Patterned person-situation fit in daily life: Examining magnitudes, stabilities, and correlates of trait-situation and state-situation fit

Abstract

Person-situation fit can be operationalized as within-person associations between profiles of personality traits and situation characteristics (trait-situation fit) as well as personality states and situation characteristics (state-situation fit). We provide an initial examination of basic properties (magnitudes, individual differences, reliabilities, intercorrelations), short-term stability (across weeks), and nomological correlates of overall and distinctive profile-level person-situation fits. In a real-life, multi-method multi-occasion design (N = 204–209), we obtained data on participants’ traits (self- and informant-reported) as well as, at four time-points from their everyday lives, on situation characteristics (self- and coder-reported) and states (self-reported). Profile scores (q-correlations) were computed across 35 cognate items between the CAQ (traits), RSQ (situations), and RBQ (states). Our descriptive and exploratory findings indicated that trait-situation and state-situation fits were sizable (overall more so than distinctive forms), and that there were substantial individual differences, which were only modestly stable during a short period and had some plausible nomological correlates (i.e., lower depression and neuroticism, but higher psychological well-being and happiness) that were driven mainly by normativity. Most findings replicated across measurement sources (self- vs. other-reports). Person-situation fit concepts, once further corroborated, could further personality-psychological research.