Implicit policies about relations between personality traits and behavioral effectiveness in situational judgment items.

Abstract

This paper develops the concept of implicit trait policy (ITP), which is a variant of the accentuation effect described by Tajfel (1957). ITPs are implicit beliefs about causal relations between personality traits and behavioral effectiveness. Studies reported here tested the hypotheses (a) that personality traits affect ITPs so that agreeable people, for instance, believe the relation between agreeableness and effectiveness is more strongly positive than disagreeable people do and (b) that ITPs can predict behavior that expresses associated personality traits. Two studies with undergraduate research participants supported the first hypothesis for traits of agreeableness and extraversion (the average correlation between traits and associated ITPs was .31 for agreeableness and .37 for extraversion) but not for conscientiousness. A 3rd study with student participants found that individual differences in ITPs for agreeableness predicted agreeable behavior (the average correlation was .33) in simulated work settings. These results suggest that ITPs may be useful for predicting work behavior that expresses personality traits even though ITPs may not be strongly correlated with the personality traits themselves.

Prosocial knowledge mediates effects of agreeableness and emotional intelligence on prosocial behavior

“…Our findings show that prosocial knowledge as measured by our instrument is significantly correlated with prosocial behavior displayed in a simulation and that agreeableness is positively related to prosocial knowledge, as predicted by ITP theory (Motowidlo et al, 2006).…”

“…The theoretical rationale for this finding is that personality traits influence prosocial behavior indirectly, through the acquisition of prosocial knowledge (Campbell, McCloy, Oppler, & Sager, 1993;Motowidlo et al, 2006). As distal antecedents of prosocial behavior, the influence of basic traits (Costa & McCrae, 1992) is mediated by beliefs about the effectiveness of that behavior.…”

“…Several researchers have proposed theories to explain why basic personality traits predict behavior (e.g., Ackerman, 1996;McCrae & Costa, 1996;Motowidlo & Beier, 2010 Costa's (1996) "model of the person" in proposing that people's basic tendencies (e.g., abilities, personality traits) interact with their experiences to shape their implicit beliefs about the effectiveness of various kinds of behaviors across various situations (Motowidlo & Beier, 2010;Motowidlo et al, 2006). These beliefs can be conceptualized as ITPs about the relationship between expressions of personality traits and effective performance in a given job.…”

“…Because we posit that prosocial knowledge is accumulated as basic traits interact with life experiences to shape knowledge, prosocial knowledge may be acquired without any particular experience within a specific job (Motowidlo et al, 2006, Motowidlo & Beier, 2010.…”

“…Further, the knowledge these cognitions comprise can be measured by evaluating the extent to which individuals are able to recognize the effectiveness of prosocial actions and the ineffectiveness of antisocial actions in interpersonal interactions (Motowidlo, 2003;Motowidlo, Hooper, & Jackson, 2006). The effectiveness and ineffectiveness of the actions described is determined using the mean of effectiveness ratings made subject matter experts in the domain being assessed (Motowidlo et al, 2013).…”