Resumen de Testing the effects of a competency‐based interpersonal communication course

Cynthia Berryman-Fink, Lucille Pederson

• Four skills (empathy, descriptiveness, owning thoughts and feelings, and self‐disclosure) were identified as being appropriate operationalizations of interpersonal competence. The skills were measured by ranking and scoring students’ response options to hypothetical interpersonal situations. In three experiments, pretests and post‐tests were administered to students in various sections of a 100‐level interpersonal communication course and compared with the competency scores of groups of students who did not participate in an interpersonal communication course. Results, by analysis of variance, indicated that students who had been taught a skills‐based interpersonal communication course significantly increased their interpersonal competence.