(Trans)lating Identity: Exploring Discursive Strategies for Navigating the Tensions of Identity Gaps

This study explored the formation and expression of gender identity among 19 self-identified transgender individuals through the use of qualitative, in-depth interviews. Through the lens of the Communication Theory of Identity (CTI), we examined how trans* individuals form and perform gender identity, the tensions produced between identity frames, and the discursive strategies used to navigate those tensions. We identified the manifestation of three specific identity gaps: personal-enacted, personal-relational, and enacted-relational. Furthermore, we discovered four discursive strategies previously recognized for navigating tensions that emerge from identity gaps: closeted enactment, passing, disengagement, and label changing, and we identified a fifth discursive strategy—hyper-engagement—used to navigate these tensions. Results revealed that these identity layers and discursive strategies collaboratively manifest and coalesce in response to specific communicative contexts. Our results are discussed within the resounding call for greater understanding of trans* identity formation and expression.     

Bulking Up (Identities): A Communication Framework for Male Fitness Identity

The goal of this interview study is to build upon a rich history of masculinities research, complicating the arenas in which masculinity is communicated, performed, negotiated, and enacted. Using Hecht’s communication theory of identity, analysis of this data reveals that men pursuing fitness find misalignment between the personal, relational, and enacted frames. Consequently, they engage in a host of discursive strategies to manage the uncertainty that is produced by these identity gaps. This study identifies three: excessive body discipline, forceful negotiation, and constant comparison. By exploring these gaps and strategies, this study aims to situate fitness as a space ripe for the production of identity work and as an intersectional identity element.     

Perceptions of Communication With Gay and Lesbian Family Members: Predictors of Relational Satisfaction and Implications for Outgroup Attitudes

This study investigates perceptions of family communication among members with different sexual identities. Specifically, from the perspective of heterosexual family members (N = 129), the study takes an intergroup perspective to determine how accommodative and non-accommodative communication and attitudes toward homosexuality predict intergroup anxiety and relational satisfaction with gay or lesbian family members. Further, the manner in which family communication influences attitudes toward homosexuality is examined. Results are discussed in terms of implications for research on heterosexual–homosexual interaction, family communication, and intergroup communication, in general.     

Physician Sociality Communication and Its Effect on Patient Satisfaction

This investigation examined the relationship between physicians' sociality usage and subsequent patient satisfaction. The SPSS (Service Provider Sociality Scale) was distributed to 198 adults from a midwestern state. Multiple regression results revealed that both courtesy expressions and personal connection socialities played a significant role in overall patient satisfaction with the physician. However, courtesy expressions accounted for more unique variance in patient satisfaction than did personal connections. No significant interactions were found between sociality and physician gender in the prediction of patient satisfaction in subsequent post-hoc analyses.     

The Influence of Communication Apprehension on Superiors' Propensity for and Practice of Participative Decision Making

This investigation examined if traitlike communication apprehension (CA) serves as a significant predictor of superiors' propensity for and practice of participative decision making (PDM)—that is, involving others in decision-making processes. A total of 219 superiors recruited from a variety of organizations served as participants in this study. Results revealed that traitlike CA is a significant determinant of variation in superiors' inclination for, as well as their actual practice of, PDM. These findings suggest that superiors with lower CA possess favorable perceptions of PDM and are more inclined to involve others in decision-making processes than their colleagues with higher CA. Conversely, results suggest that superiors with higher CA typically possess less favorable perceptions of PDM and are less likely to involve others when making decisions. Theoretical and practical implications underpinning these results are explored. Future research directions are also proposed.     

Leader Communication: Faculty Perceptions of the Department Chair

This project asked 202 randomly selected faculty members to evaluate the supportive and defensive communication and leadership behaviors of their department chair. The supportive behavior of problem orientation alone explained 43% of the variance in faculty ratings of chair job effectiveness. On the other hand, empathy explained 68% of the variance in faculty ratings of relational satisfaction with their department chair. In addition, a t test revealed that more effective chairs utilized all 6 of Gibb's supportive communication behaviors more, and 5 of 6 defensive behaviors less, than their more negatively evaluated peers. Second, a series of stepwise regression procedures explained 16% of the variance in bureaucracy scores, 69% of the variance in Machiavellianism, and 62% of the variance in transformational leadership. Finally, the communication behaviors of strategy, neutrality, and problem orientation explained 56% of the variance in faculty job satisfaction and strategy, neutrality, evaluation, gender, and age explained 41% of the variance in organizational commitment scores.     

图书馆员如何与读者沟通

在图书馆工作中,图书馆员与读者的沟通非常重要,要真正改善馆员与读者的有效沟通,需要馆员在服务中努力学习,学会运用语言和非语言的沟通方式,做好与读者的情感和语言沟通,大幅度提高馆员的沟通技能,从而提升图书馆员的亲和力,提高为读者服务的质量。     

析当前中国的贫富差距

由于多方面原因的影响,贫富差距在中国当前已经十分明显,若不加以调控将引发许多问题。当前要从多种途径入手,解决过大的贫富差距。     

Family Communication Patterns and Conflict Styles in Chinese Parent-Child Relationships

This study investigated Chinese family communication patterns, their effects on children's conflict styles, and the children's perceptions of parent-child relationship satisfaction. The study found that Chinese family communication patterns are more conversation-oriented than conformity-oriented, and the collaborating and accommodating styles are the children's most preferred and the competing style the least preferred. The children from conversation-oriented families are most likely to use the collaborating style but unlikely to use the avoiding style, whereas the children from conformity-oriented families are most likely to use the competing style but unlikely to use the collaborating style. The finding also indicated that children are more satisfied with the conversation orientation than with the conformity orientation and with the collaborating, compromising, and accommodating styles than with competing and avoiding styles in parent-child relationships.     

Communication Privacy Management Theory: Exploring Coordination and Ownership Between Friends

Researchers in this study explored friends’ boundary coordination and ownership surrounding private information as posed by Communication Privacy Management theory. One hundred pairs of friends (N = 200) completed measures about the risk of a prior disclosure and the degree of discussion about who could/could not know the information. In support of Communication Privacy Management theory, disclosers engaged in greater boundary coordination when the information was riskier. When the information was riskier, disclosers and receivers perceived that the receivers had less ownership rights over the information. Disclosers reported negative emotional reactions to hypothetical dissemination of higher-risk information when they perceived their friends as having less ownership, but positive emotional reactions of lower-risk information when they perceived their friends as having more ownership. Receivers were more likely to disseminate the information when they perceived they had ownership over the information.     

Idiomatic Communication in the Stages of Coming Together and Falling Apart

Idiomatic communication is a strategic and unique form of communication that is indicative of a close relationship. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between idiomatic communication with solidarity and satisfaction to validate Social Penetration Theory using Knapp's stages of escalation and de-escalation. The results of the study (N = 275) found that couples in de-escalation stages report less idioms, and use idioms with less frequency, than couples in the escalation stages. Couples in de-escalating stages use confrontation, nickname, and teasing insult idioms with more negative effects than escalating couples. Finally, the use of idiomatic communication is significantly related to solidarity and relational satisfaction.     

Identity formation in educational settings: A contextualized view of theory and research in practice

In this concluding article of the special issue entitled “Identity Formation in Educational Settings”, we explicate the notion of identity as an integrative concept, discuss its growing popularity in the social sciences, and point to its special significance to education in contemporary society. Following an Eriksonian psychosocial approach and sociocultural emphasis, we look at the process of identity formation as a product of interrelatedness between the context and the individual person, and underscore the interaction between developmental and learning processes. We draw examples from the studies in this collection to highlight these conceptual relationships, as well as to contribute insights from the different research questions and modes of inquiry into the practice of co-construction of identity and knowledge in a variety of school contexts. We conclude with a call for the promotion of practice, research and theory in the emerging domain of identity formation in educational settings.     

旅游企业高管内部薪酬差距对企业绩效的影响研究

文章选取我国17家旅游上市公司作为研究样本,分析旅游企业高管内部薪酬差距与企业绩效的影响关系。运用多元回归分析方法进行研究,结果显示旅游企业高管内部薪酬差距的增大不利于企业绩效的提升,支持行为理论。     

The Application of Communication Accommodation Theory to Identity Construction:A Case Study of My Fair Lady

My Fair Lady is a movie about how a lower class flower girl turns to an upper class lady by simply changing her language at the help of a linguist.It demonstrates the importance of communication accommodation,especially convergent accommodation,in using language as code and behavior to construct identity in the target community.     

论贫富差距过大现象及消极影响

贫富差距过大是社会不公正的重要表现。当前居民总体收入差距,城乡收入差距,地区间居民收入差距,不同阶层、行业、职业之间的居民收入差距等都呈扩大趋势。贫富差距过大影响经济结构的优化,导致需求不足,对社会的稳定构成很大的威胁。     

Comforting Apprehensive Communicators: The Effects of Reappraisal and Distraction on Cortisol Levels Among Students in a Public Speaking Class

The aim of this study was to examine the effects of interpersonal communication as a source of comforting on the physiological stress associated with giving an in-class speech. Cortisol was used as an objective measure of stress reactivity, and the effects of distracting or reappraisal messages were examined. Salivary cortisol was collected from 42 students enrolled in an introductory public speaking course, in five intervals. The final collection showed that participants in the distraction condition experienced significantly less stress than participants in the control condition. The discussion highlights the importance of understanding the trajectory of decay to detect the stress-reducing benefits of comforting communication.     

浅析温职院男篮与首届ZUBA(乙组)比赛前三名的实力差距

温州职业技术学院男子篮球队组建二年之后，在浙江省首届大学生篮球联赛中勇夺第四名使学院男篮在省内有了一定的知名度。为了促进学院男篮水平的进一步提高。本试通过分析来找出与对手的差距，为将来实施系统训练提供参考与依据。     

Identity Constructions and Inter-Organizational Collaboration: Islamic Faith-Based Organizations and the Polio Vaccination Stoppage in Northern Nigeria

Polio eradication has received greater attention in medicine and public health than communication studies. In the context of a Northern Nigerian vaccination stoppage by Islamic faith-based organizations (FBOs), this study—informed by the inter-organizational collaboration literature—focused on the FBOs. Through analyses of 119 statements by 19 FBO spokespersons in Nigerian newspapers, the study found the FBOs claimed an identity of concern for the people’s representation and safety; constructed the identity of federal government organizations (FGOs) as unjust, unethical, and unresponsive; constructed the identity of global north organizations (GNOs) as preoccupied with depopulation, operating above the law, and as bullies; and described FGO/GNO communication practices as authoritarian, closed, and deceptive.     

身份认同:青少年文化母题及其当代表征

身份认同作为青少年文化母题的基本内容,导源于青少年时期内在的特殊矛盾。与80前青少年相比,当代青少年在认同话语、认同方式、认同策略以及认同的基本价值内核等方面都呈现出明显的符号消费的特征。这与社会财富的空前增多,公民个人生活自主权的扩大、大众文化与传媒在当代青少年生活中的全面渗透,以及独生子女政策的实施等都有很大的关系。     

用VB实现PC机与数字应变仪的串行通信

在Windows98下利用VB6．0中的串行通信控件，实现PC机的通信口RS232与BZ2206型静态数字应变仪的串行通信。在简单介绍了BZ2206型静态数字应变仪，详细介绍了串行通信的硬件设置，通信控件的通讯方式和具体的程序设计的基础上，给出通信的核心代码，总结了串行通信的一般步骤。实现PC机与BZ2206之间串行通信，就可以进行“应力松弛试验”的数据采集，从而获得安全、高效、稳定可靠的通信数据。