This work is the first step in developing the instrumentation necessary to match individuals to jobs-an assessment of job stress by assessing the prototypical actors in typically stressing situations. Identification of the prototypical characteristics of individuals who are described as successfully coping with various types of job stress would provide the basis for matching job situations and employees. The main concern was the extent to which the trait adjectives reflected differences in situations. This study was designed as a three-way factorial. with repeated measures over situations and traits. Clearly, the notion of a single implicit personality theory applicable across differing job stress situations was not supported by this study. Principle components analysis, however, supported the proposition that situation-specific prototypes were inferred from the job stress descriptions. The components derived differed considerably between situations.