Human Relations Training as Manifested in an Interview Situation

Abstract

SummaryThe evaluation of training courses in human relations is a complex matter. Such evaluations may be conducted properly to answer a variety of questions. The study reported here was designed to determine whether the behavior of trainees in a particularly difficult role‐playing interview could be improved through their experiences in one such course.The trainees were students in three different semesters of an undergraduate course in the psychology of human relations, in which the students attended two one‐hour lectures and one two‐hour laboratory period per week. The three groups differed in the amount of training, in the course content, and in the amount of skill training they received before the test situation. Group 1 received lectures on causation and attitudes. Group 2, in addition, had lectures on democratic leadership and on a number of other topics in psychology, and participated in weekly role‐playing cases involving group decision. Group 2, in addition to the training received by Group 2, was introduced to the topic of nondirective counseling in the lectures and given practice in reflecting feelings.The Case of the Old Girls–a role‐playing interview situation which had been shown to be a difficult interview to conduct, because it usually degenerated into an argument based on attitudinal differences–was used as the evaluational instrument. Group 1 was tested during the second week of the course; Group 2 during the eleventh week; and Group 3 in the thirteenth week.Improvements in interviewing behavior as a result of training were evidenced by significant reductions in the total number of facts and in the total number of favorable facts introduced by interviewers in Group 3. Their ability to listen and accept feelings may be said to have substantially improved. In the failure of the interveiwers in Group 3 to elicit a greater proportion of favorable facts from their interviewees than were elicited in Group 1, however, the course may be said to have been less than effective.The discussion of the results suggests that the typical human relations training course is neither long enough nor does it include enough skill training to enable trainees to develop the skills that will change their behavior significantly. It is pointed out that the learning process requires a skillful mixture of lectures, discussion, and practice to alter the knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors of the trainee.