While most theories about personality assume them to be stable and permanent, Allport suggested that’s not the case. Personality is not constant; it is dynamic. Allport recognized that personality is not static. Because personality is not constant, the behaviors people exhibit can vary based on situational factors, such as the context of an interaction. For example, someone might exhibit extraverted behavior when they’re interacting with friends, but introverted behavior when they’re talking to family members.
Later, several psychologists argued that personality can be viewed as a set of behaviors that help people deal with situations. Walter Mischel took the position that personality is revealed by behavioral tendencies in certain circumstances. According to him, rather than personality traits being things that someone has, they are what someone does: cognitive processes associated with a specific situational context. A person’s behavior, by which we determine their character, is governed by the cognitive appraisals they make about a situation and not by a basic disposition towards a given kind of reaction. Mischel’s theory explains why some people seem to behave inconsistently with their personalities. For example, a shy person may be outgoing in the company of friends but reserved with strangers.
