Distinguishing four types of Person × Situation interactions: An integrative framework and empirical examination.

People differ in their reaction to situations, resulting in Person × Situation interactions. These interactions have been emphasized by many theoretical accounts of personality. Nevertheless, empirical progress on Person × Situation interactions has been slow. This is in part attributable to an insufficient distinction of person and situation variables and of different types of interaction effects. We propose a framework distinguishing four nested types of interaction effects varying in specificity: (a) P × S: broad Person × Situation interaction variance, (b) P × Sspec: between-person differences in situation variable-outcome associations, (c) Pspec × S: between-situation differences in person variable-outcome associations, and (d) Pspec × Sspec: specific Person Variable × Situation Variable interactions. We conducted two large online studies (N = 622 and N = 818) with standardized situation stimuli (N = 62 pictures and N = 62 first-person perspective videos) and assessed Big Five traits, DIAMONDS situation characteristics, and Big Five states. Using preregistered multilevel models, we systematically quantified the different interaction types. We found (a) large Person × Situation interaction variance in personality states, (b) sizable individual differences in situation characteristic-state contingencies, (c) consistent but smaller between-situation differences in trait-state associations, and (d) some significant but (very) small Personality Trait × Situation Characteristic interactions. Our findings highlight Person × Situation interactions as potentially important predictors of psychological states, although the explanation of these interactions through specific person variables remains difficult. Individual differences in the reaction to situations should be incorporated into our models of personality. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Neural sensitivity to faces is increased by immersion into a novel ethnic environment: Evidence from ERPs.

Previous reports suggest that East-Asians may show larger face-elicited N170 components in the ERP as compared to Caucasian participants. Since the N170 can be modulated by perceptual expertise, such group differences may be accounted for by differential experience, for example, with logographic versus alphabetic scripts (script system hypothesis) or by exposure to abundant novel faces during the immersion into a new social and/or ethnic environment (social immersion hypothesis). We conducted experiments in Hong Kong and Berlin, recording ERPs in a series of one-back tasks, using same- and other-ethnicity face stimuli in upright and inverted orientation and doodle stimuli. In Hong Kong we tested local Chinese residents and foreign guest students who could not read the logographic script; in Berlin we tested German residents who could not read the logographic script and foreign Chinese visitors. In both experiments, we found significantly larger N170 amplitudes to faces, regardless of ethnicity, in the foreign than in the local groups. Moreover, this effect did not depend on stimulus orientation, suggesting that the N170 group differences do not reflect differences in configural visual processing. A group of short-term German residents in Berlin did not differ in N170 amplitude from long-term residents. Together, these findings indicate that the extensive confrontation with novel other-ethnicity faces during immersion in a foreign culture may enhance the neural response to faces, reflecting the short-term plasticity of the underlying neural system.

The dynamics, processes, mechanisms, and functioning of personality: An overview of the field.

Personality psychology has long focused on structural trait models, but it can also offer a rich understanding of the dynamics, processes, mechanisms, and functioning of individual differences or entire persons. The field of personality dynamics, which works towards such an understanding, has experienced a renaissance in the last two decades. This review article seeks to act as a primer of that field. It covers its historical roots, summarizes current research strands - along with their theoretical backbones and methodologies - in an accessible way, and sketches some considerations for the future. In doing so, we introduce relevant concepts, give an overview of different topics and phenomena subsumed under the broad umbrella term 'dynamics', and highlight the interdisciplinarity as well as applied relevance of the field. We hope this article can serve as a useful overview for scholars within and outside of personality psychology who are interested in the dynamic nature of human behaviour and experience.

The situation during the COVID-19 pandemic: A snapshot in Germany.

During government-implemented restrictions in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, people's everyday lives changed profoundly. However, there is to date little research chronicling how people perceived their changed everyday lives and which consequences this had. In a two-wave study, we examined the psychological characteristics of people's situations and their correlates during shutdown in a large German sample (NT1 = 1,353; NT2 = 446). First, we compared characteristics during government-issued restrictions with retrospective accounts from before and with a follow-up assessment 6 to 7 months later when many restrictions had been lifted. We found that mean levels were lower and variances were higher for most characteristics during the shutdown. Second, the experience of certain situation characteristics was associated in meaningful and theoretically expected ways with people's traits, appraisals of the COVID-19 crisis, and subjective well-being. Lastly, situation characteristics often substantially explained the associations of traits with appraisals and well-being. Our findings highlight the importance of considering perceived situations as these contribute to people's functioning during crises.