Effects of Cognitive Complexity on the Perceived Importance of Communication Skills in Friends

Abstract

This study assessed individual differences in the value that college students placed on communication skills exhibited by same-sex peers. Participants (N = 410) rated items tapping eight different communication skills for their importance in same-sex relationships. The skills included ego support, conflict management, comforting, referential ability, conversational skill, regulative skill, narrative ability, and persuasive skill. Interpersonal cognitive complexity was assessed through Crockett's (1965) Role Category Questionnaire. Affectively oriented communication skills such as ego support and comforting were rated as more important than nonaffectively oriented skills such as narrative and persuasive abilities. However, type of communication skill interacted with cognitive complexity such that complex participants rated affectively oriented skills as more important than noncomplex participants did, whereas noncomplex participants rated nonaffectively oriented skills as more important than complex participants did. These results suggest that persons differing in cognitive complexity conceive of the friendship relation in qualitatively different ways.