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A theoretical solution to the problem of personality-situation interaction

There has been much debate and research on the relative roles and the interaction of personality and situational factors in the determination of behaviour, and more broadly on the relative status of psychology and social science as explanations for human action. Much of this is based on a misconcept...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Personality and individual differences 1988, Vol.9 (1), p.133-138
Main Authors: Clarke, David D., Hoyle, Robert
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:There has been much debate and research on the relative roles and the interaction of personality and situational factors in the determination of behaviour, and more broadly on the relative status of psychology and social science as explanations for human action. Much of this is based on a misconception, to which a branch of applied mathematics called automata theory suggests the answer. If our objective is redefined as the explanation of situation-behaviour relations by reference to psychological processes, rather than the explanation of behaviour by reference to situational and psychological factors, then many of the confusions and inconsistencies disappear. On this view, behaviour varies from situation to situation in a way which varies from person to person. However, the two processes are of different kinds and different orders, and they are only misrepresented as commensurable causes working interactively to produce a common effect. Alternative formulations are presented, and their implications discussed for research in individual and social psychology.
ISSN:0191-8869
1873-3549
DOI:10.1016/0191-8869(88)90038-4