PERSONAL PROBLEM-SOLVING IN A SIMULATED SETTING - DO PERCEPTIONS ACCURATELY REFLECT BEHAVIOR

The purpose of this study was to ascertain if people who appraise them selves as ineffective problem solvers compared to their perceived effe ctive counterparts [i.e., those scoring high vs. low on the Problem-So lving Inventory (Heppner, 1988)] would behaviorally respond to a simul ated problem less effectively. While delivering a 15-min classroom pre sentation, 61 participants were disrupted three times by a confederate . The results indicated that the self-perceived ineffective problem so lvers compared to their perceived effective counterparts did not behav e less effectively to the disruptions. However, interpersonal process recall (Kagan, 1975) showed that, during the third disruption, more of the former group compared to the latter group reported negative self- statements, more emotional arousal, intense affect, and self-focused a s opposed to problem-focused statements. Further, the former group rep orted more debilitating cognitions and feelings during the task in gen eral than did the latter group.