Personality and Situational Behavior

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Personality can affect many things in a person’s life. This includes how a person will react to a situation. One can attribute different personality traits to different dispositional or learning theories, such as linking the dehumanizing of a victim to social cognitive theory. One can make an association between interpersonal relational aspects and some of these theories. Personality is an aspect of the self that people often think about but most never truly contemplate the meaning or depth of personality. Personality and Situational Behavior Personality traits can affect success in school and many other long-term outcomes. Traits affect daily moods as well (Feist & Feist, 2009). An individual’s personality may seem unstable from one situation to the next: this means that an individual may be acutely aware of his or her academic work, but not aware of the cleanliness of his home or the working condition of his car (Feist & Feist, 2009). The lack of interest in the cleanliness of the home and the working order of the car may be from any number of factors, but it still points out that his trait of being conscientious is situational. A person’s disposition will only affect his behavior under certain conditions or in specific situations (Feist & Feist, 2009). This observation seems to suggest that an individual’s perceptions of self and situation play a strong role in behavior, as opposed to personality as the only indicator (Feist & Feist, 2009). Another example of situational changes in personality includes dating. A person that is outgoing and friendly may be shy and reserved when on a date with a new person, or when they around someone they are interested in. This may be because the person wants to make a good impression; it co... ... middle of paper ... ...ext, but it usually is not. Dispositional theories range from 3 character traits to as many as 18,000. Four distinct learning theories exist with almost as much variation in thought. Allport seems to have the right idea that no single theory is perfect or can encompass every aspect and dimension of personality. The best way to learn about a personality is to study the individual. Works Cited Feist, J., & Feist, G. (2009). Theories of Personality (7th ed.). New York: McGraw Hill. Kell, H. J., Rittmayer, A. D., Crook, A. E., & Motowidlo, S. J. (2010). Situational Content Moderates the Association Between the Big Five Personality Traits and Behavioral Effectiveness. Human Performance, 23(3), 213-228. doi:10.1080/08959285.2010.488458 Marcic, R., & Grum, D. (2011). GENDER DIFFERENCES IN SELF-CONCEPT AND SELF-ESTEEM COMPONENTS. Studia Psychologica, 53(4), 373-384.

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