Trait enactments as density distributions: The role of actors, situations, and observers in explaining stability and variability

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
William Fleeson, Mary Kate Law

Abstract

The purposes of this article were to determine (a) whether the high consistency of individual differences in average aggregated behavior is because of actors' personalities or because of the consistency in the situations those actors encounter; and (b) whether the surprisingly high within-person variability in trait enactment is a real phenomenon corroborated by observers, or merely in individuals' heads. Although traits are supposed to describe what individuals are like in everyday life, little evidence exists about the enactment of trait content in everyday life. Past experience-sampling studies have found both highly variable and highly consistent trait enactment, but were restricted to self-report data and to naturally occurring situations. The current study used experience-sampling in controlled lab environments with 97 targets and 183 observers to address these shortcomings. Targets attended hour-long lab sessions 20× each and observers rated targets' behavior. Parameters of distributions were highly consistent (rs ∼ .80), revealing that actors were responsible for consistency, not situations. Nonetheless, observer ratings revealed that most variability in trait enactment was within-person, confirming that even when peopl...Continue Reading

Citations

Feb 22, 2017·Advances in Health Sciences Education : Theory and Practice·Eamonn Ferguson, Filip Lievens
Aug 15, 2019·Personality & Social Psychology Bulletin·Paul IrwingDavid J Hughes
Nov 7, 2018·Scientific Reports·Benjamin LecorpsMarina A G von Keyserlingk
Jan 24, 2020·Perspectives on Psychological Science : a Journal of the Association for Psychological Science·Vincent Ng, Louis Tay
Sep 26, 2017·Frontiers in Psychology·Nadin Beckmann, Robert E Wood
Apr 24, 2018·Personality and Social Psychology Review : an Official Journal of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc·John Rauthmann, Ryne Sherman
Sep 26, 2020·Journal of Personality·Kayleigh-Ann CleggDavid C Zuroff

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