An examination of the complementarity of interpersonal behavior.

The complementarity of behavior as moderated by the base rates of consequent behaviors, the differences attributable to friendly and hostile antecedent behaviors, and octant versus quadrant codes was examined. Complementarity was defined using 3 different but overlapping models: R. Carson (1969), D. Kiesler (1983), and J. Wiggins (1979). The Interpersonal Communication Rating Scale (ICRS; S. Strong & Hills, 1986) behavioral ratings on 80 female dyads provided by Strong, Hills, Kilmartin, et al. (1988) were analyzed using the randomization test of hypothesized order relations and correspondence analysis. Results demonstrated that (a) complementarity was supported for each of the 3 definitions (Carson's, Kiesler's, and Wiggins's), (b) complementarity fit the data better if account was taken of the base rate of behavior, (c) complementarity was more prominent if the antecedent behavior was friendly rather than hostile, and (d) complementarity of quadrant behavior was fairly strong. Results are discussed with respect to the measurement of interpersonal behaviors and the construct of complementarity.

[1]  E. Thoma.  Interpersonal Diagnosis of Personality , 1965 .

[2]  J. S. Wiggins,et al.  Circular reasoning about interpersonal behavior: Evidence concerning some untested assumptions underlying diagnostic classification. , 1989 .

[3]  Donelson R. Forsyth,et al.  Handbook of social and clinical psychology : the health perspective , 1991 .

[4]  L. Hubert,et al.  Evaluating order hypotheses within proximity matrices. , 1987 .

[5]  H. Strupp,et al.  Structural analysis of social behavior: application to a study of interpersonal process in differential psychotherapeutic outcome. , 1986, Journal of consulting and clinical psychology.

[6]  L. Hubert.  Assignment methods in combinatorial data analysis , 1986 .

[7]  T. Tracey,et al.  Stages of successful time-limited counseling: An interactional examination , 1984 .

[8]  Paul E. Green,et al.  Multidimensional Scaling: Concepts and Applications , 1989 .

[9]  Philip C. Kendall,et al.  Handbook of research methods in clinical psychology , 1982 .

[10]  A. Billings.  Conflict resolution in distressed and nondistressed married couples. , 1979, Journal of consulting and clinical psychology.

[11]  H. Conte,et al.  A circumplex model for interpersonal personality traits. , 1981 .

[12]  M. Gurtman,et al.  Construct validity of interpersonal personality measures : the interpersonal circumplex as a nomological net , 1992 .

[13]  J. H. Steiger,et al.  Evaluating circumplexity in personality data. , 1981 .

[14]  J. S. Wiggins,et al.  A psychological taxonomy of trait-descriptive terms: The interpersonal domain. , 1979 .

[15]  W. J. Mueller.  Patterns of Behavior and Their Reciprocal Impact in the Family and in Psychotherapy. , 1969 .

[16]  R Hogan,et al.  A socioanalytic theory of personality. , 1983, Nebraska Symposium on Motivation. Nebraska Symposium on Motivation.

[17]  B. Guerney,et al.  Interpersonal effects of interpersonal behavior. , 1973, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[18]  R LAFORGE,et al.  The interpersonal dimension of personality. III. An interpersonal check list. , 1955, Journal of personality.

[19]  Robert Gifford,et al.  The interpersonal circumplex as a behavior map. , 1987 .

[20]  M. MacKenzie.  The interpersonal behavior of normal and clinic family members. , 1968 .

[21]  C. G. Watson,et al.  Canonical correlation in the analysis of a contingency table. , 1980 .

[22]  David Rogosa,et al.  Statistical Models for Behavioral Observations , 1991 .

[23]  D. Kiesler.  The 1982 Interpersonal Circle: A taxonomy for complementarity in human transactions. , 1983 .

[24]  T. Tracey,et al.  Therapist complementarity as a function of experience and client stimuli , 1989 .

[25]  T. Widiger,et al.  Interpersonal complementarity and individual differences. , 1990 .

[26]  P. Lazarsfeld,et al.  Mathematical Thinking in the Social Sciences. , 1955 .

[27]  Debbie S. Moskowitz,et al.  Cross-situational generality in the laboratory: Dominance and friendliness. , 1988 .

[28]  T. Leary,et al.  The interpersonal dimension of personality. , 1951, Journal of personality.

[29]  Robert C. Carson.  Interaction concepts of personality , 1969 .

[30]  T. Tracey.  An interpersonal stage model of the therapeutic process. , 1993 .

[31]  Terence J. G. Tracey,et al.  Prediger's dimensional representation of Holland's RIASEC circumplex. , 1993 .

[32]  L. Benjamin.  Structural analysis of social behavior. , 1974 .

[33]  J. Carroll,et al.  Interpoint Distance Comparisons in Correspondence Analysis , 1986 .

[34]  T. Leary,et al.  The interpersonal dimension of personality: II. An objective study of repression. , 1954, Journal of personality.

[35]  M. Gurtman.  Trust, distrust, and interpersonal problems: a circumplex analysis. , 1992, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[36]  J. Fleiss.  Statistical methods for rates and proportions , 1974 .

[37]  B. Wampold,et al.  A note on interobserver reliability for sequential data , 1983 .

[38]  Jim Orford,et al.  The Rules of Interpersonal Complementarity: Does Hostility Beget Hostility and Dominance, Submission?. , 1986 .

[39]  A. Romney,et al.  Metric Scaling: Correspondence Analysis , 1990 .

[40]  H. de Vries,et al.  The dynamic relations among interpersonal behaviors: a test of complementarity and anticomplementarity. , 1988, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[41]  James P. Guinee,et al.  Generalizability of Interpersonal Communications Rating Scale Ratings across Presentation Modes. , 1990 .

[42]  G. M. Southward,et al.  Analysis of Categorical Data: Dual Scaling and Its Applications , 1981 .

[43]  S. R. Strong.  Social influence and change in therapeutic relationships. , 1991 .

[44]  L. Hubert,et al.  Methods for Evaluating Vocational Interest Structural Hypotheses. , 1992 .

[45]  N. Abeles,et al.  Client-Therapist Complementarity and Therapeutic Outcome. , 1975 .

[46]  E. Foa,et al.  Societal Structures of the Mind , 1974 .