The effect of predicate matching on clients' experience of being understood
Date
1988
Authors
Baugh, Marguarite Karen
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Abstract
The primary purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between predicate matching and rapport, using the experience of being understood as the measurement of rapport. A methodology was developed that provided stricter experimental controls than had been evident in previous research.
Thirty females, from volunteer organizations in Victoria, participated in this study. They were randomly assigned to two treatment groups. In Group One, the subjects' predicates (their verbs, adjective and adverbs) were initially matched with a representational system of seeing, hearing, feeling, smelling, or tasting and then were mismatched. In Group Two, the predicates were matched throughout the interview. Each treatment group was approximately ten minutes in duration. Subjects completed the Interviewer's Verbal Response ScaleĀ-Client Form, rating each interviewer's match or mismatch, in terms of whether or not they had experienced being understood. Qualitative data were also collected. Another rating scale, the Interviewer's Nonverbal Response Scale, was used to control for the influence of interviewer's nonverbal behaviors on subjects' experience.
The data were analyzed by the Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and the Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA). Results indicated that subjects experienced being more understood when their predicates were matched than when their predicates were mismatched. Comments from subjects revealed similar themes, except for one theme that suggested that some subjects had obtained new perspectives from the mismatch. Findings indicated that in short interviews, subjects experienced being more understood when their predicates were matched than when they were mismatched. Implications for counselling, limitations and recommendations for future research were discussed.