Rotter's Interpersonal Trust Scale Research Articles

Interpersonal Trust and Construct Complexity for Positively and Negatively Evaluated Persons

College subjects were administered Rotter's Interpersonal Trust Scale and a modified version of Bieri's grid procedure for measur ing cognitive complexity for positive and negative social stimuli. As hypothesized, low trusters had significantly more differentiated cognitions for socially distant persons than high trusters. Contrary to hypotheses, socially close persons yielded significantly lesser complexity for high trusters than low trusters and significantly greater complexity for females than males. It was concluded that low generalized expectancies for interpersonal trust might be more adaptive and less problematical than previously contended.

Interviewee disclosure as a function of interpersonal trust, task modeling, and interviewer self-disclosure.

Results of a study with 60 undergraduates show that 1/2 of the Ss in each sex group scored 3-15 points above the mean for their sex on the Rotter Interpersonal Trust Scale, and 1/2 of them scored 3-15 points below; these were classified as high- and low-trust Ss, respectively. No disclosure differences were found between high- and low-trust Ss. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved)

Dimensionality of the Rotter Interpersonal Trust Scale

The Rotter Interpersonal Trust Scale was interspersed in a larger questionnaire completed by 187 paid undergraduates. Its dimensionality was investigated through cluster analysis and orthogonal and oblique rotations following a principal axis factor solution. Four dimensions, designated “Political Cynicism,” “Interpersonal Exploitation,” “Societal Hypocrisy,” and “Reliable Role-performance” were identifiable across techniques. This finding of multi-dimensionality underscores the incongruence between Rotter's definition and his measure of interpersonal trust. Studies supporting the multidimensional interpretation are discussed. Scoring these four dimensions in addition to the total scale is recommended. A short form of the scale consisting of the three marker items for each dimension is proposed. This short form is efficient, and it retains the dimensionality of the total scale.

Self-disclosure and two kinds of trust.

63 (37 male and 26 female) undergraduate students were Ss in a study of the relationship between two kinds of trust and self-disclosure. As predicted, self-disclosure (Jourard scale) was related to trust as measured with the Prisoners' Dilemma Game, but not to Interpersonal trust, as measured with Rotter's scale. No relationship was found between the Rotter Interpersonal Trust Scale and the Prisoner's Dilemma. In line with previous findings: (a) the Rotter Scale correlated with a self-report trust scale, and (b) the Prisoners' Dilemma with authoritarianism (F scale).

Self-disclosure and interpersonal trust: an exploratory study.

The Rotter Interpersonal Trust Scale and a Self-disclosure Questionnaire developed by the junior author were administered to two samples of college students. In the first sample ( N = 54) self-disclosure to a specific target person was related to Interpersonal Trust; in the second sample ( N = 52) it was attempted to tap a more generalized concept of revealingness and to relate it to Interpersonal Trust. Failure to demonstrate the hypothesized relationships is discussed with reference to unsatisfactory conceptualization of the major concepts and their relation to one another, and possible weaknesses in the measurement procedures.

Validity of Rotter's interpersonal trust scale: a study of delinquent adolescents.

As a partial test of the validity of Rotter's Interpersonal Trust Scale, the instrument was utilized in an attempt to differentiate male and female delinquent groups from non-delinquent groups matched for age and social class. Since Rotter states that delinquents are less trusting of others, the use of such groups seemed a fair test of the discriminability of the scale, but no significant differences were found on the Interpersonal Trust Scale among these male and female delinquent groups and their non-delinquent counterparts. Thus, the validity of the instrument as a measure of the Trust variable was questioned.