| Abstract: | An assumption often made in the study of personality and in social psychology is that methods variance and situation-specific effects, as key components of measured behavioral variance, are environmental effects. The results of the present research refute that assumption. Nine measures—3 aspects of temperament measured in each of 3 ways—were obtained at age 24 months for twin sibships participating in the Louisville Twin Study. This report describes a new model that captures the unique information potentially available in such data, by combining multitrait–multimethod and twin–family analytic designs. The results indicated significant genetic influence on methods–situations components of variance along with genetic influence on traits. The findings support heuristics that include both situation-specific patterns of behavior and cross-situational consistencies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
