Personal versus impersonal relationship compliance and their relationship with personality

Abstract

The principal aim of this study was to investigate differences between compliance found in ‘personal’ versus ‘impersonal’ relationships. It was hypothesised that these are two distinct types of compliance. The participants were 1461 students in further education in Iceland, who completed a number of questionnaires, including a specially constructed Situational Compliance Scale (SCS). A principal component analysis of the SCS items (using direct oblimin rotation) revealed two distinct factors, labelled ‘personal’ and ‘impersonal’ relationship compliance. For both males and females the two factors correlated significantly with compliance as measured by the Gudjonsson Compliance Scale, the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire Neuroticism, and the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale. The findings suggest that the tendency to comply in one situation increases the likelihood that the person is susceptible to complying with requests in other situations. In spite of conceptual differences between different compliant situations, and the clear distinction between personal and impersonal relationship compliance, the present study suggests that these are different components of the broader psychological construct of compliance.

Keywords:

• compliance
• emotions
• relationships
• personality
• false confessions
• sex differences

Acknowledgement

Thanks to Anna Kristin Newton, Marius Peersen, and students from the forensic psychology course at the University of Iceland who assisted with the collection of the data.