Situationism is a certain approach in Psychology which states that people are more influenced by external situational factors than by internal traits or motivations. Mischel first popularised situationism in 1968 with his arguments that situations were more powerful than dispositional traits in predicting behaviour. In his book 'Personality and Assesment' he made two imperical claims about the trait approach to personality. He challenged the assumption that a person's personality determined behaviour. He claimed that people's behaviour changed from situation to situation. In other words behaviour is determined on what type of situation is experienced.
This is completely different to what the personality view defines. The personality view claims that behaviour depends on a person's long-term personality traits and these are shown no matter what situation a person is imeresed into. Mischel found a correlation between personality and behaviour, the correlation was .20 to .40 - overall .30, this is quite small. He used this result to argue that since the correlation was so small, personality could not have a big effect on behaviour and that the changes of a person's behaviour must be due to the situational demands.
Another situationist, Richard Nisbett,re-tested the personality-behaviour correlation and found it to increase to .40. But this is still a small and insignificant relationship.
However there are arguments made on this subject, those on the side of personality and its effect on behaviour argue;
1) that even though there is a low correlation between personality and behaviour, the results do not prove that situational variables are responsible for behaviour.
2) people tend to choose their own situations and experiences. for example and introvert person may choose a job as a librarian. Because they have chosen this profession, they are less likely to experience uncomfortable situations or situations they could not handle very well. These choices reflect their personality.
Situationism is a certain approach in Psychology which states that people are more influenced by external situational factors than by internal traits or motivations. Mischel first popularised situationism in 1968 with his arguments that situations were more powerful than dispositional traits in predicting behaviour. In his book 'Personality and Assesment' he made two imperical claims about the trait approach to personality. He challenged the assumption that a person's personality determined behaviour. He claimed that people's behaviour changed from situation to situation. In other words behaviour is determined on what type of situation is experienced.
This is completely different to what the personality view defines. The personality view claims that behaviour depends on a person's long-term personality traits and these are shown no matter what situation a person is imeresed into. Mischel found a correlation between personality and behaviour, the correlation was .20 to .40 - overall .30, this is quite small. He used this result to argue that since the correlation was so small, personality could not have a big effect on behaviour and that the changes of a person's behaviour must be due to the situational demands.
Another situationist, Richard Nisbett,re-tested the personality-behaviour correlation and found it to increase to .40. But this is still a small and insignificant relationship.
However there are arguments made on this subject, those on the side of personality and its effect on behaviour argue;
1) that even though there is a low correlation between personality and behaviour, the results do not prove that situational variables are responsible for behaviour.
2) people tend to choose their own situations and experiences. for example and introvert person may choose a job as a librarian. Because they have chosen this profession, they are less likely to experience uncomfortable situations or situations they could not handle very well. These choices reflect their personality.