Expected versus actual responses to disclosure in relationships of HIV‐positive African American adolescent females

Ten HIV‐positive African American adolescent females were interviewed regarding disclosure of their HIV infection in various relationships. Communication Boundary Management (Petronio, 1991) provided a framework for understanding disclosure patterns in these relationships. Participants described expected (n = 113) and actual (n = 94) responses to disclosing an HIV diagnosis. The findings indicate that expected response and the target of disclosure affect adolescents’ disclosure decisions. Participants expected targets of disclosure to respond as follows: experience negative emotional reactions, provide support, treat them differently, tell others, or were unsure of a target's response. On the basis of these findings, five themes were identified related to actual responses to disclosure of HIV infection: different treatment, negative emotional reaction, received support, target told others, and treated no differently. Implications, limitations, and directions for future research are discussed.     

Structural Pluralism in Journalism and Media Studies: A Concept Explication and Theory Construction

This article critically reviews scholarship on structural pluralism (Tichenor, Donohue, & Olien, 1973 Tichenor , P. J. , Donohue , G. A. , & Olien , C. N. ( 1973 ). Mass communication research: The evolution of a structural model . Journalism Quarterly , 50 , 419 – 425 .[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar], 1980 Tichenor , P. J. , Donohue , G. A. , & Olien , C. N. ( 1980 ). Community conflict & the press . Beverly Hills , CA : Sage . [Google Scholar]) in journalism and media studies. Relying partly on a concept explication and theory construction process (McLeod & Pan, 2004 McLeod , J. M. , & Pan , Z. ( 2004 ). Concept explication and theory construction . In S. Dunwoody , L. B. Becker , D. M. McCleod , & G. M. Kosicki (Eds.), The evolution of key mass communication concepts honoring Jack M. McLeod (pp. 13 – 76 ). Cresskill , NJ : Hampton . [Google Scholar]), the article explicates structural pluralism as a multifaceted concept with multiple dimensions and indicators. While reviewing relationships or hypotheses between structural pluralism and various outcomes, the article then discusses and proposes issues and agendas for future studies.     

A Patient-centered Approach to Breaking Bad News: Communication Guidelines for Health Care Providers

This investigation takes a patient-centered approach to examining strategies physicians use to deliver bad news to patients. Qualitative data were obtained from 68 patients who had received a message they perceived as negative information from a health care provider. Through grounded theory methodology, patient accounts were examined to reveal four provider strategies for breaking bad news. This investigation underscores the importance of using effective communication strategies to achieve patient satisfaction and compliance.     

The role of outcome expectations in the experience of a state of communication apprehension

Following the trend toward cognitive explanations of social phenomena, an expectation‐based model of the processes leading to a state of communication apprehension is advanced. Further, an initial test of the model is reported. The results of this study indicated that expectations are a significant predictor of communication apprehension as measured by self‐report. In addition, importance of communicative goals and the interaction of expected outcome and goal importance were also significant predictor variables. These relationships were not observed when heart‐rate was used as a measure of anxiety.