Naturalistic social cognition: Empathic accuracy in mixed-sex dyads.

Abstract

The research paradigm that Ickes and his colleagues developed for study of naturalistic social cognition was used to explore phenomenon of empathic accuracy in initial, unstructured interactions of 38 mixed-sex (male-female) dyads. The results indicated that an important aspect of empathic accuracy—content accuracy—could be measured reliably (a = .94) with procedure used. The results further indicated that content accuracy was, to a large extent, an emergent product of social interaction processes occurring at level of dyad. Although of findings could be explained in informational terms, some significant motivational influences were observed as well. For example, content accuracy was influenced by partner's physical attractiveness and, more generally, by perceiver's apparent interest in partner (as indexed by various thought/feeling measures). The individual difference variables of grade point average and selfmonitoring also predicted subjects' levels of content accuracy; however, gender and self-report measures of empathic skills and empathic accuracy did not. If study of subjective phenomena involving or occurring within a single conscious mind is domain of mainstream cognitive psychology, it follows logically that study of intersubjective phenomena involving or occurring between at least two conscious minds is proper domain of cognitive social psychology (Ickes, Tooke, Stinson, Baker, & Bissonnette, 1988). The logic of this conclusion has been consensually validated by both present and past reviewers of social cognition research. For example, Markus and Zajonc (1985) ended their Handbook chapter on cognitive social psychology by stating that the properties of social perception and social cognition that make them distinct are reciprocity and intersubjectivity (p. 213). They noted that many earlier authors, such as Mead (1934), Merleau-Ponty (1970), Asch, (1952), and Heider (1958), have drawn essentially same conclusion. In general, intersubjective phenomena can be characterized as those involving some form of interdependence between contents or processes of at least two conscious minds (cf. Wegner, Giuliano, & Hertel, 1985). Given this definition, intersubjective phenomena are clearly not most frequently studied phenomena in cognitive social psychology (Ickes et al., 1988). In most studies of human social cognition, researchers have not inquired how contents and processes of one mind are interdependent with those of another. Instead, using as their models studies conducted in more traditional areas of psychology, they have inquired how contents and processes of