ABSTRACT
There is now a fairly large body of theory and research on the nature of psychological situations and person-setting interactions (Magnusson & Endler, 1977a). The growth of this literature has been fueled by controversies concerning the question of whether situational variables or individual differences account for more variance in behavior, and advocates have argued in favor of individual differences, situations, and a variety of interactionists' views. In recent years, I have begun to look at some of my own work in this area (Price, 1974a,b; Price & Blashfield, 1975; Price & Bouffard, 1974) with some misgivings. I began to wonder whether I was working on a problem that was merely intellectually interesting or whether it had any real significance for actual people living in real situations. I began to worry about the ecological validity of the work. What was the relationship between this work and the situational world in which people actually work, learn, and live?
