Interaction Test

The effectiveness of a social skills training workshop was assessed by comparing the rated competence of participants in an Interpersonal Skills Training Program to the rated competence of nonparticipants. Subjects ' self-ratings were included. This comparison was operationalized through a pretest-posttest design with 12 experimental and 22 control subjects. The assessment instruments consisted of Spitzberg and Hurt's (1987) Conversational Skills Rat4. Ile (CSRS) and Curran's (1982) Simulated Social Interactie,vi Test (.:.TT). Two rating judges were utilized. Results, although 11",d,:st, in the expected direction. Assessment of competence with the CSRS failed to reveal any significant i-,)rovement in the experimental group relative to controls. However, the SSIT did reveal significant improvement of the rated skills and anxiety of experimental subjects while the control group showed no significant improvement. In addition to assessing the effectiveness of the training program, this study sought to establish further validity support for the CSRS. As expected, the CSRS revealed a positive correlation to SSIT ratings. (Author) * Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made * * from the original document. *