Abstract
One derivation which can be made from the traditional trait measurement personality model is that the rank order of individuals with respect to a certain behavior will be stable across situations. This hypothesis was studied for an objectively measured behavior, talking time, with systematic variation of situational characteristics. Analysis of variance yielded inter-individual differences across situations. However, the direct measure of rank order transsituational stability, coefficients of correlation between situations, did not show the expected, systematically high values. For some situations the intercorrelation was even negative. Thus, this result does not support the transsituation stability hypothesis. An indirect estimation of the subject-by-situation interaction was presented. An indication of a significant interaction was obtained.
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