“Is this Ella Fitzgerald?”: My Reflections of James C. McCroskey

Editor’s Note: This essay reflects the final in our five-part set of essays on the career of Communication Research Reports founding editor, James C. McCroskey. In these previous essays, Levine and Park (2017) offered the opening essay in our series, with a professional and personal rememberance of a scholar deeply impactful on both of their careers. Hickson (2018) commented on McCroskey’s formal and informal mentorship styles, and how others might understand the critical importance of offering oneself to one’s peers. Park, Oh, and Ryu (2018) explained the unique impact of McCroskey’s research on communication scholarship in South Korea, and Frymier (2018) reminded us of McCroskey’s impact as a core scholar for instructional communication research. In this final essay, we reached out to current West Virginia University Department of Communication chair Matthew M. Martin for his thoughts. As McCroskey spent most of his career at WVU (including a 25-year stretch as the department chair, from 1972 to 1997), inviting the current chair of that department for a closing commentary seemed most fitting. We hope that these five essays serve as a memorial to a scholar whose career and influence extends far beyond his publication record.     

Religious Fundamentalism and Intercultural Communication: The Relationships Among Ethnocentrism,Intercultural Communication Apprehension,Religious Fundamentalism,Homonegativity, and Tolerance for Religious Disagreements

The purpose of the current study was to examine the relationships among ethnocentrism, intercultural communication apprehension, religious fundamentalism, homonegativity, and tolerance for religious disagreements. This study found a positive relationship between religious fundamentalism with ethnocentrism and homonegativity. The study further found a negative relationship between tolerance for religious disagreement with ethnocentrism and religious fundamentalism. Lastly, homonegativity, ethnocentrism, and tolerance for religious disagreement were shown to account for approximately 17.5% of the variance in an individual's intercultural communication apprehension. However, religious fundamentalism was not shown to be related to intercultural communication apprehension.     

Communication Students' Mathematics Anxiety: Implications for Research Methods Instruction

This study examined indicators of math and speaking competence in three student major categories (N = 263). Communication (n = 178), business (n = 58), and liberal arts (n = 27) majors completed scales measuring math anxiety (Betz, 1978 Betz , N. E. ( 1978 ). Prevalence, distribution, and correlates of math anxiety in college students . Journal of Counseling Psychology , 25 , 441 – 448 .[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]), math performance (Dowling, 1978 Dowling , D. (1978). The development of a mathematics confidence scale and its application in the study of confidence in women college students. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Ohio State. [Google Scholar]), math self-efficacy, and public speaking apprehension (McCroskey, 1982 McCroskey , J. C. ( 1982 ). An introduction to rhetorical communication , Englewood Cliffs , NJ : Prentice-Hall . [Google Scholar]). These variables explained 27.5% of the variance in reported major. Business majors had higher math performance and math self-efficacy scores and lower math anxiety scores than persons majoring in communication or liberal arts, whereas communication majors reported lower public speaking apprehension scores than business or liberal arts majors. Sex differences were found on all mathematics variables, with females scoring higher in math anxiety and lower in math self-efficacy and performance than males. Findings are examined for their implications concerning research methods instruction.     

统觉:冯契哲学的重要范畴

冯契立足于马克思主义哲学,批判地继承了康德的“统觉”范畴。作为其哲学的一个重要范畴,他的“统觉”包括两个部分：所思的判断和能思的自证。文章从三个方面对冯契的“统觉”范畴进行了探究：统觉的内涵、康德与冯契“统觉”范畴的异同、冯契“统觉”范畴的内容。     

The ecology of academic risk: relationships between communication apprehension,verbal aggression,supportive communication,and students’ academic risk status

Contemporary research exploring at‐risk student populations has generally used the epidemiological model, the constructivist model, or the ecological model to explain processes involved in academic risk. This study applies communication constructs to the ecological model of academic risk, which proposes that academic risk is a function of individual, social, and cultural communication phenomena. A survey of 232 students found that (a) at‐risk students communicated more with friends about school than did regular‐admission students, (b) levels of communication apprehension differed depending on at‐risk status and sex, and (c) levels of verbal aggression differed depending on at‐risk status. These results are discussed in terms of theoretical and applied implications.