Interpersonal skills and pretraining: Implications for the use of group procedures for interpersonal learning and for the selection of nonprofessional mental health workers

Used a behavioral assessment procedure to rate 138 undergraduates as high or low in interpersonal skills. After receiving practice, cognitive, or no pretraining in group procedures Ss participated in discussion groups. Groups composed of members who were rated high in interpersonal skills were found to engage in significantly more personal discussion and feedback and less impersonal discussion than groups composed of members rated low in these skills. Groups receiving pretraining showed similar significant differences on these dimensions when compared to no-pretraining controls. Of the 2 types of pretraining investigated, the cognitive approach with no practice trials appeared most effective. Group composition and pretraining interacted such that groups composed of high-skill participants were affected by specific pretraining conditions, whereas low-skill groups were generally not differentially responsive. Implications of these findings for the most efficient use of group procedures and selection of nonprofessionals are discussed. (26 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved).