What is a Situation? A Motivational Paradigm

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Abstract
A view of motivational and reinforcement phenomena is presented and is used as the basis for a taxonomy of situations. Two situation variables, component and type, are identified in the motivational paradigm. Items used in the S-R inventories of Anxiousness and Hostility are analyzed in terms of situation component and type to illustrate sources of ambiguity in situation specification, and the prediction of situation construction in ambiguous situations. The two situation variables are coordinated to Mischel's (11) person variables in a formulation for the interaction of persons and situations as a function of situation type within component.