Patterns of communicative interaction in small groups

Effects on selection of message strategies of variables relevant to two communicative objectives, task and interpersonal, were studied. Subjects composed a message in response to one of four situations: high or low self interest in compliance, or high or low desire for liking by the message recipient. Self interest influenced the degree of pressure exerted on the message recipient. Desire for liking altered usage of strategies which conveyed attitudes about the message recipient or attempted to alter reactions to the communicator. In a second study, subjects selected strategies from a list provided by the experimenter rather than actually composing messages. Under this procedure, the effects of the independent variables disappeared. An argument is advanced that message construction may be the more useful approach in determining effects of situational variables on the selection of message strategies, as well as more valuable in elaborating the strategies themselves.