Big Five model can be valuable for diagnosing clinical disorders and working
with therapy patients (O ’Connor & Dyce, 2001; Reynolds & Clark, 2001;
Trull, Widiger, & Burr, 2001; Widiger, 2005) and for identifying problem
health behaviors (Booth-Kewley & Vickers, 1994; Marshall, Wortman,
Vickers, Kusulas, & Hervig, 1994). In addition, as you will see later in this
chapter, how people score on measures of the Big Five dimensions is often re-
lated to how they perform on the job.
THE SITUATION VERSUS TRAIT CONTROVERSY
The trait concept has come a long way since Allport ’s early battles to gain ac-
ceptance for his theory. Trait measures have been embraced by psychologists
from nearly every perspective and used by professionals working in a wide
variety of settings. Patients admitted to mental health facilities often spend
several hours taking tests that yield scores on a variety of traitlike measures.
Educators commonly use achievement and aptitude measures to classify chil-
dren and identify problem cases. Anyone who has gone through theAmerican education system in recent years can recall hours of such tests, of-
ten beginning in the first grade. And for several decades now, academic per-
sonality researchers have been busy developing trait measures and correlatingscores with a number of behaviors.
Criticism of the Trait Approach
Unfortunately, along with the widespread use of personality measurement
comes the possibility of abuse. More than 40 years ago, one psychologist in
particular criticized the way many psychologists were using and interpretingtest scores. Walter Mischel (1968) pointed out that too many psychologists
relied on one or two test scores to make important decisions, such as psychi-
atric diagnoses or whether an individual should be imprisoned. “On the ba-
sis of very little behavior sampling, a ll sorts of behaviors were predicted,”
Mischel wrote. “And key decisions were made about people ’sf a t e ”(1983,
p. 580).
Although critics accused Mischel of denying the existence of personality
traits, he argues that this was never his point (Mischel, 1973, 1990, 2009).Mischel maintains his complaint was with the overinterpretation of personalitytest scores. As a result of the discussion and debate that ensued, most psychol-
ogists today are aware of the dangers of overreliance on test scores.
Psychologists who might have once used a single test score now consider infor-
mation from a number of relevant sources before making diagnoses or recom-
mending a certain type of education program. Although the trait approach
today is as strong as it has ever been (Swann & Seyle, 2005), Mischel and
other critics raised important questions about some of the key assumptions un-
derlying the trait approach. Thus, it is useful to look at these criticisms as well
as the responses trait researchers give in their defense. Mischel argued that trait
measures, as well as other types of test scores, do not predict behavior as well
as many psychologists claimed. He also maintained that there was little evi-
dence for consistency of behavior across situations.“Can personality
psychologists predict
behavior? Yes, ofcourse we
can—sometimes. ”
Walter MischelThe Situation Versus Trait Controversy 165