STABLE INDIVIDUAL-DIFFERENCES IN SITUATION BEHAVIOR, CONSTRUCT BEHAVIOR, AND GOAL BEHAVIOR RELATIONS

This study starts from a cognitive-social-learning conceptualization o f the contribution of static person by situation interaction to overt behaviour variance. Individual differences in the relation between, on the one hand, situational variation in behaviour and, on the other ha nd, situational variation in objective situational characteristics, si tuational variation in construed situational characteristics, and situ ational variation in goals-in-situations were systematically investiga ted. Thirty-six first-year psychology students had to freely generate and briefly describe 20 interpersonal situations that they had encount ered during the last year. Afterwards, they had to rate each situation for four basic behavioural continua, eight supplied objective situati onal characteristics, eight supplied constructs, and eight supplied go als. Correlational analysis revealed many stable individual difference s, not only in degree, but also in direction (sign) of situation-behav iour, construct-behaviour, and goal-behaviour relations. These relatio nal variables could be reduced to seven relational factorial dimension s. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are di scussed