Behavior as a function of the situation.

Abstract

B oston U niversityT he pow er of several w ell-know n and im portant situational factors to affect be-havior is assessed in term s usually reserved for m easuring pow er of disposi-tions. T he linear effects of incentive for counterattitudinal advocacy on attitudechange, of degree of hurry and num ber of onlookers on bystander intervention,and of proxim ity of authority and victim on obedience average slightly lessthan .40. T his m agnitude is quite com parable to that of im portant dispositionaleffects.T he com parative pow er of dispositionsversus situations to provide an account ofbehavior is an issue that has polarized thefield of personality and social psychology forseveral years. T his polarization has persisteddespite existence of a numbe r of studiesthat allow a com parative exam ination ofvariance com ponents and show extrem edispositional and extrem e situationalview to be equally lacking in em pirical sup-port (B ow ers, 1973; S arason, S m ith, & D i-ener, 1975). T hese studies have not had theim pact that they m ight perhaps because ofcertain m ethodological difficulties inherentin variance-com ponents approach (E p-stein, 1977; G olding, 1975; O lw eus, 1977).N or has insight that both situational andpersonal factors can vary w idely in their abil-ity to affect behavior had m uch influenc e to-w ard m oderating controversy (cf. S nyder& Ickes, in press). R ather, it appears thatman y personality and social psychologistsw ould still endorse M ischel's (1968) assertionthat the initial assum ptions of trait-statetheory . . . sim ply have not been supportedadequately (p. 147) and believe that situa-tional factors generally overw helm disposi-tional ones in determ ination of behavior.

Cites (5)

1. Bystander intervention in emergencies: Diffusion of responsibility.
   Darley, John M., Latane, Bibb · 1968 · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
2. Cognitive consequences of forced compliance.
   Festinger, Leon, Carlsmith, James M. · 1959 · The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology
3. "From Jerusalem to Jericho": A study of situational and dispositional variables in helping behavior.
   Darley, John M., Batson, C. Daniel · 1973 · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
4. The stability of behavior: I. On predicting most of the people much of the time.
   Epstein, Seymour · 1979 · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
5. Personality research: Components of variance attributable to the person and the situation.
   Sarason, Irwin G., Smith, Ronald E., Diener, Edward · 1975 · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

Show all 5 references

Cited by (25)

1. Evaluating Effect Size in Psychological Research: Sense and Nonsense
   Funder, David C., Ozer, Daniel J. · 2019 · Advances in Methods and Practices in Psychological Science
2. The Power of Personality: The Comparative Validity of Personality Traits, Socioeconomic Status, and Cognitive Ability for Predicting Important Life Outcomes
   Roberts, Brent W., Kuncel, Nathan R., Shiner, Rebecca, Caspi, Avshalom, Goldberg, Lewis R. · 2007 · Perspectives on Psychological Science
3. Thin slices of expressive behavior as predictors of interpersonal consequences: A meta-analysis.
   Nalini Ambady, Robert Rosenthal · 1992 · Psychological Bulletin
4. Attitudes and the Prediction of Behavior: A Meta-Analysis of the Empirical Literature
   Kraus, Stephen J. · 1995 · Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin
5. What Do We Know When We Know a Person?
   McAdams, Dan P. · 1995 · Journal of Personality

See all 343