JONATHAN E. SCHROEDER ... nal reliabhty was .52 (Archer & Costanzo, 1989). ... First, Archer and Costanzo had 18 female students complete peer rat-.
Perceptualond MoforSkilk, 1995, 80, 51-56.
O Perceptual and Motor Skills 1995
INTERPERSONAL PERCEPTION SKILLS: SELF-CONCEPT CORRELATES ' JONATHAN E. SCHROEDER University of Rhode Islond
Summary.-Individual differences in scores on self-concept scales of shyness, sociabhty, and self-consciousness influenced interpersonal perception skills as measured by scores on the Interpersonal Perception Task videotape in a sample of 56 students.
I n this study, an objective, meaningful instrument-the Interpersonal Perception Task videotape-was used to test hypotheses about the key components of the Self-monitoring Scale (Snyder, 1974, 1987), the Self-consciousness Scale (Fenigstein, Scheier, & Buss, 1975) as well as the Shyness and SociabJity Scale (Cheek & Buss, 1981). Researchers in the area of selfmonitoring and self-consciousness have been in heated debate over the validity and usefulness of those constructs (Briggs & Cheek, 1988; Carver & Scheier, 1987; Scheier & Carver, 1981; Wicklund & Gollwitzer, 1987). Results from this study may help clarify the role that self-concept plays in an important social realm, interpersonal perception, by using the Interpersonal Perception Task, an instrument developed for studying nonverbal decoding skill (Archer & Costanzo, 1988). Designed to measure a person's acuity in judging social situations, the Interpersonal Perception Task has been used mostly in research on nonverbal behavior (Archer & Costanzo, 1989). The present study presents correlates of several self scales to aid understanding of personality processes affecting interpersonal perception, as operationalized by the Interpersonal Perception Task. The Interpersonal Perception Task videotape consists of 30 brief scenes of social interaction, using nonactors engaging in unrehearsed behavior. Each scene is accompanied by an objective, multiple-choice question about some aspect of the people interacting in it. The 30 scenes in the Interpersonal Perception Task include six examples of five nonverbal cue domains, kinship, deception, competition, status, and intimacy. For example, one of the 'intimacy' scenes shows a man and a woman talking to each other about an upcoming trip for about a minute. Subjects are then asked to indicate the relationship between the man and woman, brother and sister, girlfriend and boyfriend, or just friends. Subjects fill out an answer sheet which yields an accuracy score based on the number of questions answered correctly. The
'Address enquiries to J . E. Schroeder, Department of Marketing, University of Rhode Island, Kingston, RI 02881.
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average score is reported as 16.5 out of a possible 30 correct (Costanzo & Archer, 1989). Reliability of the Interpersonal Perception Task was assessed by its producers. Test-retest reliab&ty was reported as .70 over a 5-wk. interval; internal reliabhty was .52 (Archer & Costanzo, 1989). The vahdity of the Interpersonal Perception Task as a measure of interpersonal sensitivity to verbal and nonverbal communication has been assessed in three ways. First, Archer and Costanzo had 18 female students complete peer ratings of dorm neighbors on four dimensions of interpersonal sensitivity such as "Is able to correctly interpret the nonverbal behavior of others." Ratings on four interpersonal sensitivity items were highly related and combined into a single student's score on the Interpersonal Perception Task (Costanzo & Archer, 1989). The rated scores correlated significantly with scores on the Interpersonal Perception Task (r = .48, p < .05) suggesting "that individuals judged by peers as more sensitive to other people tend to have higher accuracy scores on the Interpersonal Perception Task, i.e., that performance on the Interpersonal Perception Task is related to social s k d s important in everyday life" (Archer & Costanzo, 1989, p. 4). Second, scores on the Interpersonal Perception Task correlated positively with scores on the Social Interpretations Task, an earlier video designed to measure interpretation of behavior ( r = .31, p
