Chapter 4 & 5 notes

Casual observation is enough to confirm that personality traits are not the only factors that control behavior; situations matter as well. You should consider the possibility that traits do not exist, that people continually change who they are according to the situation, and that everybody is basically the same.

• Several studies suggest that the consistency of personality is associated with maturity and general mental health. people whose behavior is relatively consistent are less neurotic, more controlled, more mature, and more positive in their relations with others.

The belief that behavior is largely driven by the situation, and that personality is relatively unimportant, is sometimes called “situationalism” (bowers, 1973). Stripped to its essentials, the situationist argument has three parts:

• There is an upper limit to how well one can predict what a person will do based on any measurement of that person’s personality. This upper limit is a low upper limit.

• Therefore, situations are more important than personality traits.

• Therefore, not only is the professional practice of personality assessment a waste of time, but also everyday intuitions about people are wrong, because people see others as being more consistent across situations than they really are. The “fundamental attribution error” is to believe that behavior is importantly influenced by personality.

Predictability

• Situationists argue that this predictive capacity is severely limited.