Presenter: Alexandra Henry
Mentors: Kristen Reinhardt and Jennifer Freyd, Psychology
Poster: 29
Major: Psychology
Negative reactions to a disclosure of mistreatment can be more emotionally detrimental to the discloser than not disclosing the event at all, while positive reactions to disclosures can yield significant benefits, such as desensitization towards negative feelings and thoughts (Radcliffe, Lumley, Kendall, Stevenson, & Beltran, 2010). Previous research from Foynes and Freyd (2011) has shown that providing educational material on supportive listening significantly lowered the unsupportive behavior of listeners. This present study hopes to extend the work of Foynes and Freyd (2011) by examining the impact that a supportive listening skills tip-sheet has on a sample of 32 dyads after the disclosure of a mistreatment and at a 6-month follow-up time period. Our sample has a mean age of 19.22 and is 66% women. We hypothesize that the listening tips will have a long term, positive impact on the listeners’ and disclosers’ self-rated ability to listen to disclosures of mistreatment, improve both participants’ satisfaction in the relationship, and enhance participants’ self-reported listening skills through the listening tips learned during the study.