Relationship between self and close friend responses on the patterns of social adaptation scale (PSA)

The problem of this investigation was to examine the relationship between self-reported personality variables and best-friend ratings in assertion as measured by the Patterns of Social Adaptation Scale (PSA). The PSA was administered concurrently with the Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire (16 PF) and the California Personality Inventory (CPI) to 108 women undergraduate nursing stu~ dents. Each of the subjects was asked to have a best friend" complete a slightly modified PSA form (PSA-BF). A total of 63 PSA-BF forms was returned and all were examined with the corresponding self-report measures. There was no significant correlation between the best-friend rating on assertion and the self-report assertion as measured by the PSA (r = .1207). There were, however, significant correlations with the best-friend assertive rating and several self-reported variables measured by the 16 PF and the CPI . Subjects who were given high ratings by the best friends described themselves as being assertive, tense, sensitive to others, ambitious, stubborn, and rebellious as measured by the CPI and 16 PF. A multiple regression analysis suggested that the best friend's rating on assertion may be partially explained by the above variables (R2 = .28). An additional multiple regression analysis demonstrated that the same set of variables from the regression equation which predicted the assertion score of the subject's self rating also predicted the assertive score the best friend reported (R2 = .30). Validity for the PSA assertive scale is suggested by this finding. It was suggested that the discrepant assertion scores may be partially explained by bias or limited information by the best friend.