Method ological Toolkit of Social-Cognitive Theory of Personality

Abstract

The article reviews the mainapproaches to social-cognitive assessment of behavioral structures (behavioral or personality signatures) in order to outline possible development perspectives. It is articulated that social-cognitive theory could successfully compete with contemporary trait theory of personality only if it develops its own assessment theory as well as a system of statistical methods, research design and psychometrics. Based on the review of a number of studies employing external observation, self-report, preference analysis techniques, Q-sort and S-R inventories a general scheme of data collection and data analysis is suggested. The proposed scheme overcomes essential disadvantages of measurement tools currently used in social-cognitive personality research, particularly excessive complexity and low informativeness of the results. It is based on the use of experimental design methods for the formation of stimulus situations, combining self-report and external observation data, repeated measurements and in-depth interviews, as well as the application of a range of modern statistical methods to describe and explain the intra-individual variability in behaviour (conjoint analysis, cluster analysis, multi-level modelling, etc.). Based on this analysis, a system of indicators to describe the quality of statistical models at the level of the individual is proposed – individual indices of reliability, stability, internal consistency and validity. The scheme and system of indices proposed could be used for individual social-cognitive based assessment, as well as in research to explain the intraindividual variability in behaviour. It is concluded that the psychology of personality is currently developing an integrated system of idiographic analysis methods and that individual psychometrics should become its essential component. Further progress in this area involves the ability to integrate information about the active ingredients of the situation from various sources on the basis of the psychological theory of situations.