Interview self-disclosure as a function of length of modeling and descriptive instructions

Need Approval, Modeling and Perception of Models' Adjustment in Behavior during an Interview

Ss high and low in need for approval received role-training prior to a personal interview. Modeling of communication skills elicited greater verbal productivity than instructions alone. A mental patient model elicited less attraction, lower ratings of social competence, and more favorable disclosure by interviewees than a non-patient model. Subjects high and low in approval were unaffected by type of model.

The verbal helping behavior of experienced and novice telephone counselors

The verbal helping behavior of experienced and novice volunteer telephone counselors was evaluated. Taped telephone interactions with typical helpees were analyzed for the usage of specific response types and for helper talk time, self-references, and feelings. Novices were found to give significantly less advice and their helpees talked significantly longer. The use of continuing responses was significantly associated with helpee talk time for all helpers. Even though telephone counseling may elicit a leading response style from helpers, a continuing or reflective style might be more effective in the relationship-building aspect of telephone counseling.

Patient participation in the patient-provider interaction: the effects of patient question asking on the quality of interaction, satisfaction and compliance

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness, dynamics, and consequences of a health education intervention designed to increase patient question asking during the patient's medical visit. Data were collected at a Baltimore family and community health center which provides outpatient services to a low income, predominantly black and female population. The majority of the study participants were, in addition, elderly and chronically ill. A total of 294 patients and 3 providers took part in the study. The study design included random assignment of patients to experimental and placebo groups with two non-equivalent (non-randomized) control groups. Findings included: (1) The experimental group patients asked more direct questions and fewer indirect questions than did placebo group patients. (2) The experimental group patient-provider interaction was characterized by negative affect, anxiety, and anger, while the placebo group patient-provider interaction was characterized as mutually sympathetic. (3) The experimental group patients were less satisfied with care received in the clinic on the day of their visit than were placebo patients. (4) The experimental group patients demonstrated higher appointment-keeping ratios (an average number of appointments kept divided by an average number of appointments made) during a four-month prospective monitoring period.

The influence of interviewer self-disclosure and verbal reinforcement on personality tests

The effects of prior interview experiences on subsequent test responding were examined by comparing the influence of three interviewer behaviors: interviewer self-disclosure, interviewer verbal reinforcement of self-referent statements, and direct instructions to be self-disclosive. Performance was contrasted with a control interview condition characterized by no interviewer self-disclosure or self-referent reinforcement and with a no-interview condition. Responses on measures of self-disclosure and anxiety indicated that female Ss tended to be more self-disclosive than males in general, but were relatively uninfluenced by experimental condition. For male Ss, verbal reinforcement increased self-disclosure relative to the interviewer seld-disclosure condition. Interviewer self-disclosure was shown to result in more favorable perceptions of the self and the interviewer, particularly for males, and greater social evaluative anxiety for females. Both these factors are discussed as possibly counteracting the modelling effects of interviewer self-disclosure. An interpretation of the results in terms of interactions between S sex, interviewer sex, and experimental condition is proposed and implications for related research discussed.