ABSTRACT
Before going into my main theme, the title needs some comments. I have deliberately used the term interactional perspective. I have done so in order to avoid one of the semantic quarrels that take so much time in psychology and distract us from the real psychological problems. Some people have spent their energy discussing whether what is sometimes designated interactional psychology represents a new personality theory or not, its relation to trait theories, to dynamic personality theories, and so forth. That discussion does not concern us here. To me the interesting and central question is whether, by reformulating our problems, we can promote better research on important matters. Obviously, the paradigm of research in personality has shifted in recent years toward greater interest in two long-neglected directions, namely theorizing and research on the person-situated interaction process, and systematic analysis of the environmental conditions that are effective in that process. If such a shift owes something to that reformulation of old problems which has been called an interactional perspective, then this has made a contribution.
