Individual Versus Situational Factors

Issues and Debates – Individual Versus Situational Factors

In this course, Dr Ayoub Bouguettaya (University of Birmingham) explores the individual versus situational factors debate. In the first lecture, we think about what drives behaviour and the tendency to focus on internal/individual factors when evaluating a person’s behaviour. In the second lecture, we think about the doctrines of traits and situationism, as well as trait activation theory. In the third lecture, we think about how personality acts as a determinant of behaviour and how a trait is defined. Next, we think about social situations and the tendencies of many people to act in similar ways when confronted with certain situations. In the fifth and final lecture, we think about some key questions which surround the individual versus situational factor debate, including whether personality itself is a Western construct.

Individual Versus Situational Factors

In this lecture, we think about what drives behaviour, focusing in particular on: (i) an introduction to what is meant by an individual compared to a situational factor; (ii) the tendency for people to focus on individual factors when hypothesising about another person’s behaviour; (iii) the historic focus on individual factors in psychology, including Wundt’s introspection and Freud’s psychodynamic theory; (iv) research claiming to have calculated the percentage of behaviour that personality and situational factors account for; (v) Lewin’s equation, which proposes that it is the interaction between situation and personality factors which has the greatest impact on behaviour.