CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 1,436Personality Traits and PsychologySocial and Intergroup PsychologyPsychological Testing and Assessment

Toward a structure- and process-integrated view of personality: Traits as density distributions of states.

Fleeson, William·2001·Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
DOI 10.1037/0022-3514.80.6.1011
Open this paper in CoChat — free account

Abstract

Three experience-sampling studies explored the distributions of Big-Five-relevant states (behavior) across 2 to 3 weeks of everyday life. Within-person variability was high, such that the typical individual regularly and routinely manifested nearly all levels of all traits in his or her everyday behavior. Second, individual differences in central tendencies of behavioral distributions were almost perfectly stable. Third, amount of behavioral variability (and skew and kurtosis) were revealed as stable individual differences. Finally, amount of within-person variability in extraversion was shown to reflect individual differences in reactivity to extraversion-relevant situational cues. Thus, decontextualized and noncontingent Big-Five content is highly useful for descriptions of individuals' density distributions as wholes. Simultaneously, contextualized and contingent personality units (e.g., conditional traits, goals) are needed for describing the considerable within-person variation.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1037/0022-3514.80.6.1011

Cites

76 of 76 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Claims the paper makes

This paper’s full text isn’t openly available, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Psychologically flexible people are more apt to be versatile, using top-down strategies, showing awareness of situational requirements and organizing or prioritizing fitting strategies rather than dominant defaults.

    “When someone is described as being psychologically flexible, they are more apt to be versatile, using top-down strategies. That is, they show an awareness of what a situation requires and an ability to organize and prioritize strategies that “fit” the situation rather than relying on dominant, default strategies (Fleeson, 2001).”

    From Psychological flexibility as a fundamental aspect of health (2010) · cites this paper as Fleeson, 2001

  • Personality traits can be conceptualized as density distributions of states, such that individuals' average tendencies to experience specific discrete states provide highly stable descriptions of their personality.

    “Personality traits can be conceptualized as density distributions of states. That is, individuals' average tendencies to experience specific, discrete states, such as nostalgia, provide highly stable descriptions of their personality (Fleeson, 2001).”

    From Water From the Lake of Memory: The Regulatory Model of Nostalgia (2023) · cites this paper as Fleeson, 2001

  • There is evidence that the association between Conscientiousness and course grades is mediated by positive study habits and attitudes, effort, and prosocial behavior in the classroom.

    “Indeed, there is evidence that the association between Conscientiousness and course grades is mediated by positive study habits and attitudes, effort, and prosocial behavior in the classroom.”

    From Personality Psychology and Economics (2011) · cites this paper as [187]

  • Research suggests that traits are frequently experienced states.

    “research suggests that traits are frequently experienced states”

    From Being Mindful: A Long-term Investigation of an Interdisciplinary Course in Mindfulness (2019) · cites this paper as [42]

  • Changes in state anxiety may have gradual effects on changes in trait anxiety.

    “therefore, changes in state anxiety may have gradual effects on changes in trait anxiety.42,43”

    From Being Mindful: A Long-term Investigation of an Interdisciplinary Course in Mindfulness (2019) · cites this paper as [42]

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Related

Authors
Fleeson, W.
Corresponding author
Fleeson, William
ORCID
Fleeson, William
Venue
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
Publisher
American Psychological Association (APA)
Published
2001
Volume
80
Issue
6
Pages
1011-1027
ISSN
  • 0022-3514 (ISSN-L)
  • 1939-1315
DOI
10.1037/0022-3514.80.6.1011
OpenAlex
W4322696896
Cited by
1,436
References
72
Citations by year
2026: 99 · 2025: 94 · 2024: 87 · 2023: 107 · 2022: 76 · 2021: 116 · 2020: 152 · 2019: 82 · 2018: 76 · 2017: 72 · 2016: 70 · 2015: 63 · 2014: 51 · 2013: 60 · 2012: 39
FWCI
10.63
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Personality Traits and Psychology
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social and Intergroup Psychology
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Applied Psychology › Psychological Testing and Assessment
Keywords
personality structure, personality processes, personality traits, state

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review