Course: Communication Research Methods. Objectives: This activity provides students with an experiential introduction to measurement theory and the methods for assessing measurement reliability. First, multiple measurements of a person's height are interpreted according to classical test theory. Second, the measurement of human height is used as…

Background: The communication skills of older adults living in care homes is an underexplored topic. Ageing can lead to reduced communication ability and activity; and in the care home environment there may also be fewer communication opportunities. This situation is likely to negatively impact well-being. Previous reviews have found evidence of…

The increasing availability of recording technologies makes it easier to include usability testing projects in business communication courses. Usability testing is a method of discovering whether people can navigate, read, and understand a print or electronic communication well enough to achieve a particular purpose in a reasonable time frame.…

A study investigated the reciprocal relationship between colors and semantic terms--just as certain semantic terms elicit thoughts of particular colors, so those colors may also elicit their reciprocal semantic terms. Twenty-six students were each shown 18 words: 3 each of bipolar pairs that expressed evaluation, activity, or potency. The students…

Introduces a new procedure for assessing communication style, the Communication Style Q-Set. The measure consists of a deck of 100 items describing communication orientations and behaviors. These may be sorted by subjects or raters to describe an individual's unique style. Presents evidence to support the measure's face, concurrent, and…

A study investigated the reason for the decline in participation in NDT (National Debate Tournament) debate. An anonymous poll of forensic programs was conducted to encourage a frank and open description of the issues surrounding the problem. One hundred thirty colleges and universities in America (out of 354) responded to a questionnaire. The…

A study of group member satisfaction investigated which communication behaviors satisfy and dissatisfy people in their group experiences, and whether satisfaction and dissatisfaction are bi-polar opposites or are two crucially different variables. The baseline data generated in this project, which included the participation of 20 upper-grade…

A study examined the effects of parental divorce on college students, comparing college students in five areas of social development according to parental marital status: evaluation of parent/child relationships; relationship commitment and satisfaction; dating frequency and satisfaction; attitudes toward marriage; and sexual activity and…

A study focused on the effect of assigned social decision rule on the process and product of mock jury deliberations. Subjects, 360 college students, were randomly assigned to six-member juries under three decision rule conditions: unanimity, five-sixths majority, and two-thirds majority. After viewing a videotape of a criminal trial, each subject…

A study examines the effect of a brief but intense antipollution message, compared to a control message, on verbal commitment and on three forms of immediate behavioral commitment of college student volunteers (n=104). Exposure to the antipollution message produced significantly more verbal commitment and financial donations but not more time…

This study combined qualitative and quantitative methods to assess the reasons many women use indirect messages to say "no" to men's attempts to escalate sexual intimacy. Subjects were six female students at a large southwestern university. At one time, one group had four women, at another time the group had two women. All were…

A study examined the likelihood of using compliance-gaining strategies when engaging in safe-sex situations. A sample of 110 college students from a large midwestern university completed a 16-item questionnaire that utilized G. Marwell and D. Schmitt's compliance-gaining typology. Results indicate that female college students were significantly…

Assesses the construct and concurrent validity of the Reticence Scale, a 24-item self-report measure. Compares it to other established measures and to open-ended responses to a set of questions. Finds satisfactory support for its construct and concurrent validity. Finds high correlations between dimensions of the Reticence Scale and the open-ended…

A study examined the self-perceptions of college students regarding the effects of alcohol consumption on their interpersonal communication. Forty-seven subjects--the majority of whom were students majoring in health care studies--completed a 52-item Q-sort on alcohol and communication. Four person-types evolved: the social drinker, the…

A study was conducted to develop a taxonomy of decision criteria employed by Cross Examination Debate Association (CEDA) debate critics. Four hypothesis characteristics were tested: (1) audience-centered critics would have a higher proportion of presentational remarks than analytic-centered critics; (2) audience-centered critics would devote a…