The relationship between the developmental level of persuasive strategies and their effectiveness

Research on the development of persuasive communication skills has described the emergence of four basic strategies in persuasive messages. This study includes two experiments to assess the role these strategies play in the process of gaining compliance. In both, college students received messages requesting they volunteer for an experiment and advocating compliance. Messages differed in the level of strategic adaptation of the compliance‐gaining appeal they offered. In general, form of request (supported versus unsupported) and content of specific message appeals influenced compliance, but level of strategic adaptation made little or no contribution to message effectiveness.     

Anxiety,construct differentiation,and message production

Neuliep and Hazleton have reported a significant negative relationship between a general measure of trait anxiety and interpersonal construct differentiation. The study reported in this paper failed to find a significant relationship between a more specific measure of interpersonal trait anxiety and interpersonal construct differentiation, and also found no significant relationships between state anxiety and construct differentiation, or either interpersonal trait or state anxiety and the production of messages considered more or less competent by constructivist conceptions in an anxiety‐producing interpersonal context. The study did find a significant positive relationship between interpersonal construct differentiation and the production of such messages. These results are discussed with particular emphasis on the lack of conceptual relation between notions of anxiety and construct differentiation.     

Communication as influence: Definitional exclusion

Persuasion, influence, and power have traditionally been defined as the fundamental features of rhetoric, communication, and discourse. This tradition of definition exhibits a masculine bias that has tended to exclude and negate a feminine view of communication as relational responsibility. This essay calls for the development of a transcendent definition of communication that will include and affirm both masculine and feminine views, leading to more favorable pragmatic, theoretic, and research consequences.     

Providing Effective Mentoring for Alternate Rout Beginning Teachers

Abstract

This two‐semester study compared two designs of coursework and field experience in a teacher preparation program. Participants were 62 preservice teachers. Data were collected from their observations of mentor teachers’ instruction and their analyses of these observations. Data were analyzed by constant comparative analysis and analytic statistics. The study found that the design, organized to bring the field experience into the methods course, enhanced preservice teacher abilities to understand and explain instructional observations. The results have implications for the integration of methods coursework and field experience, likely across content areas.     

Journal Writing with Web 2.0 Tools: A Vision for Older Adults

This article describes how Web 2.0 technologies may facilitate journaling and related inquiry methods among older adults. Benefits and limitations of journaling are summarized as well as computer skills of older adults. We then describe how Web 2.0 technologies can enhance journaling among older adults by diminishing feelings of isolation, promoting collaboration, establishing learning communities that overcome physical boundaries, and facilitating storage and dissemination of resources. The article concludes by identifying several factors that must be anticipated when using these technologies and provides ideas to overcome privacy, access, and posthumous management.     

COUNTER: from conception to compliance

COUNTER was formally launched in March 2002. Within a year Release 1 of the COUNTER Code of Practice had been published, and a number of leading publishers were working towards making their usage reports COUNTER‐compliant. This article describes the background to COUNTER, the main features of the Code of Practice, the current status of its implementation and the next steps for the project. It also stresses the particular benefits to publishers of COUNTER compliance and of COUNTER membership.