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

Abstract

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.