Between-subject versus within-subject comparison: incompatible or complementary?

Abstract

This paper analyses one of the typical divergences between the behavioral and psychometrics theories of personality: the priority given by behavioral theories to the comparison of different stimuli in the same subject (within-subject approach) and that is usually given by psychometric theories to the comparison of the same stimuli or questions in different subjects(between-subject approach). Despite these differences, it is notable that both perspectives begin from a single shared data matrix, the responses given by a subject in a test, which mutually and conjointly defines both elements. This presentation argues that the behavioral and psychometric orientations may consider complementary, rather than incompatible or radically different.