Social skills and interpersonal behaviors in initial encounters between university students

The purposes of the present study were to examine (a) relationships between self-reports and others' evaluations of social skills, (b) links between self-impression and social skills, and (c) differences between cognition of social skills and social behavior. University students (N = 113) completed a social-skills questionnaire, and then were divided into 2 groups. Each student was taken to the experimental room, where they met a stranger. The 2 individuals were asked to cooperate in planning a presentation by the experimenter. Their conversations were observed through a one-way mirror. The results showed that self-reported social skills were positively related to others' evaluation of an individual's social skills. The students who reported that their social skills were superior were evaluated more highly by others. The results also revealed that the students believed in making a good impression on the stranger. The students who reported that their social skills were superior tended to develop and maintain a conversation with the stranger by asking questions and so on in the initial encounter, although this seemed to be influenced by the stranger's gender, that is, whether the individual was the same or the opposite sex.