This article presents a social-cognitive theory of personality assessment. We articulate the implications of social-cognitive theories of personality for the question of what constitutes an assessment of personality structure and behavioral dispositions. The theory consists of 5 social-cognitive principles of assessment. Personality assessments should (a) distinguish the task of assessing internal personality structures and dynamics from that of assessing overt behavioral tendencies, (b) attend to personality systems that function as personal determinants of action, (c) treat measures of separate psychological and physiological systems as conceptually distinct, (d) employ assessments that are sensitive to the unique qualities of the individual, and (e) assess persons in context. These principles are illustrated through a review of recent research. Social-cognitive theory is distinguished from an alternative theory of personality structure and assessment, 5-factor theory, by articulating the strategies of scientific explanation, conceptions of personality structure and dispositions, and the assessment practices that differentiate the approaches.
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