Awareness of Interpersonal Style and Self-Evaluation

• Published in: The Journal of social psychology 1997-08, Vol.137 (4), p.429-434
• Main Authors: Van Buren, Amy, Nowicki, Stephen
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; Anxiety; Awareness; Behavior; Biological and medical sciences; Check Lists; Communication; Construct Validity; Depression (Psychology); Feedback; Feedback (Response); Female; Females; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Humans; Interpersonal Communication; Interpersonal Relations; Interpersonal style; Mental Disorders - diagnosis; Mental Disorders - psychology; Perceptions; Personality Inventory; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Relationship; Resistance (Psychology); Self Concept; Self evaluation; Self Evaluation (Groups); Self Evaluation (Individuals); Selfevaluation; Social attribution, perception and cognition; Social Perception; Social psychology; Transcripts (Written Records); Undergraduate Students; Validation studies; Validity; Verbal communication; Video Technology
• ISSN: 0022-4545; 1940-1183
• DOI: 10.1080/00224549709595458

Interpersonal theorists assume that the greater the discrepancy between a person's own assessment of his or her interpersonal style and the perceptions of others, the greater will be that individual's reported psychological distress. In the present study, 32 U.S. undergraduate students, all female, completed the Interpersonal Checklist (ICL) of LaForge and Suczek (1955) to measure their interpersonal styles and the Symptom Distress Checklist-Revised (SCL-90-R) of Derogatis (1983) to measure their psychological distress. On the basis of their ICL scores, they were placed with complementary partners of the same sex to interact for 7 min. Verbal transcripts and soundless videotapes were prepared from the videotapes of their interactions. After either reading the verbal transcript or watching the soundless videotape, raters completed an ICL describing the impression each participant was communicating. When, on the basis of either the videotape or the transcript, raters judged a participant as more dominant than the participant judged herself, the discrepancy was significantly related to SCL-90-R scale scores on Positive Symptom Total, Global Severity Index, Interpersonal Sensitivity, Anxiety, and Depression. The results supported the assumption that self-other discrepancy was associated with psychological difficulties, especially when the discrepancy involved participants believing themselves less dominant than others perceived them.