The effects of note-taking on self-disclosure during a clinical interview among prisoners were investigated. Participants consisted of 60 male and female inmates incarcerated in a minimum security prison. Subjects within each gender were randomly assigned to either high note-taking, low note-taking or no note-taking conditions. Subjects were asked to discuss intimate information during an interview while varying levels of notes were taken. Self-disclosure was assessed using items from the Rotter Incomplete Sentences Blank. A 3 x 2 ANOVA was conducted. No significant main effects were found. However, a significant interaction was found. Further analysis revealed that females in the high note-taking condition disclosed less than females in the no note-taking condition. Some theoretical and clinical implications are suggested.

/pdf/effects-of-note-taking-on-self-disclosure-among-prisoners-3tbt5lxr66.pdf

Effects of Note-Taking on Self-Disclosure Among Prisoners

This study investigated the effects of trust level and note-taking upon the level of self-disclosure among prisoners. Sixty inmates at a federal prison were administered the Rotter Interpersonal Trust Scale. Next, using a median split, participants were divided into two groups of high and low mistrust. Subjects within each of these groups were then randomly assigned to a high, low, or no note-taking condition. Each prisoner then discussed an intimate topic for thirty minutes. Level of self-disclosure was measured by an abbreviated version of the Rotter Incomplete Sentences Blank. No significant differences were found as a function of trust level or note-taking condition. Some implications for further research are suggested.

/pdf/effects-of-note-taking-and-trust-level-on-self-disclosure-of-172t1r01fy.pdf

Effects of Note-Taking and Trust Level on Self-Disclosure of Prisoners

1973 was the first time that Fine Gael found itself in government since the party adopted Declan Costello’s Just Society proposals as official policy in the 1960s. Costello himself had reversed his decision to retire and had successfully re-entered politics. It has already been argued that Fine Gael’s slight shift to the left as a result of his policies had contributed to the formation of the coalition, while elements of the fourteen-point plan reflected his thinking. In his first interview after being elected Taoiseach, Liam Cosgrave spoke to Rodney Rice for RTE Radio and outlined his principle priorities for government. He emphasised social welfare reform, an increase in pensions, the removal of VAT from food and the transfer of a portion of the health charges from rates to the central fund.1 The government’s social reform agenda gave Fine Gael an opportunity to satisfy many of the aims of the Just Society. But by the middle of the party’s term in power, the editors of The Vulcan — the newsletter of the Trinity branch of Fine Gael — claimed that the Just Society had been abandoned.2 It would be incorrect to suggest that that document was a guiding consideration in policy formulation for the party by the 1970s, however. Although the language of social reform was prominent in the election campaign, the Just Society was only discussed in profiles of Costello whose return to politics had piqued the interest of journalists.3 Towards a Just Society was very much a document of its time, reflective of the emerging thinking in the 1960s.

Joan Held Kopfstein Kent

Papers

Relation of personality, expectancy, and situational variables to self-disclosing behavior.