A rules‐based study of television's role in the construction of social reality

A qualitative analysis of one couple's conversational uses of mediated content is presented. Observations spanned a two‐year period. Data were categorized according to usage type and then examined from Lull's (1981) rules persective.     

A typology of drug resistance strategies

This study examined social influences on adolescents' responses to drug offers. Seventy narrative accounts of both successful and unsuccessful attempts to say no were collected. From these data, the authors developed a typology of both drug offers and drug resistance strategies. In addition, typologies were developed for: who made the offer, what substance was offered, where the offer occurred, and why the subject responded as she or he did. As well, the study revealed the influence of the type of drug, alcohol or controlled substance, on the process of offering and resisting.

The analysis revealed that adolescents were more likely to resist offers of controlled substances and did so more often when the offer was made by an acquaintance at school. When they did refuse, they were most likely to simply say no. Also, teenagers were more likely to accept offers of alcohol, particularly from friends in social situations when the friends used persuasive appeals.     

Antisocial classroom communication: Instructor influence and interactional justice as predictors of student aggression

The present study investigated potentially destructive instructor and student communication. In particular, it examined the relationships between instructor use of antisocial behavior alteration techniques (BATs), student perceptions of instructor interactional justice, and students' likelihood of indirectly aggressing against their instructors. Results indicate that student perceptions of instructors' use of antisocial BATs and instructor interactional injustice predicted increased student indirect aggression. In addition, student perceptions of instructor antisocial BAT use and interactional justice were negatively correlated and interactional justice was a stronger predictor of student indirect aggression than was instructor antisocial BAT use.     

Interpersonal communication motives: A communibiological perspective

This study examined the relationships between interpersonal communication motives and temperament traits. Results indicated that extroversion was positively correlated with pleasure, affection, inclusion, escape, and relaxation and was not correlated with control. Extroversion accounted for the most unique variance in the pleasure and relaxation motives. Neuroticism was positively correlated with inclusion, escape, and control, negatively correlated with pleasure, and not correlated with affection and relaxation. Neuroticism accounted for the most unique variance in the escape motive. Psychoticism was positively correlated with control, negatively correlated with pleasure, affection, inclusion, and relaxation, and uncorrelated with escape. Psychoticism accounted for the most unique variance in the interpersonal motives of affection and inclusion.     

The Effects of Student Responsiveness on Teachers Granting Power to Students and Essay Evaluation

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of student responsiveness on teachers granting relational power to students, and to determine if this power influenced how teachers evaluated student essays. Rather than student verbal and nonverbal responsiveness interacting, student nonverbal responsiveness significantly impacted the coercive, reward, and referent power that teachers granted students. Student verbal and nonverbal responsiveness affected the expert power that teachers granted students. Nine to 18% of the variance in relational power was attributed to student responsiveness. Additionally, student referent power significantly predicted teachers’ evaluation of student essays accounting for 11% of the variance.     

Simmering on the Back Burner: Communication with and Disclosure of Relationship Alternatives

The term “back burner” describes a desired potential romantic/sexual partner with whom one communicates with the intent of establishing a future romantic or sexual connection. Contemporary communication technologies (e.g., mobile phones, social networking applications) facilitate connections with back burners. Two survey studies (Ns = 347, 374) showed that back burner communication is relatively common among college students; however, college students also have many romantic or sexual interests that they do not consider back burners. Additionally, although most college students will not fully disclose their communication with back burners to their partners, approximately half fully disclose communication with romantic or sexual desirables to their partners. Therefore, the results of this study suggest that back burners can be distinguished from those with whom we would entertain having a romantic or sexual connection. Theoretically, they can also be distinguished from other types of casual sexual relationships.     

Facilitating engagement in new career goals: the moderating effects of personal resources and career actions

Goal engagement in young adults is variable. We recruited university students to test whether general personal characteristics (educational ability, core self-evaluations, and well-being; study 1, N = 195) and career adaptive variables (career confidence, exploration, and planning; study 2, N = 152) facilitated career goal engagement. Goal engagement was associated positively with goal disengagement in study 1. Moderating effects showed that the positive relationship between engagement and disengagement was stronger when core self-evaluations and well-being (satisfaction) were high, and when career confidence, exploration, and planning were high. Results are discussed in the context of transitions and promoting adaptable career goals.     

What If I Woke up as the Other Sex? Batswana Youth Perspectives on Gender

The article focuses on 50 essays written by young people, aged 14-20, in Botswana, Africa, about how life would change if they were to wake up one day and find themselves a member of the other sex. The youth are peer counselors in a Young Women's Christian Association's program, 'Peer Approach to Counseling by Teens' (PACT), which is used in schools. Twenty-five of the essays were written by males and 25 by females. Conventional qualitative analyses are employed to (a) determine the extent to which the essays present positive, negative or mixed responses to life as the other sex; and (b) identify gender themes embedded in the essays. A departure from the conventional is provided through poetic representation. Two data poems were constructed from the essays. A poetic response to the data poems is also included.     

Validating a model of effective teaching behaviour and student engagement: perspectives from Spanish students

Research consistently shows that teaching behaviour is a highly-important indicator of learning environments. Based on a teacher effectiveness model with six observable teaching behaviour domains (safe learning climate, efficient classroom management, clarity of instruction, activating teaching, teaching–learning strategies, and differentiation), the present paper examines the psychometric quality of the My Teacher questionnaire for capturing student perceptions of teaching behaviour in the Spanish secondary-education context. Additionally, this study validated the model of teaching behaviour and student engagement and its relevance in Spain. 7114 students of 410 teachers attending 56 public and private Spanish schools constituted the sample. The six teaching behavioural dimensions model were confirmed in the Spanish context. Regarding student academic engagement, the presence of two domains (behavioural and emotional engagement) were confirmed. Furthermore, results of a multiple-group structural equation modeling path analysis, examining the relationship between teaching behaviour and student engagement across different teaching experiences, revealed differential effects of teaching behaviour influences on students’ engagement. The percentage of explained variance was larger for emotional engagement than for behavioural engagement. Furthermore, teachers’ teaching experience explained differences in the relationship between perceived teaching behaviour and engagement. Two domains (learning climate and activating teaching) appeared to be the two most-important teaching domains for students’ behavioural engagement while, for emotional engagement, the most important domains for student engagement were learning climate and teaching learning strategies.