PERSONALITY AND GENDER AS FACTORS IN INTERPERSONAL NEGOTIATION

One hundred sixteen undergraduates scoring oral, obsessive, or hysterical on the Lazare, Klerman, Armor Personality Scales (1966) were paired in same sex dyads. Oral-obsessive, oral-hysterical, and obsessive-hysterical partner pairs were presented with a deception creating a realistic, negotiable conflict. Negotiation times, suspicion, and expectations about partner's preferences were examined using direct observation, verbal content analysis, and post-experiment interviews. Results suggest that personality and gender can influence the negotiation process, if naturalistic, personally meaningful, interpersonal situations are used and valid assessments of personality type are made. A more sophisticated, analytically-based theory of personality types is advanced to account for observed gender differences in negotiations. It is suggested that activity and passivity in negotiation styles need to be considered in analytic personality and negotiation research to better understand how men and women function orally, hysterically, and obsessively.