Person-situation Interaction Research Articles

Supervisor Role Modeling, Ethics-Related Organizational Policies, and Employee Ethical Intention: The Moderating Impact of Moral Ideology

The moral ideology of banking and insurance employees in Spain was examined along with supervisor role modeling and ethics-related policies and procedures for their association with ethical behavioral intent. In addition to main effects, we found evidence supporting that the person–situation interactionist perspective in supervisor role modeling had a stronger positive relationship with ethical intention among employees with relativist moral ideology. Also as hypothesized, formal ethical polices and procedures were positively related to ethical intention among those with universal beliefs, but the relationship was much weaker among relativists. Thus, firms wishing to optimally promote ethical attitudes and behavior must tailor their organization-based initiatives to the individual characteristics of their employees.

When openness to experience and conscientiousness affect continuous learning: A mediating role of intrinsic motivation and a moderating role of occupation1

Research on the effects of personality on work behaviors has adopted either the motivational meditation perspective or the person-situation interaction perspective. This study attempted to integrate both of the perspectives in a single causal model. Specifically, using data collected from systems engineers and car salespeople in Japan, we investigated the mediating role of intrinsic motivation in the links from openness and conscientiousness to continuous learning, and the moderating role of occupation on the mediation mechanism. The results indicated that, for systems engineers, the effects of those personality traits on continuous learning were completely mediated via intrinsic motivation. For car salespeople, however, the trait effects on the outcome variable are direct, rather than transmitted through intrinsic motivation. The meanings of the findings and directions for future research are discussed.

Honesty–Humility and a Person–Situation Interaction at Work

Person–situation interactions have attracted researchers’ attention for decades. Likewise, the current work focuses on the interaction of honesty–humility and situational conditions in bringing about counterproductive work behaviour (CWB). As such, we introduce perceptions of organizational politics as a situational construct representing an opportunity for CWB. In a sample of N = 148 employees we found that particularly individuals low in honesty–humility were affected by situational circumstances. By contrast, those high in honesty–humility reported practically the same (lower) amount of CWB independent of the level of perceptions of organizational politics. In other words, employees low in honesty–humility were especially likely to condition their behaviour on environmental factors, a result that mirrors previous findings. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The Sense of Humor Questionnaire: Conceptualization and Review of 40 Years of Findings in Empirical Research

This paper presents the background for developing the Sense of Humor Questionnaire (SHQ), including ideas that guided the ambition to design a tool for assessment of individual differences in sense of humor that was relatively neutral to variations in culture, content and technique. The test was first organized into three dimensions of items, based on face validity of content, with items oriented to openness to ambiguity, preference for humorous situations and emotional suggestibility. The first revision reduced items from twenty-seven to twenty-two. A second revision presented seven items on each of three dimensions that were theoretically founded on ideas of person-situation interactions. Research found that items on meta-message sensitivity (M-items) and liking of humorous situations (L-items) yielded fair alphas, whereas those on mirthful expression (E-items) did not. A review of research is presented based on scores from the M- and L-items of the SHQ. The SHQ-6 is a short form including three items from the M- and the L-dimensions, respectively. This scale has proven effective in research across a vide range of applications including the role of sense of humor in mood, coping, morbidity and mortality. An ultra-short version (SHQ-3) was included in a population health survey and provided descriptive evidence on the prevalence of sense of humor as well as the positive role for sense of humor in surviving into retirement. After age seventy this protective effect of sense of humor faded away.

The Effect of Life Expectancy on Aggression and Generativity: A Life History Perspective

Following a model that is inclusive of both dispositional and situational influences on life-history behaviors and attitudes, the effect of life expectancies on aggression and generativity was examined. Consistent with the hypotheses it was found that shorter life expectancies led to an increase in the desire to aggress and a decrease in the desire to engage in generative behaviors. The results are discussed in terms of how life history theory can be used to frame research on person-situation interactions.

A neural network model of the structure and dynamics of human personality.

We present a neural network model that aims to bridge the historical gap between dynamic and structural approaches to personality. The model integrates work on the structure of the trait lexicon, the neurobiology of personality, temperament, goal-based models of personality, and an evolutionary analysis of motives. It is organized in terms of two overarching motivational systems, an approach and an avoidance system, as well as a general disinhibition and constraint system. Each overarching motivational system influences more specific motives. Traits are modeled in terms of differences in the sensitivities of the motivational systems, the baseline activation of specific motives, and inhibitory strength. The result is a motive-based neural network model of personality based on research about the structure and neurobiology of human personality. The model provides an account of personality dynamics and person-situation interactions and suggests how dynamic processing approaches and dispositional, structural approaches can be integrated in a common framework.

Looking Forwards and Back: Exploring Anticipative Versus Retrospective Emotional Change-Experiences

This article aims to explore the emotional experience of anticipating versus retrospectively looking back on organizational change. This follows the insight that employees inevitably, and at any point in time, hold histories and anticipated futures. Hence it is argued that contrasting and exploring anticipative and retrospective emotional change-experiences indepth may provide insight into, and explain the ways in which these experiences potentially differ, as well as the ways in which they are tied to the wider organizational and societal context of change. It is argued that previous contributions to the managerial and change literature on employees' emotional change-experiences adopt a limited perspective through undermining the role played by context or person-situation interactions. A qualitative study from the Norwegian hospital environment is presented, where a selected group of nursing staff were interviewed regarding their emotional experiences of change at two points in time; one month prior to the anticipated implementation of a new electronic care planning system, and one year after. A wide range of different emotional experiences, both positive and negative, were reported at both points in time. These emotional experiences related to quite specific local situations and aspects of the changes and change process, as well as to the wider and societal context of change.

Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivational Orientations in the Competitive Context: An Examination of Person–Situation Interactions

The current study examined Intrinsic Motivation Orientation and Extrinsic Motivation Orientation (Work Preference Inventory; Amabile, Hill, Hennessey, & Tighe, 1994) as potential trait-level moderators of the way Internet chess players responded to the intrinsic and extrinsic rewards of the chess games they played. On the basis of the defining characteristics of these 2 types of motivational orientations, we predicted that (a) Intrinsic Motivation Orientation would be associated with a stronger curvilinear relationship between challenge and enjoyment and (b) Extrinsic Motivation Orientation would be associated with a heightened affective responsivity to competitive outcome (i.e., winning vs. losing). Results supported the predictions. Implications of the findings are discussed.

Explaining Rigidity and Pragmatism in Political Leaders: A General Theory and a Plausibility Test from the Reagan Presidency

Classic studies of a few extreme, almost pathological cases of rigidity in political leaders (e.g., Woodrow Wilson's League of Nations debacle) have tended to obscure the fact that virtually all leaders alternate between periods of pragmatic flexibility and rigid intransi gence in the face of political opposition or unpleasant facts. This study develops a general theoretical framework for explaining rigidity and flexibility in political leaders by extending insights from classic studies of extreme cases to everyday policymaking and by integrating these findings with more recent theoretical and empirical work in political psychology. The plausibility of hypotheses derived from this framework is investigated by examining the conditions associated with pragmatism and rigidity in 15 cases from the presidency of Ronald Reagan. The results are generally consistent with the proposed model, which stresses person-situation interaction and traces rigidity to the arousal of leaders' sources of self-validation in a particular policy context. I conclude by evaluating the implications of this new framework for other areas of theory and research.

Openness and ambiguity intolerance: Their differential relations to well-being in the context of an academic life transition

Despite previous suggestions that ambiguity intolerance is part of openness, the current study demonstrates important differences between these traits in the context of an academic life transition. Openness was expected to be related to well-being through challenge and threat appraisals in the beginning of the university studies due to its relevance to novelty and intellect. It was expected to be related to well-being later in the university studies due to its relevance to intellect. In contrast, ambiguity intolerance was expected to be related to well-being through challenge and threat appraisals only in the beginning of the university studies. Multigroup path analyses supported the hypotheses, comparing students in the beginning of the first year of university with advanced students. In the beginning of the university studies, the relations of openness and ambiguity intolerance to well-being were mediated by challenge and threat appraisals. The relationship of openness to well-being remained the same for advanced students, whereas the relationship of ambiguity intolerance to well-being, challenge and threat appraisals was reduced to non-significance. The findings contribute to our understanding of context-specific functions of traits, and more broadly to knowledge on person-environment fit and to understanding person-situation interactions.

The person–situation interaction is increasingly outpacing the person–situation debate in the scientific literature: A 30-year analysis of publication trends, 1978–2007

The person–situation interaction is increasingly outpacing the person–situation debate in the scientific literature: A 30-year analysis of publication trends, 1978–2007

Testosterone as a personality variable

This essay describes recent research that has treated testosterone levels as an individual difference variable. We argue that this and similar work broadens our understanding of the person situation interaction.

An evolutionary formulation of person–situation interactions

This article proposes a novel evolutionary psychological formulation of person-situation interactions. Situations are defined by adaptive problems encountered and the corresponding evolved psychological mechanisms that render some clusters of cues psychologically salient and other information invisible. Developmental environments are defined by the distribution, salience, and sequencing of adaptive problems encountered over time. Person-situation interactions come in two main forms: (1) the ways in which person variables, through the processes of selection, evocation, and manipulation, lead to non-random exposure to different suites of adaptive problems, and (2) individual differences in the strategies deployed toward solving the adaptive problems that people non-randomly encounter.

A royal road to understanding the mechanisms underlying person-in-context behavior

The structure of individual differences in behavioral profiles across situations constitutes a royal road to understanding the mechanisms underlying person-in-context behavior. I want to go beyond partial accounts of this structure in terms of cross-situational consistency coefficients and estimated percentages of variance accounted for by person–situation interactions. For this purpose I propose a small set of empirically testable questions that underlie a basic typology of contextualized individual differences structures. The answers to these questions and the resulting classes of the typology relate to a broad range of concepts and theoretical frameworks, including synergistic interactions, ability accounts of personality dispositions, stress-diathesis models within the psychopathology domain, individual differences in discriminative facility, and Traits As Situational Sensitivities models. Tools from the two-mode clustering domain (old as well as recently proposed ones) can be used to detect the type of individual differences structure that constitutes the gist of a person by situation data set at hand. I illustrate with data on individual differences in helping behavior in a set of emergency situations.

Testing the Value-Pragmatics Hypothesis in Unethical Compliance

We test conformity-related values applying the value-pragmatics hypothesis by evaluating how personal values related to compliance moderate the relationships between situational factors and unethical decisions. We examine the direct and indirect effects of the values of traditionalism, conformity, and stimulation, as they combine with the situational factors of rewards and punishments in the person–situation interaction model. We find strong support for the value-pragmatics view of ethical decision making and further build support for the person–situation interaction model.

Profile analysis in person–situation integration

Personality and Assessment [Mischel, W. (1968). Personality and assessment. New York: Wiley] challenged personality psychology to commit to the idea that behavior emerges from an interaction of personality characteristics and situational forces. To understand the mechanisms driving person–situation interaction, personality psychologists often study behavioral regularities such as consistency, stability, coherence, and explainability. The current paper articulates such regularities via profile analysis of cross-situational behavioral contingencies, it articulates profile normativeness and distinctiveness as important considerations in profile analysis of behavioral contingency, it integrates an idiographic profile approach with a more traditional nomothetic approach, and it discusses conceptual and methodological implications. Importantly, the profile perspective provides a useful framework that integrates previous examinations of behavioral regularities and that points to new questions advancing personality psychology’s pursuit of person–situation integration.

A Simplified Estimation of Latent State—Trait Parameters

The latent state–trait (LST) theory is an extension of the classical test theory that allows one to decompose a test score into a true trait, a true state residual, and an error component. For practical applications, the variances of these latent variables may be estimated with standard methods of structural equation modeling (SEM). These estimates allow one to decompose the coefficient of reliability into a coefficient of consistency (indicating true effects of the person) plus a coefficient of occasion specificity (indicating true effects of the situation and the person–situation interaction). One disadvantage of this approach is that the standard SEM analysis requires large sample sizes. This article aims to overcome this disadvantage by presenting a simple method that allows one to estimate the LST parameters algebraically from the observed covariance matrix. A Monte Carlo simulation suggests that the proposed method may be superior to the standard SEM analysis in small samples.

Person–Situation Interaction in Adaptive Emotional Functioning

Two studies applied a person–situation model to examine the effect of emotional affordances of situations. Participants rated their emotional functioning as more extensive in situations classified as being high in emotional affordance than those classified as low in emotional affordance. Participants who scored higher on the individual difference characteristic of emotional intelligence were more interested in entering high emotional affordance situations than were individuals lower in emotional intelligence, and participants who scored higher on emotional intelligence were rated by others as being more successful in high emotional affordance situations than individuals lower in emotional intelligence. These results provide preliminary evidence that the interaction between emotional intelligence and situations may influence emotional functioning.

Persons in context: building a science of the individual

Part 1. Introduction. D. Cervone, Y. Shoda, G. Downey, Construing Persons in Context: On Building a Science of the Individual. Part 2. Conceptualizing the Person. G.H. Bower , The Trait versus Situation Debate: A Minimalist View. J. Kagan, The Power of Context. R.E. Nisbett, Eastern and Western Ways of Perceiving the World. R.A. Shweder , From Persons and Situations to Preferences and Constraints. Part 3. Self-Regulation: From Willpower to a System. O. Ayduk, Delay of Gratification in Children: Contributions to Social-Personality Psychology. E.T. Higgins, In Search of Generative Mechanisms: The Case of Value from Engagement Strength. A.M. Isen, Positive Affect, Cognitive Flexibility, and Self-Control. E.E. Smith, Expectancy and the Perception of Aversive Events. Part 4. Incorporating Situations into a Science of the Individual. S.M. Andersen, J.S. Thorpe, C.S. Kooij, Character in Context: The Relational Self and Transference. N. Bolger, R. Romero-Canyas, Integrating Personality Traits and Processes: Framework, Method, Analysis, Results. R. Mendoza-Denton, S.H. Park, A. O'Connor, Toward a Science of the Social Perceiver. P.S. Mischel, Toward a Science of the Individual: A Molecular View of Personalized Medicine. R.J. Sternberg, Intelligence as a Person-Situation Interaction. Part 5. Paradigm Change in Psychological Models of Human Nature (1950-2000-2050?). W. Mischel, Toward a Science of the Individual: Past, Present, Future? W. Mischel, Toward a Cognitive Social Learning Reconceptualization of Personality. Y. Shoda, From Homunculus to a System: Toward a Science of the Person.

An interactional perspective on group awareness: Alleviating the information-exchange dilemma (for everybody?)

In situations of computer-mediated communication and computer-supported cooperation, a central challenge lies in increasing the willingness of those involved to share their information with the other group members. In the experimental work presented here, a shared-database setting is selected as a prototypical situation of net-based information exchange and examined from a social-dilemma perspective: the individual who contributes information to a shared database must reckon with costs and no benefits. The most efficient strategy from the perspective of the individual is thus to withhold information. Previous research has shown that a group-awareness tool which provides information about the contribution behavior of group members influences people's information-exchange behavior. In order to examine the psychological processes underlying these effects of group awareness in more detail, the present study adopts an interactional approach, according to which person-situation interaction is investigated. Certain personality traits (interpersonal trust, sensation seeking, and self-monitoring) were measured and several hypotheses tested regarding the reactions of individuals with high and low trait values to different types of awareness information. Results demonstrate that awareness tools providing information about highly cooperative group members encourage participants to trust one another and minimize the risk of being exploited. When an awareness tool additionally provides feedback about the contribution behavior of single individuals, it becomes an opportunity for self-presentation. In conclusion, an interactional approach which considers personality traits and situational factors in a net-based information-exchange situation provides new insights into both the influence processes of group awareness and the connection of these processes to specific personality traits with respect to contribution behavior.