The construction of a joint taxonomy of traits and situations

Abstract

This study implements the first steps to be taken in the construction of a taxonomy of situations from a trait psychological perspective. Taking the AB5C model of personality characteristics (De Raad et al., 1992) as a point of departure, a collection of situations that is linked to the personality domain was obtained, and subsequently subjected to PCA and HICLAS, yielding three taxonomies of situations. The results suggest that the domain of situations can be described by a handful of situation dimensions. Traits differ in the type and the number of situations in which they can be expressed, and situations differ in the type and number of traits that can be expressed in them. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.