The influence of applicant characteristics on use of verbal impression management tactics in the employment selection interview

This study investigated the relationship between applicant characteristics and their impression management (IM) tactics used in 51 videotaped employment interviews. Findings show verbal aggressiveness is significantly related to self‐enhancement and entitlements tactics. Data also confirmed significant differences between male and female applicants, African American, Latino/a American, and European American applicants, and temporary and permanent employment applicants and their use of IM tactics. No significant relationship was found between communication apprehension and argumentativeness of the applicants and their use of IM tactics.     

Exploring the communicative nature of corporal punishment

Extensive research in sociology and psychology suggests that corporal punishment of children is a serious problem because it increases the risk of physical and psychological harm. In the present study we utilized a recently developed communication framework to investigate corporal punishment. We derived two hypotheses and conducted a study of 178 college students. Following established procedures, we asked respondents to report about corporal punishment during a period of their youth. Participants rated each parent and themselves on aggressive communication measures. They also rated themselves on assault tendencies, anger, self‐esteem, and intentions to use corporal punishment. Support for our two hypotheses revealed that when participants recalled receiving higher levels of corporal punishment they perceived their parents to be higher in verbal aggressiveness. Furthermore, they reported being higher in assault tendencies, anger, and intentions to use corporal punishment with their children.     

Effects of Instructor Speech Rate on Student Affective Learning,Recall, and Perceptions of Nonverbal Immediacy,Credibility, and Clarity

Although research indicates that speech rate affects perceptions of speaker credibility as well as persuasiveness and information recall, research has failed to address how instructor speech rate affects student perceptions and learning. This study randomly assigned basic communication course students to one of three speech rate conditions (slow, moderate, fast), using a videotaped lesson by an instructor. Findings revealed significant differences for credibility, affective leaning, and nonverbal immediacy, but did not reveal significant differences for recall or clarity. Implications for instructional practice and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

Organizational newcomers: Temporary and regular employees,same‐sex and mixed‐sex superior‐subordinate dyads,supervisor influence techniques,subordinates communication satisfaction,and leader‐member exchange

This study examined the relationship between newly hired employees’ characteristics (i.e., temporary vs. regular employee, superior‐subordinate gender‐dyad combinations), supervisors initial tactics of influence, subordinate communication satisfaction, and quality of leader‐member exchange. Results from 148 (71 temporary) new hires indicated (a) employee characteristics were not significantly related to the leader‐member exchange, (b) supervisors initial use of prosocial influence tactics were significantly and positively related to the quality of leader‐member exchange, and (c) subordinates’ satisfaction with communication was significantly and positively related to the quality of leader‐member exchange.     

Christianity and its legacy in education

Much of the discussion regarding religion and schooling in the US has been limited to ideological clashes surrounding the role of the courts and, ostensibly, the much litigated issue of prayer in schools. This comes at the expense of an examination of deeper curricular issues rooted in language and school mechanisms borne of historical consequences. The authors seek to reframe the discussion of religion and schooling, arguing that to suggest that the removal of explicit prayerfulness equates to the cleansing of US public education of its religious character is facile and ahistorical. They suggest, instead, that religion remains in the language, practices, and routines of schooling but also in conceptions of the “’child” ‘ and assumptions about the role of schools emanating from such conceptions. Evoking the notion of pentimento, the piece seeks to elucidate the Judeo-Christian character of schooling in the US as a way of re-imagining discussions regarding the relationship between religion and/as curriculum. The piece concludes with a discussion of the implications of such an examination for curriculum studies and teacher education.     

Environmental Correlates of Diverse Mental Abilities

The relationship between a refined measure of the home environment and four mental ability test scores: verbal, number, spatial, and reasoning was examined. The final sample for the study included 185 11-year-old boys and their parents. The Science Research Associates (SRA) Primary Mental Abilities test was administered to the boys. A newly constructed home interview schedule was developed and used to obtain responses from parents regarding the learning environment of the home. The environment was found to account for a large percentage of the variance in verbal and number ability and a moderate percentage of the variance in reasoning ability test scores. For spatial ability, the relationship with the environment was less definite. It was also found that the environment accounted for more of the variance in the mental ability scores than did a set of social status indicators and family structure variables.     

Forms of Voice: Exploring the Empowerment of Youth at the Intersection of Art and Action

The authors utilize Photovoice methodology to engage in an examination of the possibilities of counternarrative through the photographs, oral accounts and drawings of three inner-city youths. In the process, this article seeks to expand upon and challenge prior uses of Photovoice methodologies and Critical Youth Engagement. The authors posit the existence of an Adult-Child Imaginary which speaks to the distinction between researchers’ aims for community engagement in a given project and children’s desires for relationality. In the process the article suggests ways of thinking about how research listens and responds to voices of youth in creating transformative community projects.     

Primary schooling under New Labour: The irresolvable contradiction of excellence and enjoyment

This article aims to provide both an account and an assessment of the most significant policies adopted by New Labour on primary schooling since its victory in the election of 1997. A secondary intention is to determine what these policies reveal about New Labour and its political project. A key policy objective in New Labour’s two terms of office since 1997 has been the retention of the electoral support it received from voters who had benefited from policies pursued by the Thatcher governments.