CONSISTENCY AND GENERALIZABILITY OF INTRAINDIVIDUAL VARIABILITY

To observe the extent to which a person's behavior is variable on 1 set of tasks and on another set of similar tasks, and to observe the extent to which his behavior is variable on 1 set of tasks and on a set of dissimilar tasks, 100 undergraduates were given 6 tests, a different form of each test being administered on 20 successive days. Variance indices, reflecting intraindividual variability over time, were derived from the even- and odd-numbered test forms, and the correlations between variability on the even- and odd-numbered forms ranged from .25 to .89. Variance indices on the 6 different tests correlated with one another from -.23 to .53. Temporal intraindividual variability on some tasks can be reliably and meaningfully observed. Such variability is not widely generalized over a large portion of the behavior domain and neither is it specific to each task or behavior. Variability on some tasks is related to variability on certain other tasks. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved). © 1969 American Psychological Association.