PSYC 333 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Observational Error, Situation Two, Trait Theory

• School: McGill University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 333
• Professor: Arash Abizadeh

Document Summary

Different people respond differently to stimuli in the social realm. These different responses reflect underlying personality e. g. extroverted, honest, dependent. Variability of responses people display in a given situation does not reflect randomness but distinct and enduring personal attributes that people bring to the situation. Fundamental assumption: people are consistent in their responses and by understand these responses we can go on to predicting behaviour in future situations. Someone who behaves in an extroverted way in situation 1 should behave in an extroverted way in situation 2. Personality trait b1 (observer and/or objective assessment) But there is a consistency controversy ; many large scale studies showed that low cross situational consistency correlations: Almost no gain in predictive power (55%) Correlation between trait scores and relevant observed behaviour low. Situation manipulations can overwhelm individual different effects. But specific responses to specific situations are probably quite stable.