The person in context: Using situational judgment to gain insight into social functioning

Abstract

How people interpret and respond to simulated interpersonal events may provide insight into their values, beliefs, and personality. In pursuit of this possibility, a three-study program of research (total N = 576) applied a situational judgment method to the domain of friendship behavior. Specifically, consensus scoring techniques were used to scale the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of different ways of responding to vignettes involving protagonists and their friends. These norms were then used to score a dimension of friendship competence that was defined in terms of endorsing ways of responding (to friendship scenarios) that tend to be effective. Study 1 established the reliability of the relevant individual differences, Study 2 showed that they were related to both agreeableness and extraversion, and Study 3 showed that they predicted friendship quality as well as prosocial and antisocial behavior. The research provides novel insights into key personality processes that underlie social behavior.