Profile analysis in person–situation integration

Personality and Assessment [Mischel, W. (1968). Personality and assessment. New York: Wiley] challenged personality psychology to commit to the idea that behavior emerges from an interaction of personality characteristics and situational forces. To understand the mechanisms driving person–situation interaction, personality psychologists often study behavioral regularities such as consistency, stability, coherence, and explainability. The current paper articulates such regularities via profile analysis of cross-situational behavioral contingencies, it articulates profile normativeness and distinctiveness as important considerations in profile analysis of behavioral contingency, it integrates an idiographic profile approach with a more traditional nomothetic approach, and it discusses conceptual and methodological implications. Importantly, the profile perspective provides a useful framework that integrates previous examinations of behavioral regularities and that points to new questions advancing personality psychology’s pursuit of person–situation integration.