Personality, Social Skills, and Psychopathology: An Individual Differences Approach

299 Pages·1991·8.55 MB·English

by  Brenda O. Gilbert, David G. Gilbert (auth.), David G. Gilbert, James J. Connolly (eds.)

Personality, Social Skills,
and Psychopathology
An Individual Differences Approach
PERSPECTIVES ON INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES
CECIL R. REYNOLDS, Texas A&M University, College Station
ROBERT T. BROWN, University of North Carolina, Wilmington
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Personality, Social Skills,
and Psychopathology
An Individual Differences Approach
Edited by
David G. Gilbert
Department of PsycJw/J;gy
Southern llli1Wis University at Carfmrdok
Carbondale, JUinois
and
James J. Connolly
Privau Practice
New London, Connecticut
Springer Science+Business Media, LLC
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Personality, social Skllls, and psychopathology: an individual
differences approach I edited by David G. Gilbert and James J.
Connolly.
p. cm. -- (Perspectives on individual differences)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Psychology, Pathological. 2. Social skills--Psychological
aspects. 3. Personality. 4. Individual differences. I. Gilbert,
David, G., 1947 Oct. 12- II. Connolly, James J .• 1950-
III. Series.
[DNLM: 1. Interpersonal Relations. 2. Mental Disorders.
3. Models, Psychological. 4. Personality. 5. Social Behavior. WM
100 P469 1
RC454.4.P464 1991
155.2--dc20
DNLM/DLC
for Library of Congress 91-21360
CIP
ISBN 978-1-4899-0637-3 ISBN 978-1-4899-0635-9 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-4899-0635-9
© 1991 Springer Science+Business Media New York
Originally published by Plenum Press, New York in 1991.
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1991
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted
in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming,
recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher
Contributors
Thomas N. Bradbury, Department of Psychology, University of California,
Los Angeles, California 90024
David W. Brokaw, Azusa Pacific University, Azusa, California 91702
Ross Buck, Department of Communication Sciences, University of Con-
necticut, Storrs, Connecticut 06269-1085
Emil Chiauzzi, Northeast Psychiatric Associates, Brookside Hospital,
Nashua, New Hampshire 03063
James J. Connolly, Private Practice, 400 Bayonet Street, New London,
Connecticut 06320
Frank D. Fincham, Department of Psychology, University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, Illinois 61820
Brenda O. Gilbert, Department of Psychology, Southern Illinois Univer-
sity at Carbondale, Carbondale, Illinois 62901-6502
David G. Gilbert, Department of Psychology, Southern Illinois University
at Carbondale, Carbondale, Illinois 62901-6502
Stephen P. Hinshaw, Department of Psychology, University of California,
Berkeley, California 94720
v
VI CONTRIBUTORS
Joyce Hogan, Department of Psychology, University of Tulsa, Tulsa,
Oklahoma 74104
Robert Hogan, Department of Psychology, University of Tulsa, Tulsa,
Oklahoma 74104
Jack E. Hokanson, Department of Psychology, Florida State University,
Tallahassee, Florida 32306
Michael A. McColloch, Private Practice, 3779 Vest Mill Road, Winston-
Salem, North Carolina 27103
James P. McHale, Department of Psychology, University of California,
Berkeley, California 94720
Clinton W. McLemore, Relational Dynamics Institute, Inc., P.O. Box
60725, Pasadena, California 91116
Mark P. Rubert, Department of Psychology, Florida State University,
Tallahassee, Florida 32306
Preface
This book presents an introduction to the study of relationships among per-
sonality, social skills, and psychopathology. Although research findings dur-
ing the last decade have made it clear that the relationships among these
variables are almost always complex and mUltiply determined, many clini-
cians and theoreticians have not incorporated such complexities into their
models of human behavior and therapeutic intervention. This discrepancy
between clinical theory and research-based findings has been of special con-
cern to us because we have been both empirically oriented academic re-
searchers and practicing clinicians. It is our belief that clinical theory relat-
ed to personality, social skills, and psychopathology can be enriched by re-
search findings from a wide range of fields-from human genetics, tempera-
ment, and personality to family systems, affect, psychophysiology, and
learning.
This book is divided into an introductory chapter and three sections.
The introductory chapter provides an overview of the issues in the field,
compares models, and provides suggestions for further integration and ar-
ticulation of concepts related to personality, social skills, and psycho-
pathology. The book's first section presents state-of-the-art general models
of interactions among personality, social skills, and psychopathology. Con-
nolly opens this section with a chapter that reviews longitudinal findings in-
dicating that personality traits predict the onset of psychopathology and
marital distress. The etiology of these and related findings is the subject of
other chapters in this section. Brokaw and McLemore review interpersonal
models of personality and psychopathology and provide an in-depth analysis
of Benjamin-Smith's interpersonal model and its empirical support. Inter-
personal models have not focused on what variables determine individuals'
tendencies to adopt a particular social style. Thus Buck's chapter comple-
vii
viii PREFACE
ments that of Brokaw and McLemore by addressing the important question
of the development of individual differences in social and emotional skills. In
this way, Buck provides a transition from the interpersonal domain to the
more traditional individual focus on the relationship of personality to social
behavior and psychopathology. Gilbert presents a model that builds on
Buck's findings as it predicts social interaction as a function of the person-
alities of the interactants and the setting. The personality x personality x
setting biosocial model developed by Gilbert relates individual differences in
temperamental, personality, and psychophysiological processes to interper-
sonal processes, including emotional arousal and skill in interpersonal con-
flict resolution. In the final chapter of the first section, Robert and Joyce
Hogan discuss relationships of personality and social behavior to social ac-
ceptance and status.
The book's second section provides excellent reviews of the relations of
social skills to specific psychopathologies. Hokanson and Rubert assess in-
terpersonal and social skill factors in the development and maintenance of
depression. McColloch and Gilbert assess the development, maintenance,
and stability of aggression in a review that pays close attention to the role of
social skills in these processes. Chiauzzi assesses conceptual, methodologi-
cal, and treatment issues in the social skill training for alcoholics. The ef-
fects of medication on social interactions have important implications for
any model of interpersonal processes and social skill. The chapter by
Hinshaw and McHale provides information that is a challenge for all models'
interpersonal process. Stimulant medications have predictable effects on
social interactions of hyperactive children. Such medication-induced effects
can be viewed as pharmacologically induced changes of temperament and,
thus, can be used to assess the role of the individual in social interactions.
In the book's final section, Bradbury and Fincham provide an excellent
review of various state-of-the-art means of analyzing sequential social in-
teractions. The techniques they review provide a means of operationalizing
and assessing many of the social skills and processes that are the topic of
this book.
We wish to thank all our authors for their cooperation and perseverance
in producing this book. We believe that the final product is well worth their
labors.
David Gilbert wishes to thank his family for their support, for their
teaching so much about what can be good about social relationships: his wife
Brenda for being the stable and supportive person he needed; his children
Aline and Elizabeth, who contributed to this book with their love and won-
derful-yet different-personalities; and his parents Naomi and Wyn
Gilbert, who modeled how to have a successful family and marriage. James
Connolly wants to thank his wife Roberta for her support. We both want to
thank our colleagues at Plenum Press for their support and Robert T.
PREFACE IX
Brown, series editor, who encouraged us to make it the best book it could
be.
David G. Gilbert
James J. Connolly
Carbondale and New London