The big five as tendencies in situations

Abstract

These studies scrutinize, in a Dutch and Italian sample, various types of consistency of the Big Five personality dimensions. Taking a general taxonomy of situations and the five-factor scheme as points of departure, an S-R Big Five Questionnaire, called TinSit, was constructed. Using this instrument, generalizability across situations and trait markers was studied, as well as the consistency of Person X Situation interactions (individual situation specificity) and Person X Trait Marker interactions (individual response specificity). The results suggest that the Big Five traits are less trait-like than the present proponents of the model make us believe. In the Dutch as well as the Italian sample, substantial support has been found for individual situation specificity and individual response specificity. Discussion addressed the importance of these outcomes for the study of personality from an interactionist perspective.