Toward a structure- and process-integrated view of personality: Traits as density distributions of states.

Abstract

Three experience-sampling studies explored the distributions of Big-Five-relevant states (behavior) across 2 to 3 weeks of everyday life. Within-person variability was high, such that the typical individual regularly and routinely manifested nearly all levels of all traits in his or her everyday behavior. Second, individual differences in central tendencies of behavioral distributions were almost perfectly stable. Third, amount of behavioral variability (and skew and kurtosis) were revealed as stable individual differences. Finally, amount of within-person variability in extraversion was shown to reflect individual differences in reactivity to extraversion-relevant situational cues. Thus, decontextualized and noncontingent Big-Five content is highly useful for descriptions of individuals' density distributions as wholes. Simultaneously, contextualized and contingent personality units (e.g., conditional traits, goals) are needed for describing the considerable within-person variation.

Personality change following unemployment.

“…Consistent with our earlier definitional considerations of personality (Fleeson, 2001(Fleeson, , 2004Mischel & Shoda, 1995;Shoda & Mischel, 1998) -culminating in the conclusion that unemployment may give rise to stably different ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving -we would expect the duration of unemployment and whether re-employment took place to be differentially critical for personality change. Distinctly stable ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving may prevail at various stages of the unemployment experience.…”

How Taking a Word for a Word Can Be Problematic: Context-Dependent Linguistic Markers of Extraversion and Neuroticism

“…Interpreting the findings from the present study in the context of Fleeson's (2001) model of traits as density distributions of states, the question emerges whether this post-9/11 change in language use was indicative of an increase in state Extraversion (e.g., affiliative tendencies) or -counterintuitively-a decrease in state Neuroticism (e.g., emotionality)? Cohn et al's (2004) interpretation of the finding as reflecting psychological distancing as part of a psychological shock reaction is more in line with the latter explanation and empirically supported by Kosloff et al's (2006) finding that under mortality salience individuals showed dissociative tendencies to 9/11 reminders.…”

Changing personality traits: Some considerations from psychotherapy process-outcome research for intervention efforts on intentional personality change.

“…Other attributes such as rapid fluctuations in behavior, psychological states, or physiological processes may transpire over the course of days or across moments within days (Fleeson, 2001).…”

“…The level of states can be seen as the most dynamic level of personality description, as it reflects how people think, feel, or behave in a given situation in everyday life. This level involves rapid fluctuations over short periods of time as a function of internal aspects (e.g., motives and goals) and external situations (e.g., stress in a given situation) (Fleeson, 2001;Hooker & McAdams, 2003). The second conceptual model was originally developed to describe affective processes with a focus on the temporal dimension (Rosenberg, 1998).…”