PERSONALITY AND WORKING STYLE PREDICTORS OF INTEGRATIVE COMPLEXITY - A STUDY OF SCIENTISTS THINKING ABOUT RESEARCH AND TEACHING

This study investigated integrative complexity toward research and teaching in a sample of scientists (99 full professors of physics, chemistry, and biology). Findings from objective, observer, peer, and self-report data suggested that although scientists who think complexly about research are seen by others as hostile and exploitative, are rated by peers as eminent, and have their work frequently cited, scientists who think complexly about teaching are seen by others as warm and gregarious and are not well cited by their peers. Furthermore, these relationships were moderated by scientific discipline, with physicists differing from biologists. Discussion focuses on the relationship between personality and environment in general, and in particular on whether integrative complexity may be stable within, rather than between, situations.