Interactional Psychology and Research on Human Behavior in Organizations

Interactional psychology emphasizes continuous, multidirectional interaction between person and situation characteristics. This perspective suggests that organizational behavior researchers should focus more attention on person factors that might be expected to mediate the effects of situation factors, and vice versa. It also encourages a less restricted interpretation of an interaction, which can mean non-additivity, differential validity, overlapping main effects, reciprocal influence, and cognitive sense making of experience.