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Mischel’s Situational Personality

Mischel’s Situational Personality. Bryan Hall Kristi Simmons. Overview. Mini-Bio Personality Aggregation Mischel’s Position on Personality Personality vs. Situation Debate. Personality. Traits determine how individuals react in everyday occurrences

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Mischel’s Situational Personality

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  1. Mischel’s Situational Personality Bryan Hall Kristi Simmons

  2. Overview • Mini-Bio • Personality • Aggregation • Mischel’s Position on Personality • Personality vs. Situation Debate

  3. Personality • Traits determine how individuals react in everyday occurrences • Personality assumes people are characterized by distinctive qualities that are invariant across situations and time • Research is counter to this claim

  4. Aggregation • Acknowledge the importance of situations • Aggregate the individual’s behavior over many different situations to give a “true score”

  5. Aggregation Example

  6. Walter Mischel Biography • Born 1930 Vienna, Austria • Raised in Brooklyn, New York • Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Ohio State in 1956 • Taught at • University of Colorado 1956-1958 • Harvard University 1958-1962 • Stanford University 1962-1983 • Columbia University 1983-Present

  7. Another Viewpoint • Mischel argues • Traits lack internal consistency and cross-situational generality • Low agreement in trait structure of individuals described by raters and other methods • Low correlations between traits and behaviors • Behaviors are predicted better by other methods

  8. Situational Personality • Mischel proposes a cognitive-affective system theory of personality • Situational Personality: Situation Determines Behavior

  9. If…Then… • People are characterized by stable individual differences in their overall behavior, but also by distinctive and stable patterns of situation-behavior relations • For example, Amy does X when A occurs, but Y when B occurs

  10. How Behavior Varies Across Situations

  11. Summer Camp • Examined children’s interactions over the summer • Two main features examined: • Valence (positive or negative) • Type of person involved in interaction (adult counselor or child peer)

  12. Situation-Behavior Profiles for Verbal Aggression for Two Children at Two Different Time Samples

  13. Results • Frequencies of behavior were standardized so that any remaining variance would be attributable to the individual’s distinctive personal qualities • Found meaningful stable situation-behavior profiles • Indicates there are characteristics intraindividual patterns in how individuals relate to different psychological conditions and that these patterns form a behavioral signature that reflects personality coherence

  14. Enduring Characteristics • Encodings or construal (of self, others, situations, etc.) • Expectancies and beliefs (about outcomes and one’s own efficacy) • Competencies (for the construction and generation of social behavior) • Subjective values • Self-regulatory plans and strategies in the pursuit of goals

  15. Personality vs. Situation Debate • Personality Determines Behavior OR • Situation Determines Behavior

  16. Situationist View • Small Correlation Between Personality and Behavior (~.30) • Richard Nisbett (1980): Revised Personality-behavior Correlation (~.40) • Still Small

  17. Personality Arguments • Small Personality-behavior correlations ≠ Situational Variables • Actual Relationship Between Personality and Behavior Higher Than .40 • .40 Correlation Not Small • Does Not Predict Specific Time in Specific Situation

  18. Personality Arguments • Choosing Situations Reflects Personality • Personality Traits Useful Psychological Tools • Improvements in Personality Research

  19. Personality View • Emotional Personality Traits Affect Behavior • Expressions of Behaviors Change • Example: Display Different Behaviors in Different Situations • Personality: Enduring Genotypes Expressed in Diverse Phenotypes • Situationist: Behavior Dependent on Situation

  20. Example • Aggression (Personality Variable), Social Approval (Personality Variable), and Home vs Party (Situational Variable)

  21. Example

  22. Alker (1972): Interactionism • Interactionist Perspective: Traits and Situations Interact to Influence Behavior • Behavior = personality x interpretation of situation • Individual Differences in Personality-Situation Relationship • Kenrid et al. (1990): Trait Appears Only in Necessary Situation

  23. Alternative View • Bem (1972): Trait Like vs. Situational People

  24. Are Traits Consistent Across Cultures? • Big 5 Found in Other Cultures • Culture Specific Traits Exist • Expression of Traits Influenced By: • Situation • Culture Matthews, G., Deary, I., & Whiteman, M. (2003). Personality Traits. 58.

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