Self-disclosure flexibility and counseling-relevant perceptions.

Research has suggested that highly flexible self-disclosers evidence a heightened social perceptiveness that enables them to modulate their disclosure according to the subtle social cues mediating disclosure's appropriateness. The present study with 57 undergraduates investigated differences between high, middle, and low flexible disclosers in their perceptions of counseling-relevant behaviors. Results support the application of the hypothesis of counseling-relevant behaviors. Highly flexible disclosers evidenced significantly greater affective empathy and more accurate perceptions of facilitative responding than did less flexible disclosers. (13 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Disclosure flexibility and social-situational perceptions.

Reactions of 20 male and 20 female undergraduates, classified as either high or low in self-disclosure flexibility (Self-Disclosure Situations Survey), to high and low behavioral samples of self-disclosure to a stranger were examined along 4 dimensions: likable–not likable, emotionally unstable–emotionally stable, exciting–dull, and weak personality–strong personality. The high-disclosure-flexibility group was significantly more critical, as predicted, of high disclosure to a stranger than the low-flexibility group on 2 of the dimensions. It is suggested that self-disclosure flexibility reflects perceptual awareness of social-situational norms governing the appropriateness of self-disclosing behavior and that it is an important factor in self-disclosure's relationship to mental health. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The influence of belief systems on subjects' perceptions of empathy, warmth, and genuineness.

Investigated the relationship between 174 female and 96 male undergraduates' (aged 14–45 yrs) belief systems, gender, and perceptions of a Rogerian counseling session. Belief systems were assessed using a belief system test, after which Ss watched, by means of a sound video recording, a 30-min counseling intervention by C. R. Rogers. Ss rated the counselor using the Relationship Inventory, a client satisfaction scale, and 5 questions composed by the authors. Ss' beliefs influenced their perceptions of therapeutic variables. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self-disclosure and other-cathexis.

Continued confirmation was found for the hypothesis that the amount of personal information an individual is willing to disclose to another is correlated with the degree of perceived closeness of the relationship. The present research tested the hypothesis in a group situation, using faculty from a newly organized college of nursing and their dean. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self-disclosure, tears, and the dying client.

The author/therapist describes her experiences in working with a couple during a routine couples psychotherapy in which the wife became ill with terminal cancer. The couple continued their treatment through her illness, and the therapist helped the couple say good-bye to each other. The therapist decided to self-disclose more than usual in service of greater connection with these clients. The article describes the therapist's feelings during the course of treatment and the steps taken to remain emotionally present for the couple. Suggestions for therapists who treat seriously ill patients are offered. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Attachment, group attraction and self-other agreement in interpersonal circumplex problems and perceptions of group members.

Graduate students (N=76) fulfilling a class requirement for interpersonal group participation completed measures of interpersonal problems and adult attachment at pretest. At the midpoint and at termination they completed measures of interpersonal problems and group attraction and provided interpersonal circumplex ratings of each fellow group member. As predicted, selected attachment insecurities were significantly correlated with interpersonal problems and group attraction. Attachment anxiety and avoidance, also as hypothesized, were associated with discrepancies in self-other perceptions. Whereas members with attachment avoidance tended to overestimate hostile and hostile-submissive problems, members with attachment anxiety were likely to overestimate interpersonal problems in the "friendly" half of the circumplex. Implications for the conceptualization of attachment-based distortions and interpersonal learning in group therapy are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self-disclosure, intimacy, and the depenetration process.

Examined the relation of intimacy and several self-disclosure variables within a framework of social penetration theory (I. Altman and D. A. Taylor, 1973). Data were collected by having 60 couples (aged 18–59 yrs) complete a questionnaire and by rating audiotapes of the couples discussing their relationships. Most of the couples were having relationship difficulties and were presumed to be in the depenetration process. The main hypothesis was that as intimacy decreased, self-disclosure breadth and depth would decline, and the valence of the self-disclosures would become more negative. The hypothesis was supported for breadth and valence. However, results opposite to the predictions were obtained for depth: Decreased intimacy was associated with increased depth. It is suggested that this latter result may reflect the tendency of couples who were most dissatisfied and least intimate to self-disclose their negative thoughts and feelings. Implications for the depenetration process are discussed. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self-disclosure and marital satisfaction.

Examined the effect of self-disclosure on marital satisfaction in couples and also introduced attitude similarity as a possible predictor of marital satisfaction. 51 couples (mean age 30.6 yrs) completed 5 test instruments, including a self-disclosure scale, 2 marriage satisfaction scales, an attitude survey, and a demographic questionnaire. Results (1) revealed high reciprocity between spouses on most measures, (2) found a consistent positive relationship between self-disclosure and marital satisfaction, (3) substantiated self-disclosure as a significant predictor of marital satisfaction, and (4) demonstrated that attitude similarity had a strong positive relationship to marital satisfaction. Findings provide a firm basis for self-disclosure and attitude similarity as important predictors of marital satisfaction. (28 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self-disclosure and interpersonal functioning.

53 Peace Corps trainees were administered a self-disclosure questionnaire during a pretraining assessment program. Trainees who demonstrated a readiness to confide personal information to others were found to be more well liked by the other trainees and the training staff after 6 wk. of training than trainees who were reluctant to disclose personal information. Hypotheses concerning the relations between self-disclosure, integrative complexity, and authoritarianism were supported. The accessible trainees tended to be more integratively complex and less authoritarian than the inaccessible trainees. Implications of self-disclosure for interpersonal openness and effectiveness are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sex and empathy, reexamined.

W. Olesker and L. Balter (see record 1973-06850-001) demonstrated that undergraduates were significantly more empathic when judging members of the same rather than the other sex. The present study used the Affective Sensitivity Scale to reexamine the possibility of a relationship between sex and empathy in 21 female and 21 male graduate students in counselor education. Contrary to Olesker and Balter's findings, results show that for the graduate student Ss there was no significant difference in empathic ability whether judging members of the same or the other sex. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Higher cognition and social behavior: Changes in cognitive flexibility and empathy after cerebral lesions.

Examined whether an aspect of interpersonal behavior, (i.e., empathy) may be related to compromises in cognitive flexibility following brain injury. 50 persons (aged 19–72 yrs) with cerebral lesions were administered standardized measures of cognitive flexibility (Wisconsin Card Sorting Test and Alternate Uses) and empathy (Hogan Empathy Scale). There was no difference between self-reported empathy scores and those of significant others. Brain-injured Ss obtained lower empathy scores than the comparison group. Correlations were found between cognitive flexibility and empathy. Findings may suggest that flexibility is a prerequisite skill for empathy; that the 2 variables share common neural and/or cognitive processes; and that empathic change after brain injury occurs as an emotional reaction to acquired disabilities, including inflexibility. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self-disclosure among some Negro, white, and Mexican-American adolescents.

Administered W. H. Rivenbark's revision of the Self-Disclosure Questionnaire to 100 black, 100 white, and 100 Mexican-American 9th graders. Each group was composed of an equal number of males and females. Females reported more disclosure than males; when sexes were pooled, the white Ss reported the greatest amount of disclosure, the Mexican-American group least. Males favored the mother as the target of most disclosure, whereas for all groups the least favored target of self-disclosure was the father. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Agreement, attraction, and self-esteem.

Explored the role of increased self-esteem in mediating the relationship between attitudinal agreement and interpersonal attraction by creating conditions known to produce differential attraction and then testing for corresponding changes in self-esteem. 280 undergraduates were given a questionnaire measuring attitudes and self-esteem and were then exposed to a confederate student who (a) held either similar or dissimilar attitudes on a variety of current issues; and (b) had given them either a positive, a negative, or no personal evaluation. Posttreatment confederate evaluations and measures of self-esteem indicate that although the attraction manipulation was highly successful, no support was found for the notion that increased self-esteem was even a concomitant, let alone a determinant, of attraction. The only reliable posttreatment increase in self-esteem came from Ss who had been negatively evaluated, and appeared to be defensive in character. In addition, Ss receiving similar attitudes plus positive personal evaluations liked the stranger more, and those receiving dissimilar attitudes plus negative evaluations liked the stranger less, than did Ss who received the attitude similarity-dissimilarity manipulation only. These latter results suggest that current models of attraction in which the proportion of positive elements is the crucial factor should be reformulated. (French summary) (16 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effect of therapist self-disclosure on patients' perceptions of empathy, competence and trust in an analogue psychotherapeutic interaction.

Psychodynamically oriented clinicians uniformly contraindicate the use of therapist self-disclosure, whereas practitioners disposed toward a humanistic-existential perspective often regard this practice as an essential condition of treatment. In the present study, 57 psychotherapy patients (aged 18–55 yrs) read 1 of 3 patient–therapist dialogs in which the degree of therapist self-disclosure was high, low, or nil. Ss completed the Relationship Inventory and Sorenson Relationship Questionnaire to measure perceived therapist empathy, competence, and trust. Findings confirm the prediction that greater therapist self-disclosure would be related to poorer evaluations of the therapist. Results question the use of self-disclosure as a psychotherapeutic technique and suggest that self-disclosure may adversely affect the perceptions on which the therapeutic alliance is based. (46 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Parental perceptions of young children and their relation to indexes of adjustment.

Studied 4 relatively independent measures of parent attitude and perception of child behavior using 395 parents of 3rd graders. These instruments were found to be reliable and to discriminate consistently between 3rd graders judged by teachers to be well or poorly adjusted. The 4 measures interrelate in a logical and systematic fashion with teacher, peer, and self-measures of adjustment and indexes of achievement. These relationships tended to be more clear-cut for females than for males. The present battery extends the potential for identifying early emotional dysfunction and complements existing assessment procedures in the area. (21 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Depression, schizophrenia, and social attraction.

J. C. Coyne (see PA, Vol 56:02455 and 61:1146) has shown that after interacting with depressed patients, Ss report feeling depressed themselves and rejecting toward the depressed person. In the present study, measures (e.g., Mood Adjective Check List, Interpersonal Check List) were obtained from 216 undergraduates who listened to tapes of interviews with either hospitalized depressive, hospitalized schizophrenics, or normal hospital staff. Results show that schizophrenics aroused dysphoric feelings similar although not identical to those feelings aroused by depressives, and in the case of males they were equally rejected. In addition, the schizophrenics and, to a lesser extent, the depressives were seen as weak, submissive, and less capable of offering a positive relationship. Modifications of the Coyne position are suggested. (24 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Risk adjustment methods can affect perceptions of outcomes

When comparing outcomes of medical care, it is essential to adjust for patient risk, including severity of illness. A variety of severity measures exist, but perceptions of outcomes may differ depending on how severity is defined. We used two severity-adjustment approaches to demonstrate that comparisons of outcomes across subgroups of patients can vary dramatically depending on how severity is assessed. We studied two approaches: model 1 was the admission MedisGroups score; model 2 was computed from age and 12 chronic conditions defined by diagnosis codes. Although common summary measures of model performance (R-squared and C) both suggested that model 1 is a better predictor of in-hospital death than model 2, the weaker model consistently produced more accurate expectations by payer class and age group. Using model 1 for severity adjustment suggested that Medicare patients did substantially worse than expected and Medicaid patients substantially better. In contrast, use of model 2 found Medicare patients doing as expected, but Medicaid patients faring poorly.     

Self-disclosure by the professional and paraprofessional therapist.

Used a psychotherapy analog, with a 2 * 3 factorial design, to examine the effects of a therapist disclosure on S disclosure and attraction to the therapist during a 1st interview. 3 levels of therapist disclosure (no disclosure, demographic disclosure, and personal disclosure) and 2 levels of therapist's professional affiliation (professional and paraprofessional) were manipulated. Ss exposed to both professional and paraprofessional therapists displayed greater attraction and disclosure to demographic disclosure than to no disclosure by the therapist. Ss exposed to personal disclosure by the paraprofessional therapist displayed greater attraction and disclosure than those exposed to demographic disclosure. Ss exposed to personal disclosure by the professional therapists demonstrated less attraction and disclosure than those exposed to demographic disclosure by a professional therapist. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)