The effects of situation, sex, and four cognitive abilities on the variability of behavior both within and across two social situations were examined. 12 male and 13 female undergraduate subjects interacted with a female accomplice in two interpersonal situations. Behavioral variability was derived from codings of videotapes of the subjects' behaviors. The person-situation interaction was central, and there were also important effects for sex; women tended to be less variable. Significant negative correlations were found for variability in behavior, both within and across the two situations, with divergent production of behavioral systems. Cognition of behavioral relations also showed significant correlation with variability within the more unusual of the two interpersonal situations. The other two cognitive ability variables did not show any significant relationships to behavioral variability. The results are discussed in terms of the integrative functions of systems and the relative differentiation of the experimental situations as opposed to naturally occurring situations.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
ArensonS.BialerG.Effects of sex of teacher and schedule of child's correct responses on teaching behavior. Psychological Record, 1976, 26, 515–522.
2.
BanduraA.The self system in reciprocal determinism. American Psychologist, 1978, 33, 344–358.
BaronR.GanzR.Effects of locus of control and type of feedback on task performance of lower-class black children. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1972, 21, 124–130.
5.
BemD. J.Constructing cross-situational consistencies in behavior: Some thoughts on Alker's critique of Mischel. Journal of Personality, 1972, 40, 17–26.
6.
BemD. J.AllenA.On predicting some of the people some of the time: The search for cross-situational consistencies in behavior. Psychological Review, 1974, 81, 506–520.
7.
CarsonR. C.Interaction concepts of personality. Chicago: Aldine, 1969.
8.
EndlerN. S.HuntJ. McV.Sources of behavioral variance as measured by the S-R inventory of anxiousness. Psychological Bulletin, 1966, 65, 336–346.
9.
EndlerN. S.HuntJ. McV.S-R inventories of hostility and comparisons of the proportions of variance from persons, responses, and situations for hostility and anxiousness. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1968, 9, 309–315.
10.
EndlerN. S.HuntJ. McV.Generalizability of contributions from sources of variance in the S-R inventories of anxiousness. Journal of Personality, 1969, 37, 1–24.
11.
EndlerN.MagnussonD.Toward an interactional psychology of personality. Psychological Bulletin, 1976, 83, 956–974.
12.
FiskeD. W.Measuring the concepts of personality. Chicago: Aldine, 1971.
13.
FrederiksenN.Toward a taxonomy of situations. American Psychologist, 1972, 27, 114–123.
14.
GilmoreT.MintonH.Internal versus external attribution of task performance as a function of locus of control, initial confidence, and success-failure outcome. Journal of Personality, 1974, 42, 159–174.
15.
GuilfordJ. P.The nature of human intelligence. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1967.
16.
HoyengaK. I.HoyengaK. T.The question of sex differences: Psychological, cultural, and biological issues. Boston: Little Brown, 1979.
17.
LearyT.Interpersonal diagnosis of personality: A functional theory and methodology for personality evaluation. New York: Ronald, 1957.
18.
MillerG.GalanterE.PribramK.Plans and the structure of behavior. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1960.
19.
MischelW.Toward a cognitive social learning reconceptualization of personality. Psychological Review, 1973, 80, 252–283.
20.
MoosR.Conceptualization of human environments. American Psychologist, 1973, 28, 652–665.
21.
MoosR.Systems for the assessment and classification of human environments: An overview (Part 1, No. 1). In MoosR.InselP. M. (Eds.), Issues in social ecology. Palo Alto: National Press Books, 1974. Pp. 5–28.
22.
MoosR. H.Situational analysis of a therapeutic community milieu. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 1968, 73, 49–61.
23.
MoosR. H.Sources of variance in response to questionnaires and in behavior. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 1969, 74, 405–412.
24.
MoosR. H.Differential effects of psychiatric ward settings on patient change. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 1970, 151, 316–321.
25.
PriceR.The taxonomic classification of behaviors and situations and the problem of behavior-environment congruence. Human Relations, 1974, 27, 567–585.
26.
RauschH.DittmanA.TaylorT.Person, setting, and change in social interaction. Human Relations, 1959, 12, 361–378.
27.
RauschH.FarbmanI.LlewellynL.Person, setting and change in social interaction: II. A normal-control study. Human Relations, 1960, 13, 305–332.
28.
RichertA.KetteringR.Psychological defense as a moderator variable. Psychological Reports, 1978, 42, 291–294.
29.
RosenthalR.RosnowR. L.The volunteer subject. In RosenthalR.RosnowR. L. (Eds.), Artifact in behavioral research. New York: Academic Press, 1969. Pp. 59–118.
30.
Sheridan Psychological Services.Tests selected to represent structure-of-intellect abilities. Orange, CA: Sheridan Psychological Services, no date, (duplicated).
31.
TorranceE. P.Examples and rationales of test tasks for assessing creative abilities. Journal of Creative Behavior, 1968, 2, 165–178.
32.
TurnerR.Consistency, self-consciousness, and the predictive- validity of typical and maximal personality measures. Journal of Research in Personality, 1978, 12, 117–132.
33.
WallaceJ.An abilities conception of personality: Some implications for personality measurement. American Psychologist, 1966, 21, 132–138.
34.
WeitzS.Sex differences in non-verbal communication. Sex Roles, 1976, 2, 175–184.
35.
WillermanL.TurnerR.PetersonM.A comparison of the predictive validity of typical and maximal personality measures. Journal of Research in Personality, 1976, 10, 482–492.
