Does FIRO-B relate better to interpersonal or intrapersonal behavior?
After meeting for 33 hours over 7 weeks, 64 undergraduates from 11 small interpersonal skills groups rated themselves on Schutz's (1958) Fundamental Interpersonal Relations Orientations-Behavior (FIRO-B). Three weeks and 17 more group interaction hours later, they also described each same-group participant, including self, on Lorr and McNair's (1963) Interpersonal Behavior Inventory (IBI). Correlations between self-ratings on 6 FIRO-B and 15 IBI scales yielded 25 significant statistically (p less than .05) values, but merely 5 among FIRO-B's 90 parallel correlations with individual's mean IBI ratings from pooled small group peers. Of all 30 significant correlations, 19 linked FIRO-B's overlapping affection and inclusion measures positively, but narrowly, with 4 IBI scales that address affiliativeness/sociability. The findings challenge Schutz's (1958) paradoxical claim that FIRO-B validly assesses interpersonal behavior by an intrapersonal method.
Hurley
J R
JR
Michigan State University.
D000328:Adult; D006801:Humans; D007206:Individuality; D007389:Internal-External Control; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D010555:Personality Inventory; D011594:Psychometrics; D012649:Self Concept; D012917:Social Adjustment