PSYC 332 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Walter Mischel, Attribution Bias, Trait Theory
9 Jun 2016
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If someone was late to their 8 am classes, how likely is it that they were also late for their appointments, extracurricular activities, entertainments etc. It is impossible to demonstrate generalized consistencies in behaviour and the concept of personality traits as broad dispositions is thus untenable . Too much inconsistency as traits don"t predict future behaviour well most behaviour is predicted through reinforcement he proposed abandoning traits and focusing on situations. There is a discrepancy between our intuitions, which tell us that people do in fact display pervasive cross- situational consistencies in their behaviour, and the vast empirical literature, which tells us that they do not . Reasons to doubt our intuition about stability: Evidence of implicit personality theories- if someone is educated that must mean that they are thoughtful, reflective, won"t act like a clown when they are with other people , you make assumptions of certain behaviours and fill in the blanks.
