The effects of disposition, situation, and setting on impression formation.

Abstract

As the literature on impression formation indicates that certain traits are more central than others, the relative centrality of dispositional and situational characteristics is important to determine. As dispositional characteristics are consistent over time whereas situational characteristics vary across situations, there is reason to believe that the two may differentially affect impression formation. Furthermore, researchers have questioned the generalization of studies using a methodology consisting of artificial or imaginary settings as such methodologies may be undermined by a lack of ecological validity i.e., they are not truely representative of real life situations. Impression formation was operationalized as interpersonal proximity. It was hypothesized that subjects similar in both disposition and situation would sit significantly closer to a confederate. Furthermore, this study examined differences in the response of subjects in an actual setting relative to subjects in an imaginary setting. A second dependent variable, a person memory test, was used to further examine differences in the salience of dispositional and situational traits. The hypothesis was supported in that subjects similar in disposition and situation sat significantly closer to a stranger. However, the dispositional characteristics were found to be more central to the impression formation process than were situational characteristics. Subjects recalled significantly more dispositional relative to situational traits of the stranger. Moreover, significant differences were found between the actual and imaginary settings. Thus, it is apparent that individuals behave differently when they must act out their responses. Therefore, the concept of ecological validity i.e., the generalizability of the research, remains crucial to social psychological research.