Using field models and elaborated situational judgment tests to represent situational effects on psychological processes and behavior

Abstract

We describe how the effects of situational factors on psychological processes and behavior can be formally represented through field models created from elaborated situational judgment test (ESJT) data. As we detail, ESJTs ‘elaborate’ on standard SJTs by (1) having participants rate the expected outcomes of different responses to a given situation, and sometimes additionally by (2) involving experimental manipulation of particular factors within the situation. ESJT data can then be used to create field models of how the raters expect actions to affect valued outcomes, and how the experimentally manipulated factors affect these expectancies. We illustrate the method in a study where participants were presented with 12 workplace situations in which their coworker in the interaction was randomly described as their manager or their subordinate, and then were asked to describe both their likelihood and the expected effects of responding in different ways to each situation. Results demonstrated that participants described being less likely to express disapproval in situations involving a manager than a subordinate, in part due to expectations that expressing disapproval toward a coworker was less acceptable and more likely to result in punishment (e.g., getting fired) if the coworker was one's manager. We discuss more generally how ESJTs can be used to formally represent the psychological processes shaping behavior, and the effects of situational factors on these processes.