CONSISTENCY AND VARIABILITY IN 2 PERSONALITY-TRAITS OVER TIME AND ACROSS SITUATIONS

A total of 171 American college students participated in two studies o f personality self-ratings. Subjects rated their conscientiousness, ou tgoingness, and their variability on these dimensions, then provided r atings for specific situations, or returned one day for three successi ve weeks to rate their daily behavior for the same traits. General sel f-ratings for both dimensions correlated with an average rating across 19 situations about .70 and with an average rating for three differen t days about .60. Ratings of subjective variability on each dimension were unrelated to actual variation across time or situations. Results suggest that general ratings do represent an ''intuitive average'' acr oss finite instances but that trait variability is not accurately judg ed.