THE RELATIONSHIP OF SOCIAL PERCEPTIVITY TO HETEROSEXUAL SOCIAL COMPETENCE (SENSITIVITY, NONVERBAL, SKILLS, KNOWLEDGE)

ELIZABETH ANN FIRTH, Purdue University

Abstract

This investigation explored the relationship between social perceptivity and heterosexual social competence. Thirty-nine male and twenty-three female undergraduate students completed the Survey of Heterosexual Interactions (Twentyman & McFall, 1975) and a naturalistic interaction as measures of social competence. To measure social perceptivity skills, subjects interviewed a confederate who portrayed either boredom or interest in the second segment of the interview. Perceptivity was measured in four ways: (1) the subject's behavioral response to the confederate (number of questions asked); (2) the subject's immediate recall of the confederate's level of interest; (3) the subject's delayed selection of the manipulation segment as most or least interested; and (4) the subject's ratings of a videotaped confederate's level of interest and listing of corresponding nonverbal behaviors. Results indicated that females who were socially skilled but less attractive were more likely to change their behavior in response to the confederate manipulation. Recall of interest level showed no relation to social competence whether immediate or delayed. On the videotape task, males' scores on the SHI were positively correlated with recall of nonverbal behaviors used to express varying levels of interest. Also for males, attractiveness was negatively correlated with ability to detect disinterest of the videotaped females. The results for females on the videotape task did not attain statistical significance. Limitations of the present study included small sample size, unbalanced design, lack of a clinical population, and a ceiling effect for the videotape task. Suggestions for future research included further exploration of the training paradigm set forth by Azrin and Hayes (1984).

Degree

Ph.D.

Subject Area

Psychotherapy

COinS