When Does Self-Affirmation Reduce Negative Responses to Antismoking Messages?

Previous research has shown that self-affirmation can reduce individuals’ defensive processing of threatening health messages. In this study, we examine two audience characteristics—smoking experience and trait reactance—that might regulate the effects of self-affirmation on negative message responses within the context of college smoking. Results of a controlled experiment indicate that self-affirmation worked to reduce negative message responses among smokers who were low in trait reactance. For smokers high in trait reactance and nonsmokers, the effect of self-affirmation was either unclear or went in a direction that led to even greater defensive processing.     

Cracking induction in health libraries: is there a right way?

In most instances, inductions are the first time that users will be introduced to health library services. The time available in which to deliver library orientation sessions within a broader, Trust induction programme is often limited, and this can present challenges for health librarians. Inductions are a great marketing tool, and it is important that induction sessions make the right impact. Within a brief window of opportunity, the health librarian must impart key information to the inductees whilst ensuring the session is relevant and memorable. In this article, guest writer Nicola Healey, Library Manager of North Somerset Healthcare Library, discusses the range of approaches she and her colleagues have explored in delivering library inductions, explaining what worked, what did not and what areas still remain for development. H. S.     

Effects of self-affirmation on message persuasiveness: a cross-cultural study of the U.S. and South Korea

Much research on public communication campaigns has shown that the negative appeals (e.g. fear, guilt appeals) commonly used may not be effective for encouraging prosocial behaviors, as they can facilitate defensive processing. Self-affirmation theory suggests that self-affirmation may be a useful strategy for mitigating defensive responses to potentially self-threatening messages. This cross-national study explored the effect of self-affirmation on the persuasiveness of a threat appeal message in the context of climate change. An experiment with a 3 (no affirmation versus message-integrated affirmation versus message-separate affirmation)?×?2 (high self-threatening versus low self-threatening message)?×?2 (U.S. versus Korea) factorial design (N?=?225, U.S.; N?=?255, Korea) was employed to test this postulation. The results suggested that self-affirmation has a positive effect on perceived risk, attitude toward message, and intention to engage in environmentally-friendly behaviors, although this effect is limited to high self-threat conditions. Additionally, a statistically significant interaction between self-affirmation and culture was found for the effect on behavioral intention. Finally, message-integrated affirmation manipulation was found to be as effective as message-separate affirmation manipulation. The implications of these findings for public communication campaigns in terms of promoting prosocial behaviors are discussed.     

Message fatigue: Conceptual definition,operationalization, and correlates

Despite growing concern over the public’s fatigue toward inundated health messages, communication research has largely neglected such ramifications of prolonged, real-life campaign exposure. This paper offers an initial conceptual and empirical treatment of message fatigue, an important, but understudied, side effect of campaigns. Specifically, it proposes conceptual and operational definitions of the construct and examines psychometric characteristics of a proposed message fatigue scale. The findings from two studies concerning safe sex (N?=?412) and anti-obesity messages (N?=?396) demonstrated solid support for the scale’s unidimensionality. In support of construct validity, the scale exhibited significant associations with message avoidance, annoyance, information seeking, and desensitization. Moreover, in an experimental setting in Study 2, message fatigue negatively predicted attention and message elaboration, while positively predicting counterargument.     

A note on “Clozentropy: A procedure for testing English language proficiency of foreign students”

This study investigates whether attributions made while observing compliance‐gaining interactions always are a matter of perspective. We propose that Construct Differentiation moderates the effects of perspective on causal judgments, such that highly differentiated individuals are more responsive than less differentiated persons to information from interaction that their psychological perspective makes salient. Participants viewed three videotaped compliance‐gaining interactions, one each while taking the perspective of the message source, the message target, and a third‐party observer. Then they rated causes for the target's actions and the target's intent. As predicted, Construct Differentiation was positively associated with intrapersonal variability in ratings of causal judgments across the three perspectives, and positively associated with actor/observer differences when taking the perspective of message source versus target. Implications for interpersonal communication, constructivism, and attribution theories are discussed.     

Question formulation skills training using a novel rubric with first-year medical students

Objective:The authors used an assessment rubric to measure medical students'' improvement in question formulation skills following a brief evidence-based practice (EBP) training session conducted by a health sciences librarian.Method:In a quasi-experimental designed study, students were assessed using a rubric on their pre-instructional skills in formulating answerable EBP questions, based on a clinical scenario. Following their training, they were assessed using the same scenario and rubric. Student pre- and post-test scores were compared using a paired t-test.Results:Students demonstrated statistically significant improvement in their question formulation skills on their post-instructional assessments. The average score for students on the pre-test was 45.5 (SD 11.1) and the average score on the post-test was 65.6 (SD 5.4) with an average increase of 20.1 points on the 70-point scale, p<0.001.Conclusion:The brief instructional session aided by the rubric improved students'' performance in question formulation skills.     

The effects of source credibility and message information quantity on the attitude change of apathetics

The paper develops and tests a theoretical rationale for treating the attitude change of apathetic receivers as a function of their capacities to process the quantities of information contained in a message within an environmental constraint established via source credibility inductions.     

The persistency of the effect on audience attitude of the first versus the second argumentative speech of a series

Using attribution theory and interpersonal attraction literature as a framework, two hypotheses were examined in the present study. The first hypothesis predicted that persons who succeed at a task would tend to perceive their success as internally caused, while failure at a task would tend to be seen as externally caused. Hypothesis two predicted that persons receiving information consistent with their attributional tendency would be more attracted to the information source than would persons receiving attributional information inconsistent with their own attributional tendency. The attribution and attraction data obtained in the experiment supported the two hypotheses.     

Message control intensity: Rationale and preliminary findings

This paper expands on the Rogers and Farace relational communication coding system by offering a definition and measure of message control intensity. The measure is based on the implicit intensity continuum which underlies the coding scheme. As a construct, message control intensity meets the face validity criterion for the “experienced” perspective on communication behavior as described by Poole and Folger. Results from exploratory correlational analyses between message intensity and (1) pronoun usage, (2) transactional structures, (3) control maneuvers, and (4) rigidity and stability measures support the measure's utility and thus provide evidence of its construct validity.     

A Measure of Perceived Argument Strength: Reliability and Validity

Studies of the content of persuasive messages in which the central arguments of the message are scrutinized have traditionally relied on the technique of thought-listing to assess argument strength. Although the validity of the thought-listing procedure is well documented, its utility can be limited in situations involving nonadult populations and sensitive topics. In this paper, we present a self-reported scale that can be used to assess perceived argument strength in contexts where thought-listing may be less appropriate. This scale taps into perceived argument strength from multiple points of view, including but also extending beyond the potential of the argument to elicit positive and negative thoughts. Reliability and validity of this scale were assessed in health communication contexts involving anti-drug public service announcements (PSAs) directed at adolescents and anti-smoking PSAs targeting adults. Evidence of convergence between this scale and the thought-listing technique was also obtained using the classical comprehensive exam arguments.     

A validation test of a message elaboration measure

This report is on the development and testing of a message elaboration measure. The reliability of the message elaboration scale is high μ = .86 to .94 over several studies. Confirmatory factor analytic procedures support the structure of the scale. Patterns of correlations with existing measures of cognitive processes also support the validity of the message elaboration measure.     

A Validation of Brief Tests of Collection Strength

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to assess the validity of the brief test methodology developed by Howard White for collection evaluation. Using White's methodology, two brief tests in Soviet history were developed and applied to five different libraries. Then, the results of the two tests were examined and compared with each other, with the results of a previous brief test in Russian/Soviet history, and with self-evaluations by a number of the tested libraries. The conclusions strongly support White's claims for the validity of brief test methodology.     

Frustration and language intensity

This study investigated the functional relationships among orientation behavior, leadership, and consensus. The study posited that orientation, when viewed as a message variable, is significantly related to the emergence of task leadership     

Bill Katz: In Memoriam

ABSTRACT

A brief essay about the late William Katz, from the perspective of a former student and colleague.     

Teaching health campaigns by doing health campaigns

Courses: Health Campaigns, Health Communication, Communication Campaigns, Public Relations Campaigns, Persuasion.

Objectives: Students will demonstrate their ability to work effectively both individually and in teams to apply health communication theory to emerging, practical, on-campus health issues via formative research, multimodal message development, community engagement, and effective presentation of findings.     

Remain in Safe Mode or Embark on a New Horizon

ABSTRACT

During the past several years the Colorado State University Libraries considered alternatives to their current integrated library system, Innovative Interfaces’ Millennium, and their web scale discovery service, VuFind. These explorations were conducted by two separate task forces that both led a similar course of action: “watch and wait” for the progression of open source library utilities. A few years later, another task force was formed to examine other proprietary Open Uniform Resource Locator link resolvers. In the end, the Committee resolutely understood that a holistic approach to library technology is paramount for providing optimal service and that the a la carte approach to selecting and incorporating library technologies from disparate proprietary companies has a deleterious effect on services.     

On the Validity of the Shortened Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Medicine (REALM) Scale as a Measure of Health Literacy

Originally developed to measure the literacy level of patients, the Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Medicine (REALM) scale is one of the most widely used instruments to measure the construct of health literacy. This article critically examines the validity of the REALM as a measure of health literacy. Logical analysis of content coverage led to the conclusion that scores on the REALM should not be used to make inferences about a person's level of health literacy. Rather, the REALM should be used to make inferences about the ability of a person to read and pronounce health related terms. Evidence from an analysis of a sample of 1,037 respondents to the REALM with a cancer diagnosis supports the quality of the REALM as a measure of reading and pronunciation ability. Other uses of the REALM in health literacy research are discussed.     

Social perception and message awareness as correlates of person‐centered regulative messages

This study reports the extent to which four social and message perception abilities predict the use of person‐centered messages in regulative influence situations: construct differentiation, number of prosocial influence goals, awareness of message effects, and positive outcome predictions. Undergraduate students completed several message tasks along with the Role Category Questionnaire to measure interpersonal cognitive complexity. Construct differentiation and the message analysis variables accounted for 45% of the variance in person‐centered regulative messages. Each of the message knowledge and goal variables was a significant predictor of person‐centered regulative messages. Person‐centered regulative messages were more likely to be produced by people with highly differentiated construct systems, people who had prosocial influence goals, and people who had knowledge of and confidence about the effects their messages would have on their message recipients.     

The Third-Person Effect: A Meta-Analysis of the Perceptual Hypothesis

In this study, we report the results of a meta-analysis concerning the third-person effect's perceptual hypothesis. The hypothesis predicts that people judge the media to exert greater persuasive influence on other people than on themselves. Thirty-two published and unpublished studies with 121 separate effect sizes were examined. The overall effect size between estimated media effects on self and on others was r = .50. Among the 8 moderators investigated (source, method, sampling, respondent, country, desirability, medium, and message), 3 (sampling, respondent, and message) yielded significant effect size variations. Third-person perception in nonrandom and college student samples was significantly larger than in random and noncollege student samples. From a theoretical perspective, these findings may have been due to student participants perceiving themselves to be smarter than other people. A more disturbing explanation would attribute these findings to researchers relying on student samples.