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Implicit policies about relations between personality traits and behavioral effectiveness in situational judgment
Stephan J Motowidlo1, Amy C Hooper, Hannah L Jackson
1Department of Psychology, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, MN, USA. motowidlo@rice.edu
The Journal of Applied Psychology
|July 13, 2006
Summary
Implicit trait policies (ITPs) are beliefs linking personality traits to effectiveness. These policies influence behavior, particularly in work settings, even if not strongly correlated with the traits themselves.
Area of Science:
- Social Psychology
- Personality Psychology
Background:
- The accentuation effect describes how individuals perceive traits in others.
- Implicit Trait Policies (ITPs) extend this by examining beliefs about trait-behavior effectiveness.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop and test the concept of Implicit Trait Policies (ITPs).
- To investigate if personality traits influence ITPs.
- To determine if ITPs predict behavior reflecting associated personality traits.
Main Methods:
- Three studies were conducted with undergraduate and student participants.
- Correlations were calculated between personality traits and ITPs.
- Behavioral predictions were assessed in simulated work settings.
Main Results:
- Personality traits, specifically agreeableness and extraversion, were found to influence ITPs (correlations of .31 and .37, respectively).
- ITPs for agreeableness predicted agreeable behavior in simulated work settings (correlation of .33).
- No significant influence was found for conscientiousness.
Conclusions:
- ITPs are influenced by an individual's personality traits.
- ITPs can predict behavior associated with personality traits, especially in work contexts.
- ITPs offer a novel way to understand and predict work behavior.
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