W. W. Norton & Company | The Personality Puzzle, 4th ed.

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Chapter 4: Personality Traits and Behavior

The trait approach to personality begins by assuming that individuals differ in their characteristic patterns of thought, feeling, and behavior. These patterns are called personality traits.

Classifying people according to traits raises an important problem, however: people are inconsistent. Indeed, some psychologists have suggested that people are so inconsistent in their behavior from one situation to the next that it is not worthwhile to characterize them in terms of personality traits. The controversy over this issue is called the person-situation debate.

Opponents of the trait approach argue, first, that a review of the personality literature reveals that the ability of traits to predict behavior is extremely limited; second, that situations are therefore more important than personality traits for determining what people do; and third, that not only is personality assessment (the measurement of traits) a waste of time, but also many of people's intuitions about each other are fundamentally wrong.

The responses to the first of these arguments are that a fair review of the literature reveals that the predictability of behavior from traits is better than is sometimes acknowledged; that improved research methods can increase this predictability, and that the putative upper limit for predictability (a correlation of about .40) yields better outcomes than is sometimes recognized. The response to the second of these arguments is that many important effects of situations on behavior are no bigger, statistically, than the documented size of the effects of personality traits on behavior.

If the responses to the first two situationist arguments are valid, then the third argument, that both assessment and people's intuitions are fundamentally flawed, falls apart of its own weight. The large number of personality trait terms supports the importance of traits as a useful way to predict behavior and understand personality.

A wide-ranging survey of the research literature shows that personality traits affect important life outcomes including health, longevity, and interpersonal and career success.

Situational variables are best suited for predicting behavior in specific situations, whereas personality traits are more relevant to patterns of behavior that persist across relationship partners, work settings, and other life situations.

The person-situation debate may have been instigated and maintained, in part, because of deeply-held philosophical beliefs. Emphasizing the effect of the situation implies personal equality and individual flexibility, whereas emphasizing the person accentuates the importance of self-determination and personal responsibility. The resolution of the debate may imply that these values are not as incompatible as people sometimes assume.