Individual Consistencies as Interactive Styles under Decision and Ambiguity Contingencies

Mainstream study of individual differences, including so-called personality, are based on responses to items and scores in tests that are not directly descriptive or predictive of actual behaviors in real-time situations. A behavioral account of individual differences should deal with the idiosyncratic consistencies of individuals´ behavior that make every individual different to others in the way in which interact with situational events. An alternative methodology is presented to study individual consistencies as interactive styles. Styles are conceived as idiosyncratic profiles that characterize individuals interacting with gradients defining situational contingencies. Two experimental studies were carried out to find individual consistencies in two different situations: decision and ambiguity contingencies. Six college students participated in two studies exploring individual consistencies in each of the two contingency situations. They were exposed to four different computer tasks, of which two corresponded to each contingency situation. One of the tasks in each situation was presented twice, within a 1-month interval. All participants performed differently in both contingency situations but showed within-subject consistent functional profiles as depicted by 8-degree polynomial regression analyses. Findings support the possibility of identifying individual consistencies across time and across situations in real-time performances.