Defensiveness: Another Interpersonal Correlate of Range of Ratings

Abstract

Common sense suggests that personal defensiveness will tend to correlate negatively with the range that raters employ for appraising own and peers' interpersonal behavior when all ratings are fully shared. Correlations were computed between 78 college students precourse Marlowe-Crowne scores, taken as the defensiveness index, and the range they used 3 and 7 wk. later when rating the within-group conduct of all members of 16 small interpersonal groups on separate measures of acceptance of self and of others. Both Week 3 correlations (−.27) were negative and significant despite severe stability limitations of all measures. Following detailed in-group discussions and reviews of these conduct ratings, the parallel correlations were again negative (−.10) but nonsignificant 4 wk. later. The results support other recent evidence linking raters' range and personal security.