A comparative study of competitive and social reinforcement models of interview behavior

While psychotherapy typically is conceptualized as a social reinforcement process, Haley suggests that most interview behavior is predicted better by a competitive model of social interaction. Davis (1971) compared the two models by having interviewers follow reinforcing or competitive response programs and comparing the frequencies with which interviewees initiated interactions under the contrasting conditions. His results suggested that the competitive model predicted interviewee behavior more accurately. This study attempted both to replicate Davis' work with a different S sample (N = 48) (psychiatric inpatients as opposed to college students) and to extend it by using both male and female interviewers. Few of Davis' findings were replicated. Message frequency requests were equal in the competitive and reinforcing conditions, both of which induced more requests than a mixed interviewer program. The interactions that Davis had found between interviewer programs and Ss' classification on the repression-sensitization dimension were not significant. It is suggested that Davis' results may be limited to his college student sample and apparently do not generalize to those individuals more likely to be involved in therapeutic interviews.