Conceptualizing and Measuring Global Interpersonal Mistrust-Trust

Abstract

Global interpersonal mistrust is conceptualized as a general mistrust of the motives of others in situations related to one's well-being: a general tendency to view others as mean, selfish, malevolent, or unreliable people who are, thus, not to be depended on to treat one well. The authors developed an 18-item unidimensional self-report inventory measuring interpersonal mistrust as a negative cognitive orientation toward others. The measure comprises items describing perceptions of specific hypothetical interpersonal situations rather than items asking respondents to describe their own general behavior. The measure was reliable and evidenced construct validity in a heterogeneous sample of Australians.     

Don't trust anybody: Conspiracy mentality and the detection of facial trustworthiness cues

Conspiracy theories express mistrust in common explanations and epistemic authorities. Independent of concrete content, the extent of endorsing conspiracy theories has also shown associations with interpersonal mistrust. Arguing from an evolutionary and error-management perspective, this increased interpersonal mistrust could either represent an enhanced sensitivity to untrustworthiness cues, or a limited ability to recognize trustworthiness, or non-specific mistrust without differentiations between (un)trustworthiness cues. In two experimental studies (N = 563), we manipulated facial trustworthiness and tested the differentiation of trustworthiness evaluations as a function of conspiracy mentality. We found that conspiracy mentality was associated with a generalized tendency to perceive others as untrustworthy, independent of facial trustworthiness, speaking to non-specific manifestations of mistrust. However, the association between conspiracy mentality and trust became non-significant once age was accounted for in Study 1. We discuss how conspiracy mentality may be associated with an increased propensity to view the world as having malevolent intentions.     

Fear in Adolescent Dating Relationships

The aims of this study were to assess fearful and aversive aspects of dating relationships among teens and to examine those experiences by gender. We examined both survey data and cognitive interviews with teens to understand how teens experience their dating relationships and how they interpret the meaning of the items in a fear measure modified for use with teens. We found that fearful and aversive dating situations are common in adolescent dating relationships. As teens move along the continuum from friendships to romantic involvement, both boys and girls experience the aggressive and coercive behaviors that sometimes accompany these new emotional and interpersonal situations.     

Social perspective coordination in youth with borderline personality pathology

This study investigated social perspective coordination (SPC) in youth (15-24-year-olds) with first-presentation borderline personality disorder (BPD). SPC is defined as the capacity to differentiate and integrate the perspective of the self with the perspectives of others (Selman, Beardslee, Schultz, Krupa, & Podorefsky, 1986). Two groups: patients with full or sub-syndromal BPD (n = 30) and patients with major depressive disorder (MDD; n = 30) completed measures of SPC derived from the interpersonal negotiation strategies (INS) model (Selman et al., 1986). Compared with the MDD group, the BPD group responded to all vignettes with significantly lower SPC scores and SPC was a significant predictor of BPD status over and above self-reported, personality factors (Neuroticism and Agreeableness), attachment disturbance and functional impairment. These findings suggest that disturbances in social cognition are an important characteristic of individuals with BPD pathology. These difficulties extended beyond attachment contexts and were not limited to situations involving BPD-related themes of abandonment, deprivations or mistrust/abuse.     

Positive and negative affectivity for academic and interpersonal domains: relations to general affectivity, extraversion, and neuroticism

The present study examined the relations between positive and negative affectivity for academic and interpersonal domains with a measure of general affectivity. Results of within-group analyses of variances indicated that scores on measures of positive and negative affectivity for academic situations were significantly different compared with scores for interpersonal and general affectivity. Consistent with previous research, measures of general positive and negative affectivity were found to remain significantly associated with measures of extraversion and neuroticism, respectively, even after controlling for domain-specific affectivity. Overall, the present findings indicate that emotional experience might differ considerably across different domains.     

The Relationship Between Certain Examiner Personality Variables and Subjects' Rorschach Scores

A projective instrument entitled the "Kilmann Insight Test" (KIT) was devised to measure the Interpersonal Value Constructs (IVCs) of individuals, defined as: the mental categories through which an individual perceives and interprets the desirable and undesirable features of interpersonal behavior. The KIT requires an individual to differentiate on a seven-point scale, 18 IVCs according to how relevant they are to a series of six ambiguous pictures of interpersonal situations. A factor analysis of the KIT's values resulted in two comprehensive factors: (a) Good Fellowship versus Functional Task Activity, and (b) Interpersonal Restraint versus Boldness. Comparing the KIT with a self-report instrument containing the same value items as the KIT, suggested that the KIT is assessing value dimensions, but that the KIT seems to be tapping a different concept of values than the self-report assessment.     

The darker side of accommodating others: Examining the interpersonal structure of maladaptive constructs

To better understand the greater prevalence of depression among women, compared to men, we explored the darker side of accommodating others by examining where maladaptive relational constructs fit within a general structural framework provided by the interpersonal circumplex and 5-factor model of personality. Participants were four samples of undergraduate students (Ns = 302–2070) who completed questionnaires. Results indicated two clusters of maladaptive items: Submission with Connection and Submission without Connection. In general, the most maladaptive relational constructs were concentrated in the first cluster and were located in the low agency, low communion region of the interpersonal circumplex.     

Construction and Validation of a Conflict Communication Scale1

A series of studies was conducted in order to construct and validate a measure of interpersonal conflict communication style, the Conflict Communication Scale (CCS). CCS items were designed to reflect variability in approach to conflict situations and to gather information relevant to conflict-related interventions, such as mediation. The measure is comprised of 5 subscales: (a) confrontation, (b) public/private behavior, (c) emotional expression, (d) conflict approach/avoidance, and (e) self-disclosure. Psychometric assessment of the CCS focused on test-retest reliability, social desirability influences, convergent and discriminant validity, discrimination between known groups, concurrent validity, and factor analysis. The resulting scale was found to have high reliability levels, minimal social desirability bias, sensitivity to some cultural differences, and its validity was supported by the majority of validation studies.     

Vocal indicators of facilitative interpersonal skills

The facilitative interpersonal skills (FIS) method uses simulations of difficult client moments as a test of helpers' ability to remain therapeutic in therapeutically stressful situations. A total of 135 participants completed the FIS task as part of a training in helping skills and provided verbal responses that were assessed by trained raters for interpersonal skills. Audio recordings of these verbal responses were then analysed acoustically for fundamental frequency (F0), spectral slope and F0 range. Mean F0 and F0 range were more highly associated with trained raters' ratings of FIS for female participants than for male participants, although F0 range was associated with FIS of both males and females. The results suggest that F0 is associated with FIS for females, especially the FIS items that are indicative of emotional expression and verbal fluency. Findings are discussed as possibly indicating that some expression of higher F0 in response to distressed client situations may be part of interpersonal skills, such that more skilled therapists respond to stressful client situations with a higher F0.     

The role of just world belief and anger issues in self-defeating personality.

Persons who scored higher on a measure of self-defeating personality did not believe in a just world as implied in the writings of such theorists as Reik (1941); however, they had a greater awareness of anger and feelings of mistrust and suspiciousness of others, held anger in, and were self-critical. These latter findings are consistent with conclusions regarding masochism proposed in 1991 by Glickauf-Hughes and Wells.     

The role of interpersonal harm in distinguishing regret from guilt

Regret and guilt are emotions that are produced by negative outcomes for which one is responsible. Both emotions have received ample attention in the psychological literature; however, it is still unclear to what extent regret and guilt represent distinct psychological processes. We examined the extent to which the distinction between interpersonal harm (negative outcomes for others) and intrapersonal harm (negative outcomes for self) is crucial in differentiating these two emotions. In a series of 3 studies we found that guilt is predominantly felt in situations of interpersonal harm, whereas regret is felt in both situations of interpersonal harm and intrapersonal harm. Moreover, the results show that in situations of interpersonal harm the phenomenology of regret shares many, but not all features with the phenomenology of guilt. We conclude that the emotion processes resulting from interpersonal and intrapersonal harm are clearly distinct, but that regret as an emotion label is applied to both types of processes whereas the emotion label guilt is primarily used to refer to experiences of interpersonal harm. Implications for emotion research are discussed.     

Revising the Competitiveness Index using factor analysis

The Competitiveness Index is a 20-item true-false measure designed to assess the desire to win in interpersonal situations. To develop a more psychometrically sound form of the scale, 213 undergraduates were administered the original form and a modified version containing a 5-point Likert-type scale. An initial principal component analysis using a varimax rotation of the modified version yielded a four-factor solution accounting for 54.5% of the explained variance. Based on a subsequent reliability analysis. six items were dropped from the modified scale. A second analysis produced a two-factor solution accounting for 54.1% of the explained variance. Both factors (Enjoyment of Competition and Contentiousness) formed reliable subscales. The 14-item Revised Competitiveness Index had high internal consistency and was positively correlated with the original Competitiveness Index, the competitiveness subscales of the Work and Family Orientation Questionnaire, the Sports Orientation Questionnaire, and the Nach Naff measure of Need for Achievement.     

Anger and irrational thought: Questionnaire and interview ratings

From an initial pool of 96 students, 36 subjects were selected based on Novaco Anger Scale scores to form high-, moderate-, and low-anger groups (n=12). They completed self-report questionnaires and participated in a structured interview designed to elicit cognitive and affective responses to hypothetical situations involving interpersonal conflict. High- and moderate-anger groups scored significantly higher than low-anger subjects on a questionnaire measure of irrational thinking. High-anger subjects scored higher than low-anger subjects on general anxiety, suspiciousness, fear of negative evaluation, hostility, and criticism of themselves and others. Interview ratings showed that there were no group differences in self-reports of anger or ability to cope with conflict, yet raters judged high-anger subjects to display more anger than low-anger subjects in their stated response actions. Estimates of coping ability varied inversely with reports of anger experienced. Generally, results support a relationship between irrational thinking patterns and anger in feeling and action. Implications for treatment are discussed.     

Trust and mistrust in organizations: An exploration using an organizational justice framework

This article commences with an overview of trust and mistrust, focusing on the debate about whether these are two ends of a continuum or distinct but interrelated concepts. Building on this review, the relationship between employees' perceptions of organizational justice and their self-categorized feelings of trust and mistrust is considered. It is suggested that organizational justice offers a useful means through which to explain and understand employees' feelings of trust and mistrust. Using case study data drawn from a UK public sector organization, the relationship between employees' feelings of trust and mistrust is explored within a change context. The data suggest that, whereas some employees perceive trust and mistrust as two ends of a continuum, others see them as distinct concepts. These findings are conceptualized as a trust?-?mistrust?-?absence triangle. Drawing on organizational justice as an explanatory theory, reasons for these findings are offered. The article concludes with a discussion regarding the coexistence of trust and mistrust and the explanatory value of organizational justice theory in understanding this.     

The consequences of pairing questions: context effects in personality measurement

The effect of context on responses to questions has been a prominent focus in social and political survey research. However, little investigation of context effects has been done for the measurement of psychological constructs. A measure of anger experience and expression in development uses vignettes describing interpersonal situations that provoke varying degrees of anger and require respondents to indicate their affective and/or expressive response to the situation. In this study, the consequences of pairing the two questions for each vignette are investigated. Pairing the anger-experience and likelihood-of-expression questions changes the item's context. Item response theory analysis similar to that used to detect differential item functioning was performed. For some of the items, responding to a single or paired question affected the extremity of responses. The findings are discussed in terms of their implications for personality measurement.     

Asymmetry in the estimation of interpersonal distance and identity affirmation

An asymmetry effect is known to exist in the estimation of interpersonal distance, depending on whether the point of reference for the estimation is the subject (‘How far are the others from you?’) or the others How far are you from the others?). It looks as though, through the effect of a self-centring schema, subjects feel that others occupy their own space more than they occupy the space of others. A self-centring schema has also been found in many other processes involving judgment or comparison of oneself and others. It is generally interpreted as a sign of the affirmation and defence of personal identity. The three experiments reported here attempt to relate the asymmetries in the distances perceived between persons represented on a map to the following three areas in which one's sense of personal or group identity is involved: (1) in the perception of one's own specificity with respect to others (or of the specificity of the group to which one belongs with respect to other groups) (experiment 1), (2) in one's ability to put oneself in the place of others (exocentrism) (experiment 2). and (3) in the individuation of oneself by others (experiment 3). The results of these three experiments lead us to believe that it is indeed the processes of identification and affirmation of personal and group identity - along with the underlying categorization processes — that are the source of the asymmetries observed in interpersonal distance estimation. The consistency of the data obtained in different situations also validates the technique used for estimating interpersonal distance.     

社会价值取向对自我-他人风险决策的影响及其机制

以往关于为自己和代他人决策的冒险行为研究结果不一致, 这可能是因为以往的研究没有考虑决策情境和决策者人际特质等因素对于决策行为的影响。社会价值取向(social value orientation, SVO)是一种典型的人际特质, 是个体在对自我和他人资源分配时所表现出的社会偏好, 通常分为亲社会者和亲自我者。为探究SVO对自我-他人风险决策的影响及其机制, 采用为自己和陌生人分别完成多轮混合赌博游戏的任务。结果发现亲自我比亲社会者代他人决策更冒险。用模型量化的损失厌恶和对潜在损失的敏感度部分中介了自我-他人风险决策差异, 但只有对他人潜在损失的敏感度部分中介自我-他人决策的SVO效应。说明SVO会影响自我-他人风险决策, 且该效应可以通过对他人利益的关心程度起作用, 所以在自我-他人风险决策的研究中应将SVO这一决策者的人际特质因素考虑在内。     

The relational self: an interpersonal social-cognitive theory

The authors propose an interpersonal social-cognitive theory of the self and personality, the relational self, in which knowledge about the self is linked with knowledge about significant others, and each linkage embodies a self-other relationship. Mental representations of significant others are activated and used in interpersonal encounters in the social-cognitive phenomenon of transference (S. M. Andersen & N. S. Glassman, 1996), and this evokes the relational self. Variability in relational selves depends on interpersonal contextual cues, whereas stability derives from the chronic accessibility of significant-other representations. Relational selves function in if-then terms (W. Mischel & Y. Shoda, 1995), in which ifs are situations triggering transference, and thens are relational selves. An individual's repertoire of relational selves is a source of interpersonal patterns involving affect, motivation, self-evaluation, and self-regulation.     

Excessive Object Attachment in Hoarding Disorder: Examining the Role of Interpersonal Functioning

Excessive attachment towards possessions can be maladaptive because it can lead individuals to excessively acquire and save objects. Little is known about how attachment to objects develops and changes over time; however, interpersonal factors have been theorized to play a role. The current study examined whether interpersonal factors, specifically interpersonal attachment style and empathy, moderate changes in object attachment over time. A total of 145 participants with excessive acquiring and discarding difficulties rated their level of attachment to a novel object just after receiving it, and 1 week later. Participants also completed measures of interpersonal anxious attachment and interpersonal functioning. We found that changes in object attachment over time were moderated by interpersonal anxious attachment. Also, our findings suggested that individuals with hoarding problems are likely not impaired in their ability to empathize with others, but rather have difficulty displaying empathy in tense social situations and also have more empathy for fictional characters. Further, greater discomfort in tense social situations and greater empathy for fictional characters interacted to predict greater object attachment. Taken together, these findings indicate that individuals with an interpersonal anxious attachment style may be those at risk of forming greater attachments to objects over time. A learning history that includes inconsistent support from caregivers may result in individuals experiencing more empathy for fictional characters and discomfort in tense social situations, which may produce a vulnerability for becoming excessively attached to objects. Our results are in line with theories of hoarding which propose that individuals use objects to compensate for unmet interpersonal needs and suggest that treatment may need to target interpersonal functioning to reduce hoarding symptoms.