Contamination and Camouflage in Euphemisms

The study reports a factor analytic investigation of the interpersonal attraction construct. Two‐hundred and fifteen subjects completed 30 Likert‐type, seven‐step scales concerning an acquaintance. Factor analysis indicated three dimensions of the interpersonal attraction construct which were labeled “task” “social” and “physical.” The results of this study and four replications suggest that the resulting 15‐item instrument can be expected to measure reliably three dimensions of interpersonal attraction.     

Latitude of attitude in ratings of dialect variations

Linguistic attitudes toward dialect patterns were examined through methodological refinements in the use of the semantic differential. Subjects rated their stereotypes and the actual language of children on modified semantic differential scales designed to elicit latitudes of acceptance, rejection, and noncommitment as well as best estimate position. Results validated the two factor model of confidence‐eagerness and ethnicity‐nonstandardness. Three specific research questions regarding the modified technique are discussed.     

The use of semantic network analysis to manage customer complaints

Effective handling of customer complaints is obviously in the consumers’ interest, but analysis of the letters can also provide valuable information to the organization. Organizations can use customer complaints as a way of recording organizational information and tracking effectiveness of their consumer relationship management. In this paper, we argue that organizations should adopt the use of semantic network analysis as an efficient and effective means to track complaints ‐ and what customers are complaining about ‐ over time. We present an example of the use of semantic network analysis with the complete texts of all complaint letters sent to an organization during a one‐year period. The semantic network analysis of the text of the complaint letters identifies the central concerns of this customer group and suggests that the organization address these issues. Through the use of semantic network analysis, an organization can uncover trends and provide support for decision‐making regarding customer relationship management issues.     

Human information processing in four modes of response

This study investigated four discriminately different responses in information processing. Messages associated with neutral, supportive, and threatening communication climates served as the stimuli. Subjects’ responses were measured by (1) an information test; (2) a physiological measure of pupillary size; (3) a denotive measure using an oral questionnaire; and (4) a connotative measure employing a semantic differential. The results of the study were as follows: significant differences exist between information processing under a supportive climate and a threatening one on the first three measures; the fourth measure, the semantic differential, produced no significant differences between the three levels; the four tests gave significantly different results, a significant difference between treatment levels, and a significant interaction between test results and treatment levels.     

Understanding the psychometric properties of the humor assessment instrument through an analysis of the relationships between teacher humor assessment and instructional communication variables in the college classroom

The purpose of this study was to examine the psychometric properties of the newly developed Humor Assessment (HA) instrument. Previous research (Wrench & McCroskey, 2001) noted a construct validity problem with the Humor Orientation (HO) scale created by M. Booth‐Butterfield and S. Booth‐Butterfield (1991). This study examined the relationships between the HA, which corrects the construct validity problem seen in the HO, and affective learning, nonverbal immediacy, cognitive learning, learning loss, student motivation, and teacher credibility.     

The profile of station personality

One of the most outstanding examples of support for worth‐while cultural events by a commercial broadcasting network is the NBC Opera Theater, which was supported largely by NBC for fifteen years. Many people can take opera or leave it alone, and many others set out to avoid it. On the other hand, those who love opera love it with a passion rarely seen in non‐teenagers. However, it was not only for the fans that the NBC Opera Theater was founded, for there is little doubt that there were more opera lovers in the nation in the middle 1960's than there were in the late 1940's—and much of the credit for such an increase must go to this one institution.     

Determining the Key Dimensions for Evaluating Service Quality and Satisfaction in Academic Libraries

ABSTRACT

Offering quality services and evaluating the rate of success in providing users with target services is the pervasive importance of academic libraries. The central purpose of this study is to determine key dimensions of service quality and satisfaction through developing a new item-scale for evaluating service quality and satisfaction in academic libraries. For primary data collection the study used a 28-item instrument based on five dimensional modified version of SERVQUAL. Respondents were asked to indicate their degree of opinions in the three-columns format: desired service expectation, minimum service expectation, and perception of service performance on a 7-point Likert-type scale. The researcher initially conducted a pilot survey to clarify the overall structure of the questionnaire items to be accepted and used. The reliability of the analysis of data with distinct service attributes were taken from ten public and private university libraries in Bangladesh. Subjecting data obtained to exploratory factor analysis shows that academic library service quality and satisfaction is related to four basic dimensions: caring, competence, resources, and library as a place. Twenty-six service items were identified after extraction through exploratory factor analysis, where nine items were shown before “caring,” five items for “competence,” seven items for “resources,” and five items for “library as a place.” The result in fact provides a generic and robust instrument and recognizes a new item-scale, namely “real service expectation” for the librarians and information science practitioners in the assessment of service quality and satisfaction in academic libraries and in the related fields.     

Understanding Emotion from a Superordinate Dimensional Perspective: A Productive Way Forward for Communication Processes and Effects Studies

Subjects differing in interpersonal construct differentiation completed both an attitude measure and a behavioral intentions measure (in which subjects’ behavioral intentions in each of nine attitude‐relevant interpersonal situations were assessed) toward a subject‐selected target person. While the overall correlation between attitude and the behavioral intentions index was high (r = .85,), low‐differentiation subjects displayed significantly greater attitude‐behavioral intentions consistency (r = .95,) than did high‐differentiation subjects (r = .75). Correspondingly low differentiation subjects exhibited significantly less variability in the evaluative direction of their behavioral intentions than did high‐differentiation subjects (construct differentiation and variance in individuals’ behavioral intentions were correlated, r = .37). The results are interpreted as suggesting that within a given domain, persons with developmentally less advanced cognitive systems place greater reliance on evaluative consistency principles in organizing their beliefs and behaviors and hence are more likely to exhibit attitude‐behavior consistency than are persons with more developed systems.     

An experimental analysis of emphasis

Eighty English‐Canadian subjects listened to a taped persuasive communication attributed to either an English‐Canadian or a French‐Canadian source and read with either an English‐Canadian or a French‐Canadian dialect. Both the speaker's dialect and the source's ethnicity affected the audience's reaction to the message. French‐Canadian subjects responded more favourably to a communication read with an English‐Canadian dialect than one read with a French‐Canadian dialect and responded more favourably to a communication attributed to an English‐Canadian source than one attributed to a French‐Canadian source. Furthermore, French‐Canadian sources were evaluated less stereotypically when communications attributed to them were read with an English‐Canadian dialect than when read with a French‐Canadian dialect. Methodological and theoretical implications of these results are discussed.     

Body sensations of higher and lower anxiety sensitive speakers anticipating a public presentation

The purpose of this study was to determine if higher and lower anxiety sensitive speakers would exhibit differential levels of four types of body sensations (gastrointestinal, cardiopulmonary, disorientation, and numbness) while anticipating giving a public speech. The participants were eighty‐seven undergraduate students who gave five‐minute informative speeches. The Anxiety Sensitivity Index was used to measure anxiety sensitivity, and the Body Sensations Questionnaire was used to measure body sensations during the anticipatory period. The results showed a significant difference in body sensations between higher and lower anxiety sensitivity speakers for gastrointestinal, cardiopulmonary and numbness sensations. There were no significant differences found for disorientation between higher and lower anxiety sensitive speakers.     

The teaching of rhetoric in French Jesuit colleges, 1556–1762 1

This study examined the effects of sentence context on response variation for vague, ambiguous, and clear nouns. Thirty‐four subjects within a 2x3 mixed design responded to five nouns of each type. The results indicated that nouns appearing in sentence context produced less response variation than nouns appearing alone. It was also found that clear nouns generated more homogeneous responses than did vague or ambiguous nouns. Finally, the study showed that ambiguous nouns appearing in sentences did not result in more or less response variation than did vague nouns appearing in sentences.     

A preliminary analysis of the misidentifications of nine American vowels

The first step in the investigation of the affective power of dramatic performances is the identification of those ways in which performances, either of the same or of different plays, differ from one another. Various studies have suggested that relatively few factors or dimensions account for the major portion of the variance among concepts. Using the general format of the semantic differential, the author has used audience reactions to dialogue, plot, acting, scenery, costumes, and lighting of filmed dramatic performances to identify paired adjective scales which define factors relevant to dramatic performances.     

An instructor self‐disclosure scale

This ‐paper introduces the Instructor Self‐Disclosure Scale and reports on two initial studies that address the reliability and validity of the scale. The Instructor Self‐Disclosure Scale is an 18‐item measure of the amount of instructor self‐disclosure. In Study One, instructor self‐disclosure was positively related to the student motives of relational, excuse‐making, and sycophancy. In Study Two, instructor self‐disclosure was positively related to out‐of‐class communication, the student interest dimensions of meaningfulness and impact, and cognitive learning. Additionally, the Instructor Self‐Disclosure Scale appears to be a unidimensional, internally reliable measure.     

A consideration of five traditional educational philosophies for speech communication

The authors present five traditional educational philosophies— Idealism, Realism, Neo‐Thomism, Experimentalism, Existentialism—which identify an instructor's educational approaches to speech communication.     

Getting the actor to act

The hypothesis that a self‐contradictory communication is less persuasive than a non‐contradictory one was tested. The data supported the hypothesis only for those subjects who perceived the contradiction; neither open and closed‐mindedness nor initial attitude toward the policy advocated in the communication accurately distinguished the perceivers of the contradiction from the non‐perceivers.     

Listening: An empirical comparison of discussion length and level of incentive

This study was designed to compare strategies used to improve listening skills in business communication settings. It analyzed the effect of discussion length and incentive level on the ability of subjects to listen to and identify main points in twenty‐two short dialogues. The results suggest that both discussion length and incentive level have an effect on listening ability.     

Durational differences in speech production under normal and delayed auditory feedback

The relationship between an individual's social perspective‐taking capacity and the complexity of that individual's dimensions for construing the behavior and character of others was examined within a general constructivist framework. A significant correlation was found supporting the hypothesis that the more differentiated the construction system of the individual the better he/she should be able to construe the perspectives of others in social situations. Evidence is also offered demonstrating the validity and reliability of the Social Perspective Task as a research instrument for examining the mode of construal of the individual.     

Père René Rapin's eloquence des belles‐lettres

This study employed factor‐analytic techniques in two separate experiments to determine the dimensions of message interpretation when different opinions on black‐white relationships were expressed. People in five cities responded to messages varying in perceived racial militancy. The results yielded a factor structure with three strong and pure dimensions accounting for 68 percent of the variance. Suggestions for the use of these scales in a variety of situations were offered.     

ETV's financial dilemma

Cagney and Lacey marks a change in the traditional law‐and‐order, police‐detective genre because character, rather than crime, activities are the dominant elements of the series. Character dramatization is achieved through five discourse patterns that interact in individual episodes and continue across episodes and seasons. The integration of discourse patterns results in a narrative that is serial in nature and cumulative in effect. This essay traces these discourse patterns and demonstrates how the series evolved into a hybrid program form that explored, in an innovative way, television's dramatic narrative potential.     

Attachment styles and the evaluation of comforting responses: A receiver perspective

The current study explored emotional distress and comforting messages from a receiver's perspective. This approach differs from most comforting research, which focuses on the sender's ability to provide comfort. After reading a scenario that depicted a major distressing event or a daily distressing event, subjects selected the Burleson and Samter (1985) comforting strategy that would most alleviate their emotional distress. In an attempt to explain a subject's perceptions of comforting, attachment styles, likelihood of seeking support, and level of emotional discomfort were also assessed. Results indicated that subjects desired a mid‐level comforting response regardless of whether they were distressed over a daily event or major event. This result is counter to the sender oriented comforting research, which suggests that providing higher‐level comforting responses is optimal. Subjects in the death scenario were more upset by the event and more likely to seek social support. Secure attachment subjects desired a significantly higher‐level comforting message than anxious/ambivalent and avoidant individuals. Additionally, females desired a higher level comforting response, were more likely to be upset by the distress, and were more likely to seek support than males.