04-014 Ch01 pp5

3/10/04

4:53 PM

Page 77

each interpersonal need. The discussion of interpersonal orientation in this section will be more meaningful to you if you have completed the FIRO-B survey in
the Assessment section. If you have not done so,
please take time to complete it now. It should take you
no more than 10 minutes.
There are several ways your scores on this questionnaire can be analyzed and interpreted. You can
compare your expressed total with your wanted total
to determine the extent to which you are willing to
give as much behavior as you want to get. Individuals
who have high expressed scores and low wanted
scores are called controllers because they want to
express but are unwilling to accept in return. The
reverse pattern, high wanted scores and low expressed
scores, is called a passive pattern because these individuals want to receive but are unwilling to initiate
interaction.
By comparing each need score, you can determine which is your most important interpersonal
need. Your highest score may indicate the need that is
least satisfied.
Another way to interpret your scores is to compare them with the national norm data in Table 5. The
numbers at the top of each box (e.g., 4 to 7) refer to
the average range of scores. At least 50 percent of
adults fall within that range. The numbers at the bottom (e.g., 5.4) refer to the average scores in the cells.
At least 50 percent of adults score within 1.5 of those
scores. If you scored 6 in the expressed control cell
you score higher than 75 percent of the people on
that need; if you scored 2 in the expressed affection
cell, you score lower than 75 percent.
The score in the lower right-hand corner (the total
of the expressed and wanted scores) is called the social
interaction index. This score represents the overall
interpersonal need level. The highest possible score is
54. Individuals with high scores have strong needs to
interact with other people. They are likely to be gre-

Table 5

garious, friendly, and involved with others. Low scores

are more typical of shy, reserved people.
It has been found that business school students
differ significantly on the social interaction index,
depending on their majors. Accounting and systems
analysis students had means of 22.3 and 22.6, respectively (lower than average), while marketing and
human resource majors had means of 31.0 and 31.9,
respectively (higher than average). Finance, small business, and engineering students were in the middle.
This difference turned out to be statistically significant,
which suggests that career selection may have something to do with interpersonal orientation.
The greatest usefulness of the scores lies in analyzing interpersonal compatibilitymatching one persons scores with those of another. Individuals can be
interpersonally incompatible in three ways. To explain
these three incompatibilities, two hypothetical scores
are used in Table 6.
The first type of incompatibility is reciprocal. It
refers to the match between one persons expressed
behavior and another persons wanted behavior. For
example, if one person has a high need to express control but the other person does not want to be controlled, there is a reciprocal incompatibility. The
formula for computing reciprocal incompatibility is:
Manager's e Subordinate's w +
Subordinate's e Manager's w

The straight lines indicate absolute values (no

minus numbers). The data in Table 6 show that in the
inclusion area a reciprocal incompatibility exists
between the manager and the subordinate. Using the
formula above, we have:
9 2 + 3 8 = 12

Average FIRO-B Scores and Ranges

INCLUSION

CONTROL

AFFECTION

ROW TOTALS

Expressed Toward Others

4 to7
5.4

2 to 5
3.9

3 to 6
4.1

9 to18
13.4

Wanted from Others

5 to 8
6.5

3 to 6
4.6

3 to 6
4.6

11 to 20
15.9

Column Totals

9 to15
11.9

5 to11
8.5

6 to12
8.9

20 to 38
29.3

DEVELOPING SELF-AWARENESS CHAPTER 1

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