SelfMonitoring Style and Levels of Interrogative Suggestibility

1
Self-Monitoring Style and Levels of Interrogative
Suggestibility

• Stella Bain, Jim Baxter Katie Ballantyne
• Glasgow Caledonian University, Glasgow
• University of Strathclyde, Glasgow

2
Interrogative Pressure

• Cognitive and social factors present during
  interviews which may compromise recall accuracy
• (cf. Gudjonsson, 2003)
• Interrogative Suggestibility
• (Gudjonsson, 1983 2003)
• the extent to which, with in a closed social
  interaction, people come to accept messages
  communicated during formal questioning as a
  result of which their subsequent behavioural
  response is affected
• (Gudjonsson Clark, 1986, p. 84)

3
Interrogative Suggestibility

• Gudjonsson Clark (1986)
• Interrogative suggestibility dependent on coping
  strategies
• Interviewee cognitive set is influenced by
  uncertainty, expectation and trust in interviewer
• Cognitive set may facilitate either a resistant
  or a suggestible behavioural response
• Negative feedback is also an important
  determinant of suggestible responding

4
Interrogative Suggestibility

• Negative feedback can increase uncertainty and
  anxiety
• (Gudjonsson Clark, 1986 Gudjonsson, 2003)
• Increased anxiety is likely to lead to
  interviewees attending to external cues
• (Gudjonsson, 2003 Bain et al., 2004)
• Increases in interrogative pressure associated
  with negative feedback can divert attention away
  from task of discrepancy detection
• (cf. Schooler Loftus, 1986 Bain et al., 2004)

5
Background to Study

• Negative feedback and repetition of questions
  increase levels of interrogative pressure
• (Gudjonsson, 2003)
• Abrupt interviewer demeanour increases levels of
  interrogative suggestibility
• (Bain Baxter, 2000 Baxter Boon, 2000 Bain
  et al., 2004)

6
Background to Study

• Stern interviewer demeanour increases
  psychological distance
• (Baxter Boon, 2000 cf. Gudjonsson Lister,
  1984)
• Stern/abrupt interviewers gain higher GSS scores
  from interviewees
• (Bain Baxter, 2000, Baxter Boon, 2000 Bain
  et al., 2004)

7
Background to Study

• Interviewees under increased interrogative
  pressure are likely to attend to situational
  dynamics
• (Bain Baxter, 2000)
• Increases in interrogative pressure divert
  attention from detecting discrepancies between
  GSS narrative and questions
• (Bain et al., 2004 cf. Schooler Loftus, 1986)

8
Background to Study

• Lower levels of self-esteem also associated with
  increased susceptibility to interrogative
  pressure
• (Baxter et al., 2003 Bain et al., 2004)
• Low self-esteem interviewees may attend more to
  situational demands than high self-esteem
  individuals
• (Baxter et al., 2003 Bain et al., 2004 cf.
  Gudjonsson, 2003)

9
Background to Study

• The tendency to attend to situational cues to
  socially appropriate behaviour has been termed
  self-monitoring
• (Snyder, 1974)
• High self-monitors tend to be more attentive to
  situational demands than low self-monitors
• (Snyder, 1987 Perrine Aloise-Young, 2004)

10
Current Study

• Aim
• to examine the relationship between attention to
  social cues, as measured by the self-monitoring
  scale (Snyder, 1974), and scores obtained on the
  GSS
• Hypothesis
• High self-monitors would gain higher GSS scores
  than low self-monitors

11
Current Study

• Method
• one independent variable
• self-monitoring
• two conditions
• high and low self-monitors
• forty undergraduate participants
• 20 per condition
• mean age 22.33 (S.D. 4.05, range 18-43)

12
Current Study

• Procedure
• 200 students completed Snyders self-monitoring
  scale
• 20 high scorers (gt15) and 20 low scores (lt9)
  recruited
• All participants tested on GSS1 in accordance to
  guidelines provided by Gudjonsson (1997)

13
Current Study
14
Current Study

• Conclusions
• High self-monitors scored higher on Yield, Shift
  and Total Suggestibility than did low
  self-monitors
• High self-monitors are more susceptible to both
  the pressures of leading questions and the
  pressures of negative feedback associated with
  the normal administration of the GSS
• Individuals who have a tendency to self-monitor
  their behaviour may be more likely to experience
  increased uncertainty as a result of attending to
  their feelings and their perceptions of the
  interview at the expense of recall effort

15
Current Study

• Conclusions
• By concentrating attention on the social dynamics
  of the situation high self-monitors will be less
  likely to notice mismatches between what they can
  recall and misinformation than low self-monitors
• The results support those of previous studies
  investigating the effects of variations in
  interviewee self-esteem
• Interviewees who attend to internal states show
  elevated GSS scores
• (e.g. Baxter, Jackson Bain, 2003 Bain, Baxter
  Fellowes, 2004)