An investigation of the relationship between cognitive complexity and listener‐adapted communication

This study investigated the hypothesis that dyads composed of two cognitively complex individuals would be more successful at a communication task than would dyads composed of two individuals who are both noncomplex. Another hypothesis was that mixed dyads (one person complex, one noncomplex) would be more effective than noncomplex dyads but not as effective as complex dyads. The data supported the hypotheses. When both members of a dyad were complex or when the complex member of a mixed dyad was the person giving directions, the directions were more effective than when both members are noncomplex or when the noncomplex member of a mixed dyad was giving directions.     

Perceived confidence as a function of self‐image

The hypothesis that a speaker's perceived confidence is a function of his self‐image was studied in this investigation. Seventeen matched pairs of subjects were picked on the basis of a pretest of the Personal Report of Confidence as a Speaker index. The experimental subjects were given indirect suggestion that their audiences viewed them as confident speakers. Posttest differences between treatments was significant at the 5% level of confidence.     

Trait anticipatory public speaking anxiety as a function of self‐efficacy expectations and self‐handicapping strategies

The purpose of this study was to determine if the independent variables of self‐efficacy expectations and self‐handicapping strategies would predict trait anticipatory public speaking anxiety. A model was proposed and tested in which self‐efficacy expectations were found to be significant independent predictors of trait anticipatory public speaking anxiety. Self‐handicapping was not a significant predictor. Implications for future research are discussed.     

Teacher’ use of humor,self‐disclosure,and narrative activity as a function of experience

This investigation reported normative data for experienced (N = 20) and less‐experienced (N = 20) college teachers’ use of humor, self‐disclosure, and narrative activities. Results indicated that both groups of teachers observed in the study incorporated the three behaviors within their 50‐minute lectures. Experienced teachers, however, used humor, self‐disclosure, and narrative activities more frequently than the less‐experienced teachers. Additionally, the experienced teachers used the behaviors to clarify course content.     

Sibling communication satisfaction as a function of interpersonal solidarity,individualized trust,and self‐disclosure

The purpose of this study was to examine sibling communication satisfaction, with a specific focus on interpersonal solidarity, individualized trust, and self‐disclosure. Respondents (N = 360) were asked to report on a relationship with either an older sister, younger sister, older brother, or younger brother. Results indicate that interpersonal solidarity is the largest predictor of sibling communication satisfaction, followed by individualized trust, and self‐disclosure.     

Sensation seeking as a moderator of the processing of anti‐heroin PSAs

Anti‐drug media campaigns have changed the drug‐consumption behaviors of high sensation seekers in part through a campaign strategy called SENTAR. This strategy relies largely on high sensation value messages, which contain structural and content features that elicit sensory, affective, and arousal responses. To learn more about the persuasiveness of high sensation value ads, this investigation focused on the processing of anti‐heroin PSAs by 200 young adults. Of specific interest was the influence of perceived message sensation value on three types of processing (argument‐based, narrative, and sensory), two affect variables (sympathetic distress and stimulated excitation), and anti‐heroin attitudes. Sensation seeking was examined as a moderator of these effects. In general, sensation seeking moderated the effects of perceived message sensation value and sensory processing on sympathetic distress and anti‐heroin attitudes. Additionally, high sensation seekers’ anti‐heroin attitudes were largely influenced by narrative and sensory processing, while low sensation seekers’ anti‐heroin attitudes were relatively unaffected by the anti‐heroin ads.     

Political advertising in Taiwan and the US: Across‐cultural comparison of the 1996 presidential election campaigns

This study applies Hall's (1977) culture‐context theory and Hofstede's (1991) individualistic/collectivistic aspects of cultural differences to understand how content and appeals of political advertising in Taiwan and the US differ. The aspects examined included the presence of direct and indirect attacks, the presentation of issues, types of settings, and the use of metaphors, symbols, and songs. Analyses showed that most of the findings were consistent with cultural expectations.     

A cross‐cultural test of the association between temperament and communication apprehension

The research reported in his study was a cross‐cultural test of the communibiological model of communication apprehension as temperamental expression. The study was designed to replicate the findings reported by Beatty, McCroskey, and Heisel (1998) in the U.S. and Japan. In this study participants from Japan and the U.S. completed measures of communication apprehension, neurotitism, and extroversion. The results indicated that, for both Japanese and U.S. college students, scores on the measure of communication apprehension were significantly correlated with measures of neuroticism and extroversion. Multiple regression analyses indicated that both neuroticism and extroversion predicted unique variance in communication in both cultures and that the multiple correlations for the two cultures did not differ significantly. It was concluded that the replication was successful and that temperament scores are substantially predictive of communication apprehension across the cultures tested.     

An assessment of the convergent validity of the checklist of behavior alteration techniques: The association between teachers’ likelihood‐of‐use ratings and informants’ frequency‐of‐use ratings

An important area of applied communication research is teachers’ use of classroom discipline and management strategies which have become known as Behavior Alteration Techniques (BATs). The instrument commonly used to measure teachers’ use of BATs is the checklist of Behavior Alteration Techniques. The purpose of the present research was to assess the convergent validity of the checklist of Behavior Alteration Techniques. Thus, this research attempted to assess the extent to which teachers’ likelihood‐of‐use ratings converge with other measures of teacher BAT use. It was hypothesized that the correlation between students’ and student teachers’ ratings of the frequency of teacher BAT use would be significantly higher than the correlation of either index with teachers’ likelihood‐of‐use ratings. This hypothesis was not supported: The BATs checklist did not fail this test of convergent validity. However, the results do not support the claim that the BATs checklist passed this test of convergent validity. Explanations for these results are offered and their implications are discussed. In brief, the present results suggest important considerations in the study of this important area of applied communication.     

Students’ perceptions of instructors’ socio‐communicative style and the influence on instructor credibility and situational motivation

This study investigated whether instructors with different socio‐communicative styles differed in their students’ perceptions of their credibility and their students’ Situationen motivation. Students (N = 260) completed a questionnaire on the class/instructor they had immediately before their current class. The questionnaire consisted of measures of assertiveness, responsiveness, credibility, and situational motivation. Instructors with the socio‐communicative style of competent were perceived highest in all three dimensions of credibility (expertise, character, and caring) and in students’ situational motivation. Instructors classified as noncompetent were perceived as lowest in caring and expertise, while instructors classified as aggressive were perceived as lowest in character. Additionally, situational motivation was positively correlated to all three dimensions of credibility. The results support the importance of instructors being able to display assertive and responsive communication behaviors.     

A descriptive investigation of the possible communication‐based reasons for effective and ineffective group decision making

The present study sought to compare the nature and content of interaction within a number of “effective” and “ineffective” decision‐making groups in an effort to identify consistent differences which might account for the differences in the quality of their group decisions. The goal of the investigation was to generate data which will help us better understand the communication‐based reasons for “effective” and “ineffective” group decision making. Using basically a qualitative approach, six “effective” groups and five “ineffective” groups were compared. The study found that the discussions of those two sets of groups can be distinguished on the basis of at least four communication‐related characteristics: (1) The manner in which the groups examined opinions and assumptions advanced by group members; (2) The manner in which the groups evaluated alternative choices; (3) The nature of the premises which served as the basis for the groups’ decisions; and (4) The nature of influence exerted by the most influential members of the groups. These four differences are discussed in terms of specific empirically‐testable propositions regarding the relationship between group interaction and quality of group decision making.     

Building relationships between organizations and publics: Examining the linkage between organization‐public relationships,evaluations of satisfaction,and behavioral intent

Many public relations practitioners have not incorporated relationship management theory into the practice of public relations because the quantitative and qualitative benefits derived from effective relationship management have been, more often than not, inferred rather than demonstrated. The current investigation was designed to measure respondents’ perceptions of their relationship with an organization and determine the ways in which organization‐public relationships were linked to evaluations of satisfaction and behavioral intent. The results showed that organization‐public relationships indeed were related to respondent satisfaction evaluations and behavioral intent, suggesting that organizations should attend carefully and strategically to the management of organization‐public relationships. Implications of these findings were presented, and limitations to the current investigation discussed.     

An investigation of the relationship between scientists’ mobility to/from China and their research performance

A large number of overseas elites were brought back to China by the policy in the past decade. However, name disambiguation defied investigations on the relationship between their mobility and research performance. By taking advantage of the ORCID website and applying causal inference strategies, we investigated 2489 China-connected scientists’ academic performance in the Web of Science database in terms of their job mobility, including 1388 scientists who moved to China the treatment group, and 1101 scientists with a possibility to move to China the control group. The results show that first, scientists moving to China have a new growth pattern where both their productivity and the rates of being corresponding authors in publications grew more rapidly than before; however, they made fewer contributions to the four top journals, Nature, Science, Cell, and PNAS. Second, the research performance of the scientists is affected by the time of mobility towards China, the countries from which they moved, and the disciplines of their publications. Last, China now maintains symmetrical inflow-outflow patterns with most countries, especially developed countries in Europe and North America, with only a few exceptions (e.g., Pakistan).     

Memorable messages as guides to self‐assessment of behavior: a replication and extension diary study

An investigation of memorable messages as guides to self‐assessment of daily behavior was conducted. Respondents were asked to keep diaries for five days. Each day participants were asked to recall one behavior that violated and one behavior that exceeded their personal expectations for themselves. After recalling the situation, participants were asked to recall the memorable messages, if any, which came to mind when self‐assessing these behaviors. This method used the self‐assessment of prior behavior as the entry point to a feedback loop. Control theory predicts that within the feedback loop behaviors are compared with internal principles that come from memorable messages. This comparison is predicted to result in either a positively or negatively valenced evaluation of the behavior if it either exceeds or violates personal standards represented as internal principles. The findings include the categories of behaviors that exceeded or violated personal expectations, the memorable messages, and the primary sources of the memorable messages that were recalled during the comparison process. In addition, comparisons were made between this research effort and a previous study that asked participants to self‐assess more extreme cases of behavior and the memorable messages associated with that process.     

Mothers' child abuse potential as a predictor of maternal and child behaviors during play‐time interactions

This paper explores the effect of mothers' child abuse potential on maternal and child behaviors during play‐time interactions. Forty‐two mothers participated in a 10‐min play period followed by a clean‐up task along with one of their children (range=3–8 years old), after which they completed Milner's () Child Abuse Potential (CAP) Inventory. Mothers' behaviors were coded using a 21‐category scheme, which was collapsed into five behavioral clusters: describing, directing, criticizing, soliciting/affirming, and silent play. Children were rated for levels of involvement (activity) and cooperation. Mothers' child abuse potential scores were inversely associated with their own rate of soliciting/affirming behaviors during the play period. Children of higher‐risk mothers displayed higher levels of involvement combined with lower levels of cooperation compared children of lower‐risk mothers. Implications for understanding and responding to child physical abuse are discussed.     

The relationship between physicians’ use of power stategies and type a orientation in physician‐patient communication

Employing a two sample design, this study examined the relationship between physicians’ use of Behavior Alteration Techniques (BATs) and physicians’ type‐A orientation. Patient and physician respondents reported selection of antisocial BATs was a significant predictor of type‐A physicians.     

“Feeling caught” as a mediator of adolescents' and young adults' avoidance and satisfaction with their parents in divorced and non-divorced households

Numerous researchers have argued that divorce may not have as much of an impact on children's relationships with their parents as the degree of interparental con.ict (e.g., Ahrons & Rodgers, 1987; Amato, Loomis, &Booth, 1995). In the current model the degree to which adolescents and young adults felt caught between their parents was tested as a mediator between divorce and children's avoidance and satisfaction with them. The results revealed that divorce was largely associated with avoidance and satisfaction through children's feelings of being caught, which were a function of their parents' demand—withdraw patterns, communication competence, and other variables. When divorce was removed from the model, the specific relationships in the model applied to children of divorced and non-divorced households. Nevertheless, children of divorce reported greater avoidance, feelings of being caught, greater parental demand—withdraw patterns, less parental communication competence, less closeness, and less satisfaction than children from first marriage families. The. t of the model as a function of the age of the child is also discussed.