TY - JOUR
T1 - The Concept of Situations
AU - Yang, Yu
AU - Read, Stephen J.
AU - Miller, Lynn C
PY - 2009
Y1 - 2009
N2 - The concept of situations has a long past, but the conceptualization of situations only has a short history. This article provides a survey of the concept of situations. Based upon Milgram’s [Human Relations 18 (1965), 57] vision toward ‘a compelling theory of situations,’ the authors examine the concept of situations in three specific literatures: definitions of situations, taxonomies of situations, and interrelationships among persons, situations, and behaviors. To further integrate the literature, the authors propose that the essence of a situation is its affordance of human goals, and that situations are largely characterized by two specific principles of goal processes (what happened, is happening, or might happen to people’s goals) and goal contents (the specific goals afforded in the situation).
AB - The concept of situations has a long past, but the conceptualization of situations only has a short history. This article provides a survey of the concept of situations. Based upon Milgram’s [Human Relations 18 (1965), 57] vision toward ‘a compelling theory of situations,’ the authors examine the concept of situations in three specific literatures: definitions of situations, taxonomies of situations, and interrelationships among persons, situations, and behaviors. To further integrate the literature, the authors propose that the essence of a situation is its affordance of human goals, and that situations are largely characterized by two specific principles of goal processes (what happened, is happening, or might happen to people’s goals) and goal contents (the specific goals afforded in the situation).
U2 - 10.1111/j.1751-9004.2009.00236.x
DO - 10.1111/j.1751-9004.2009.00236.x
M3 - Journal
SN - 1751-9004
VL - 3
SP - 1018
EP - 1037
JO - Social and Personality Psychology Compass
JF - Social and Personality Psychology Compass
IS - 6
ER -