The development of a measure of social perception: The Social Perception of Interest Test (SPIT)

MaryAnn Chee, Purdue University

Abstract

In the present project, we sought to develop a measure called the Social Perception of Interest Test (SPIT) for unmarried college males in order to assess their ability to accurately perceive females' interest level in their interacting partners. In this task, subjects viewed a series of 45-second videotaped interactions and then evaluated females' level of interest in their interacting partners. Additionally, the present project sought to test the hypothesis that person perception accuracy is necessary for an individual to be socially competent. To construct the stimuli or "test items", male-female dyads engaged in a role-play interaction as though they were interested in getting to know one another during a first meeting. Prior to the role-play and unknown to their partners, the females of each dyad were instructed to behave as though they were very interested, somewhat interested, or not at all interested in their partners. These stimuli were shown to two large groups of unmarried college males in order to determine the item characteristics, the internal consistency, and the underlying structure of the SPIT. The stability of the SPIT was examined by administering the SPIT twice, with a four week interval, to two small samples of these subjects. The internal consistency of the SPIT was found to be high and the scale appears to be unidimensional. The test-retest reliability, however, was lower than the standard acceptable level. To explore the validity of the SPIT, another group of unmarried college males was administered the SPIT, and various social competency and social perception measures (i.e., Survey of Heterosexual Inventory, Social Performance Survey Schedule, Social Skills Inventory, Self-Monitoring Scale, and a role-play interview). The results of this validation study were disappointing, because the SPIT appears to be weakly related to other person perception measures and not at all related to the social competency measures. The results of the correlational analysis examining the relationship between other person perception measures and social competency measures, however, provided some support for the hypothesis that person perception skills are related to social competency.

Degree

Ph.D.

Advisors

Conger, Purdue University.

Subject Area

Psychotherapy

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