This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Reprints and Permissions Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Shaffer, D. R. Articles by Pegalis, L. J. Search for Related Content PubMed Articles by Shaffer, D. R. Articles by Pegalis, L. J. Social Bookmarking                   What's this?

The "Opener"

Highly Skilled as Interviewer or Interviewee

University of Georgia

Chantana Ruammake

University of Georgia

Linda J. Pegalis

University of Georgia

High or low "openers " (ie., persons who are more or less adept at eliciting self-disclosures) interviewed partners who themselves differed on the opener dimension to test the hypothesis that interview outcomes depend on both the interviewer's and the interviewee's standing on this attribute. As expected, high-opener interviewers were the more proficient at eliciting self-disclosures only when questioning low-opener interviewees, and socially unskilled, low-opener interviewers were quite successful at inducing high (but not low-) opener interviewees to talk about themselves. Supplementary data suggested that socially skilled, high-opener interviewees had a salutary influence on low-opener interviewers, relaxing these otherwise tense interrogators, who then took greater interest in their partners, thereby persuading them to self-disclose. A practical implication of these findings is discussed.

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

				L. J. Pegalis, D. R. Shaffer, D. G. Bazzini, and K. Greenier On the Ability to Elicit Self-Disclosure: Are there Gender-Based and Contextual Limitations on the Opener Effect? Pers Soc Psychol Bull, August 1, 1994; 20(4): 412 - 420. [Abstract]