Handshaking, personality, and psychopathology in psychiatric patients, a reliability and correlational study

Introductory Greeting Behaviour: A Laboratory Investigation of Approaching and Closing Salutation Phases

Possible relationships among measures of nonverbal behaviour in the approaching and the closing salutation phases of introductory greeting behaviour and demographic data, physical characteristics, i.e., body height, vigour of the hand, and personality traits were investigated in a group of 50 healthy Swedish adults. Nonverbal immediacy behaviour, i.e., Walking Speed, Walking Style, Mutual Look, Presence of Smile, Foot Angle, Least Distance (between researcher and subject) in the approaching phase, handshaking variables, consistency, temperature, dryness and strength of the hand, and duration of the closing salutation phase, were analysed as well as attitudes toward the ‘pleasant’ and ‘unpleasant’ handshakes. The introductory greeting behaviour between the researcher and the subject was filmed. The reliability and stability of the nonverbal behaviour over one year was satisfactory. In the approaching phase Speed and Style of Walking (heel or flat-foot walking), the way of standing when greeting (Foot Angle and Foot Distance), and Mutual Look were significantly related to personality characteristics of sociability, aggressiveness, and neuroticism. Observation of nonverbal behavioural measures except Walking Style in the approaching phase is relatively easily trained and may be useful as a part of preliminary brief assessments of personality characteristics. In the closing salutation Strength of the hand grip was in different ways related to aggressiveness, dominance, exhibitionism, sociability, and neuroticism. Most respondents considered a limp and loose, cold, and wet hand with no shaking pressure as the most unpleasant hand. The preference or dislike for a certain handshaking pressure was related to the actual pressure (Strength of the hand) applied by the respondent. Generalisations from the present results must even here be drawn with caution and only for a male initiator of this greeting.

Forming clinical impressions during the first five minutes of the counseling interview

The influence of earlier formed clinical impressions of the client on later judgments within a counseling session were examined. It was predicted that redundancy in judgments of counselors' clinical impressions of the client after 5 min. and after 30 min. of an interview would be greater for counselor-trainees who are (a) more self-confident about their judgments and (b) lower in cognitive complexity, than other counselor-trainees. A stimulus tape in which a male counselor conducted an initial 30-min. interview with a depressed female client was shown to 80 counselor-trainees. At the 5- and 30-min. marks, the tape was stopped, and the counselor-trainees indicated their clinical impressions of the client. These impressions included written thoughts and ratings of clinical characteristics of the client. Analyses showed that both their self-confidence and cognitive complexity were not associated with differences in redundant judgments.

Patient Impairment Lexicon: a psychometric analysis

Growth in managed care has magnified the needs for assessment of treatment efficacies and standardized communication regarding treatment needs. Addressing both needs requires a common terminology describing the scope of treatable mental health impairments. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-IV provides a common categorical language for describing clinical disorders, but its categories are not discrete and do little to facilitate communication regarding specific treatment needs. Goodman, Brown, and Deitz developed a Patient Impairment Lexicon intended to address these limitations. The current vignette study provided initial psychometric assessment of this nomenclature, specifically examining interrater reliability, temporal stability, and content validity. Findings are discussed with respect to both applications in managed care and psychometric research.

Greeting behaviour and psychogenic need: interviews on experiences of therapists, clergymen, and car salesmen

Interviews of 47 Swedish subjects, therapists, clergymen, and car salesmen were used to investigate relationships between 22 greeting behaviours and 12 psychogenic needs mainly drawn from the Cecarec-Marke Personality Schedule. Analysis showed that most of the subjects agreed about the personality characteristics of greeting behaviours, especially regarding the dimensions of introversion and extraversion. The results confirm those from earlier studies that some greeting behaviours are potentially valid in assessing personality.