This study of opening and closing interpersonal experiences found that black subjects reported less opening experiences and more closing experiences than the white subjects. Also, black subjects reported less neutral experiences than were reported by white subjects. The opening experience was defined as "one in which the individual manifested an increased responsiveness or reaching out to and for ideas or persons." Closing experiences were described as those interpersonal encounters which resulted in a retreat "from ideas, persons and knowledge of self," while persons reporting a neutral experience showed no evidence of either opening or closing. Responses to an open-ended questionnaire were obtained from 205 eighth-grade students in four public schools of a north-central Florida country. One hundred and thirty-five white and 50 black students reported an interpersonal experience which occurred when the subject was between five and 12 years old and an interpersonal experience which occurred within the two weeks preceding the date of the administration of the questionnaire. (Author)