expressive behaviors and judged personalities, while assessed extraversion and anxiety were not. (2) Expressive control was used to suppress the “accurate” display of anxiety but not extraversion. (3) Bodily expression was less controlled than facial or vocal expression. And (4), persons low and high on self-monitoring showed different patterns of cross-situational and cross-channel (face, body, voice) expressive consistency.     

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.