Moving Personality Beyond the Person-Situation Debate: The Challenge and the Opportunity of Within-Person Variability
Abstract
The person-situation debate is coming to an end because both sides of the debate have turned out to be right. With respect to momentary behaviors, the situation side is right: Traits do not predict, describe, or influence behavior very strongly; the typical individual's behavior is highly variable; and a process approach is needed to explain that variability. With respect to trends (e.g., a person's typical way of acting), however, the person side of the debate is right: Traits predict and describe behavior very well over long stretches of time, behavior is highly stable, and a trait approach is needed to explain differences between people. Thus, proponents of both sides are right and should continue to conduct fruitful research, and both viewpoints are necessary for a full understanding of personality. The next exciting steps in personality psychology will include integrating these two approaches in the same research paradigm.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
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?
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 [43]
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 [43]
Cites
The development of markers for the Big-Five factor structure
Goldberg, L. R. (1992) · Psychological Assessment · doi:10.1037/1040-3590.4.1.26 · Cited by 5,530 · see citing works
Madison, P., & Mischel, W. (1968) · The American Journal of Psychology · doi:10.2307/1421067 · Cited by 4,395 · see citing works
Personality: A Psychological Interpretation
Jenkins, J. G., & Allport, G. W. (1938) · The American Journal of Psychology · doi:10.2307/1415717 · Cited by 3,215 · see citing works
Personality in Adulthood: A Five-Factor Theory Perspective
McCrae, R., & Costa, P. (2005) · doi:10.4324/9780203428412 · Cited by 2,355 · see citing works
Personality in Adulthood: A Five-Factor Theory Perspective
McCrae, R. R., & Costa, P. T. (2005) · Cited by 1,645 · see citing works
Personality: A Psychological Interpretation
Allport, G. W. (1962) · Cited by 1,578 · see citing works
The stability of behavior: I. On predicting most of the people much of the time.
Epstein, S. (1979) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.37.7.1097 · Cited by 1,468 · see citing works
Personality at the crossroads : current issues in interactional psychology
Magnusson, D., & Endler, N. S. (1977) · Lawrence Erlbaum Associates eBooks · Cited by 1,460 · see citing works
Fleeson, W. (2001) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.80.6.1011 · Cited by 1,436 · see citing works
Self-citationPersonality: A Psychological Interpretation.
Chapman, D. W., & Āllport, G. W. (1938) · Sociometry · doi:10.2307/2785590 · Cited by 1,100 · see citing works
(2001) · PubMed · Cited by 1,034 · see citing works
The act frequency approach to personality.
Buss, D. M., & Craik, K. H. (1983) · Psychological Review · doi:10.1037/0033-295x.90.2.105 · Cited by 786 · see citing works
RECONCILING PROCESSING DYNAMICS AND PERSONALITY DISPOSITIONS
Mischel, W., & Shoda, Y. (1998) · Annual Review of Psychology · doi:10.1146/annurev.psych.49.1.229 · Cited by 743 · see citing works
Funder, D. C. (2001) · Annual Review of Psychology · doi:10.1146/annurev.psych.52.1.197 · Cited by 699 · see citing works
Explorations in behavioral consistency: Properties of persons, situations, and behaviors.
Funder, D. C., & Colvin, C. R. (1991) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.60.5.773 · Cited by 552 · see citing works
Personality Psychology : Recent Trends And Emerging Directions
Buss, D. M., & Cantor, N. L. (1989) · Medical Entomology and Zoology · Cited by 513 · see citing works
Shoda, Y., Mischel, W., & Wright, J. C. (1994) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.67.4.674 · Cited by 513 · see citing works
The warp and the woof of the developmental fabric.
Nesselroade, J. R. (1991) · Cited by 163 · see citing works
Hartshorne, H., May, M. A., & Inquiry, C. E. (1930) · MacMillan Co eBooks · doi:10.1037/13386-000 · Cited by 114 · see citing works
Some facets of consistency: Replies to Epstein, Funder, and Bem.
Mischel, W., & Peake, P. K. (1983) · Psychological Review · doi:10.1037/0033-295x.90.4.394 · Cited by 63 · see citing works
A Process Approach to Personality Psychology: Utilizing Time as a Facet of Data
Larsen, R. J. (1989) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-1-4684-0634-4_13 · Cited by 61 · see citing works
Visions of Aesthetics, the Environment & Development
Downs, R. M. (2013) · Psychology Press eBooks · doi:10.4324/9780203772652 · Cited by 54 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Fleeson, W., & Jayawickreme, E. (2015) · Journal of Research in Personality · doi:10.1016/j.jrp.2014.10.009 · Cited by 839 · see citing works
Self-citationPost–traumatic growth as positive personality change: Evidence, controversies and future directions
Jayawickreme, E., & Blackie, L. E. R. (2014) · European Journal of Personality · doi:10.1002/per.1963 · Cited by 555 · see citing works
Feelings change: Accounting for individual differences in the temporal dynamics of affect.
Kuppens, P., Oravecz, Z., & Tuerlinckx, F. (2010) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/a0020962 · Cited by 543 · see citing works
Cognitive and Interpersonal Features of Intellectual Humility
Leary, M. R., Diebels, K. J., Davisson, E. K., Jongman-Sereno, K. P., Isherwood, J. C., Raimi, K. T., Deffler, S. A., & Hoyle, R. H. (2017) · Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin · doi:10.1177/0146167217697695 · Cited by 539 · see citing works
The social costs of emotional suppression: a prospective study of the transition to college
Srivastava, S., Tamir, M., McGonigal, K. M., John, O. P., & Gross, J. J. (2009) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/a0014755 · Cited by 504 · see citing works
A Tutorial on Hierarchically Structured Constructs
Brunner, M., Nagy, G., & Wilhelm, O. (2012) · Journal of Personality · doi:10.1111/j.1467-6494.2011.00749.x · Cited by 459 · see citing works
Situation-based contingencies underlying trait-content manifestation in behavior
Fleeson, W. (2007) · Journal of Personality · doi:10.1111/j.1467-6494.2007.00458.x · Cited by 455 · see citing works
Self-citationLanguage style matching in writing: synchrony in essays, correspondence, and poetry.
Ireland, M. E., & Pennebaker, J. W. (2010) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/a0020386 · Cited by 380 · see citing works
The relationship between mobile phone location sensor data and depressive symptom severity
Saeb, S., Lattie, E. G., Schueller, S. M., Kording, K. P., & Mohr, D. C. (2016) · PeerJ · doi:10.7717/peerj.2537 · Cited by 313 · see citing works
Intellectual humility and openness to the opposing view
Porter, T., & Schumann, K. (2018) · Self and Identity · doi:10.1080/15298868.2017.1361861 · Cited by 314 · see citing works
Personality change following unemployment.
Boyce, C. J., Wood, A. M., Daly, M., & Sedikides, C. (2015) · Journal of Applied Psychology · doi:10.1037/a0038647 · Cited by 231 · see citing works
Geukes, K., Nestler, S., Hutteman, R., Küfner, A. C. P., & Back, M. D. (2017) · Journal of Research in Personality · doi:10.1016/j.jrp.2016.06.003 · Cited by 210 · see citing works
Extraversion advantages at work: A quantitative review and synthesis of the meta-analytic evidence.
Wilmot, M. P., Wanberg, C. R., Kammeyer-Mueller, J. D., & Ones, D. S. (2019) · Journal of Applied Psychology · doi:10.1037/apl0000415 · Cited by 194 · see citing works
Contextualizing Personality Psychology
Roberts, B. W. (2007) · Journal of Personality · doi:10.1111/j.1467-6494.2007.00467.x · Cited by 171 · see citing works
Trait and Daily Emotion Regulation in Social Anxiety Disorder
Blalock, D. V., Kashdan, T. B., & Farmer, A. S. (2016) · Cognitive Therapy and Research · doi:10.1007/s10608-015-9739-8 · Cited by 105 · see citing works
The Wax and Wane of Narcissism: Grandiose Narcissism as a Process or State
Giacomin, M., & Jordan, C. H. (2016) · Journal of Personality · doi:10.1111/jopy.12148 · Cited by 103 · see citing works
Horstmann, K. T., Rauthmann, J. F., Sherman, R. A., & Ziegler, M. (2021) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/pspp0000357 · Cited by 89 · see citing works
Cheung, W.-Y., Sedikides, C., & Wildschut, T. (2016) · Personality and Individual Differences · doi:10.1016/j.paid.2015.11.028 · Cited by 87 · see citing works
Intellectual Humility Predicts Scrutiny of COVID-19 Misinformation
Koetke, J., Schumann, K., & Porter, T. (2022) · Social Psychological and Personality Science · doi:10.1177/1948550620988242 · Cited by 87 · see citing works
When cognition turns vicious: Heuristics and biases in light of virtue epistemology
Samuelson, P. L., & Church, I. M. (2015) · Philosophical Psychology · doi:10.1080/09515089.2014.904197 · Cited by 52 · see citing works
Goodman, F. R., Kashdan, T. B., & İmamoğlu, A. (2021) · Emotion · doi:10.1037/emo0000750 · Cited by 51 · see citing works
Understanding Patient Personality in Medical Care: Five-Factor Model
Redelmeier, D. A., Najeeb, U., & Etchells, E. E. (2021) · Journal of General Internal Medicine · doi:10.1007/s11606-021-06598-8 · Cited by 38 · see citing works
Goodman, F. R., Stiksma, M. C., & Kashdan, T. B. (2018) · Behavior Therapy · doi:10.1016/j.beth.2017.10.002 · Cited by 35 · see citing works
Ng, E. C. W., Chan, C. C., & Lai, M. K. (2014) · Journal of Community Psychology · doi:10.1002/jcop.21614 · Cited by 34 · see citing works
Being Mindful: A Long-term Investigation of an Interdisciplinary Course in Mindfulness
Braun, S. E., Kinser, P., Carrico, C. K., & Dow, A. (2019) · Global Advances In Health and Medicine · doi:10.1177/2164956118820064 · Cited by 25 · see citing works
State and trait narcissism predict everyday helping
Chen, S., Friesdorf, R., & Jordan, C. H. (2021) · Self and Identity · doi:10.1080/15298868.2019.1598892 · Cited by 14 · see citing works
The phantom in my pocket: determinants of phantom phone sensations.
Sauer, V. J., Eimler, S. C., Maafi, S., Pietrek, M., & Krämer, N. C. (2015) · Mobile Media & Communication · doi:10.1177/2050157914562656 · Cited by 13 · see citing works
- Authors
- Fleeson, W.
- Affiliations
- Wake Forest University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Fleeson, William
- ORCID
- Fleeson, William
- Venue
- Current Directions in Psychological Science
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2004-04
- Volume
- 13
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 83-87
- ISSN
- 0963-7214 (ISSN-L)
- 1467-8721
- OpenAlex
- W2111721164
- Cited by
- 649
- References
- 22
- Citations by year
- 2026: 20 · 2025: 18 · 2024: 27 · 2023: 31 · 2022: 37 · 2021: 33 · 2020: 84 · 2019: 38 · 2018: 33 · 2017: 33 · 2016: 30 · 2015: 39 · 2014: 28 · 2013: 41 · 2012: 24
- FWCI
- 14.08
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Current Directions in Psychological Science (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Personality Traits and Psychology
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Applied Psychology › Psychological Testing and Assessment
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Personality Disorders and Psychopathology
- Keywords
- person-situation debate, personality traits, trait stability, behavioral variability
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