Mischel

1
Mischels Situational Personality

• Bryan Hall
• Kristi Simmons

2
Overview

• Mini-Bio
• Personality
• Aggregation
• Mischels Position on Personality
• Personality vs. Situation Debate

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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 individuals behavior over many
  different situations to give a true score

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Aggregation Example
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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

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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

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Situational Personality

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

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IfThen

• 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

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How Behavior Varies Across Situations
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Summer Camp

• Examined childrens interactions over the summer
• Two main features examined
• Valence (positive or negative)
• Type of person involved in interaction (adult
  counselor or child peer)

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

• Frequencies of behavior were standardized so that
  any remaining variance would be attributable to
  the individuals 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

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Enduring Characteristics

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

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Personality vs. Situation Debate

• Personality Determines Behavior
• OR
• Situation Determines Behavior

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Situationist View

• Small Correlation Between Personality and
  Behavior (.30)
• Richard Nisbett (1980) Revised
  Personality-behavior Correlation (.40)
• Still Small

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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

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Personality Arguments

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

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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

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Example

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

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Example
High Aggression High Social Approval Low Aggression High Social Approval
High Aggression Low Social Approval Low Aggression Low Social Approval
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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

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Alternative View

• Bem (1972) Trait Like vs. Situational People

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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.