THE BIG 5 AS TENDENCIES IN SITUATIONS

These studies scrutinize, in a Dutch and Italian sample, various types of consistency of the Big Five personality dimensions. Taking a gener al taxonomy of situations and the five-factor scheme as points of depa rture, an S-R Big Five Questionnaire, called TinSit, was constructed. Using this instrument, generalizability across situations and trait ma rkers was studied, as well as the consistency of Person X Situation in teractions (individual situation specificity) and Person x Trait Marke r interactions (individual response specificity). The results suggest that the Big Five traits are less trait-like than the present proponen ts of the model make us believe. In the Dutch as well as the Italian s ample, substantial support has been found for individual situation spe cificity and individual response specificity. Discussion addressed the importance of these outcomes for the study of personality from an int eractionist perspective.