This is an interesting point. How long must a state last to be a trait? To carry my example through, I can give a good lecture and be very animated in the morning and then be a shy person at a cocktail party in the evening. I am always shy at cocktail parties (introvert) and generally animated when I lecture (extrovert). This distinction is persistent, but neither lasts long so there are several types of persistence - one is persistence of differences and the other is persistence of a common trait.
There is another issue related to this. There is a human bias called the fundamental attribution error where observers view the causes of a person's behavior as overly based on personality whereas the person him/herself views the causes of his/her behavior on context and situation. So there is a strong actor/observer difference (and lots of literature on this under the heading of attribution theory). So the concept of "personality" and causes of behavior differs when people are examing the causes of their own or others' behaviors. I've always thought that applied attribution theory should be a required course in business. So even the notion of traits/states is affected by who is doing the observing. Chauncey On Jan 25, 2008 11:55 AM, Murli Nagasundaram <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > There is a fundamental confusion here between two different things: STATES > and TRAITS. Traits are persistent, States are transient. Every individual > can be characterized has having certain persistent traits. Persistent > doesn't mean they will never change -- it only means that they will remain > quite stable over a long period of time, barring some signficant > life-changing (including, traumatic) experiences. [If your TRAITS change > frequently, you need some serious help.] States, on the other hand, like > moods, change from moment to moment. MBTI and other 'personality style' > instruments do not assess STATES but TRAITS. > > Also, whoever uses such instruments for recruitment is guilty of grossly > misusing them and violating their fundamental purpose. Personality style > instruments are best employed to gain insights into oneself. They should be > answered honestly, if they are to be of any use - any instrument can be > 'gamed' to give the desired results, but who benefits from this? > > I have used the MBTI for years with my students to help them understand > themselves and be able to better relate to others and most of them love it. > I also tell them -- and this is important that such instruments do not > delimit the scope of an individuals behaviors because of the distinction > between STATES and TRAITS. They should never be used for pigeonholing > people. I don't require my students to share their MBTI profiles with > others, but many do, voluntarily. > > -murli > > ============================================================== > > On Jan 25, 2008 5:15 PM, Chauncey Wilson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Think about how we may be quite > > different personas in different situations -- I'm very shy at cocktail > > parties and avoid them as much as possible but I can be quite > > theatrical in front of a good audience -- two quite different > > behaviors in social situations. > ________________________________________________________________ *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
