The Effects of a Job-Interview Skills Workshop on Drug-Abuse Clients

By performing a field experiment, we tested the hypothesis that a job-interview skills workshop would improve the employment status of subjects with drug-abuse problems. Subjects from a drug-abuse treatment program were randomly assigned either to an experimental situation that included a workshop that stressed behavioral interview skills, such as preparing for an interview, application completion, grooming, nonverbal communication, and phrasing of answers to interviewer questions, or to a control group that received no treatment. A 6-months follow-up of subjects showed no significant attitudinal differences between the two groups. All three behavioral measures of employment status showed either significant differences or strong trends in favor of the experimental group, however. Possible alternative explanations of results were discussed and future research suggested.     

Expectations About Initial Interaction An Examination of the Effects of Global Uncertainty

This inquiry extended uncertainty reduction theory to include actors’ uncertainty about acquaintanceship in general (global uncertainty). Study 1 involved examination of the self-reports of 139 female and 85 male participants. Results of the analysis showed that participants high in global uncertainty define initial interaction in comparatively negative ways, more frequently attempt to avoid conversations with unfamiliar targets, perform less effectively when meeting others for the first time, and develop less satisfactory long-term relationships than persons low in global uncertainty. Global uncertainty also combined with participants’ sense of the self-assuredness-awkwardness of first encounters to predict initial interaction performance. Study 2 examined the conversational performance of 48 females and 28 males who had participated in the first investigation. This analysis revealed that, during the first minute of interaction, persons high in global uncertainty engaged in comparatively low levels of question asking but relatively high levels of disclosure. High globally uncertain participants were also rated less competent by their partners than were persons low in global uncertainty. Study 3 explored the relationship between global uncertainty, communication competence, and communication apprehension. Examination of the self-reports of 63 females and 49 males showed that persons high in global uncertainty are apprehensive when meeting strangers and enact acquaintanceship episodes relatively inexpertly, although the magnitude of correlations between the constructs provide strong evidence that global uncertainty is distinguishable from both competence and apprehension. The implications of these findings are discussed.     

A CROSS-CULTURAL TEST OF UNCERTAINTY REDUCTION THEORY

A model of uncertainty reduction theory was tested that was derived from Berger and Calabrese's (1975) theory of initial interactions and recent extensions of the theory (e.g., Berger, 1979; Berger & Bradac, 1982) across three relationships (acquaintances, friends, and dates) in three cultures: Japan, Korea, and the United States. The model was tested using LISREL and found to be a reasonable fit to the data for all three relationships in all three cultures. The percentage of variance explained in attributional confidence was found to be lower for friends than for dates and acquaintances. For the United States data more variance was explained in attributional confidence in acquaintances than dates; however, the findings were reverse for the Japanese and Korean data. These findings were discussed in light of previous research on uncertainty reduction theory and relationship development. Shortcomings of the model also were pointed out based on early critiques of the theory (e.g., Bochner, 1978) and a recent elaboration that examined the context in which romantic relationships develop (Parks & Adelman, 1983).