Abstract

A study concerning the relationships between Need for Cognitive Closure (NCC), as epistemic motivation (Kruglanski, 1995), and interpersonal relationships emerging in the context of leaderless group discussions is presented. Sixteen groups of four persons were studied. The NCC as intra-individual disposition characterized by five dimensions is measured by means of the Italian version of the Webster and Kruglanski's (1994) Scale. At the same time the NCC was experimentally induced by introducing in half of the groups a time pressure condition. Interpersonal relationships were sistematically observed and coded into the 4 sovraordinate categories of the IPA of Bales (1950, 1970) and measure through the SYMLOG rating system (Bales and Cohen, 1979). Canonical Correlation Analysis was applied in order to investigate the relationships between the five sub-dimensions of NCC and the main dimensions/categories of interpersonal relationships measured by means of IPA (four categories) and by means of SYMLOG (three main dimensions). Results show significant relationships between NCC and dependent variables coherent with the theoretical framework.