MODES OF INTERPERSONAL RESPONSE TO PEERS

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Social Psychology
• Personality Psychology

Background:

• Understanding interpersonal response patterns is crucial for social interaction.
• Previous research has not fully explored the influence of agent sex and respondent age on these patterns.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify primary response patterns elicited by six types of interpersonal stimuli.
• To investigate the impact of varying agent sex and respondent age on these response patterns.

Main Methods:

• Development of a Schedule of Interpersonal Response (SIR) to assess responses to six stimulus classes.
• Application of factor analysis to 70 homogeneous subtests, yielding five interpretable factors.
• Comparison of response patterns across samples of working adults, college students, and high school students of both sexes.

Main Results:

• Five distinct and interpretable response factors were identified through factor analysis.
• Significant differences in response patterns were observed based on respondent age and sex.
• Concurrent validity was supported by correlations with scores on Stern's Activities Index.

Conclusions:

• The study successfully identified key interpersonal response patterns.
• Agent sex and respondent age are significant moderators of interpersonal responses.
• The Schedule of Interpersonal Response (SIR) demonstrates utility in assessing these patterns.