From a dynamic systems perspective, transition points in development are times of increased instability, during which behavioral patterns are susceptible to temporary decoupling. This study investigated the impact of the vocabulary spurt on existing patterns of communicative coordination. Eighteen typically developing infants were videotaped at…

Compared communications patterns and conflicts over psychological distance in 25 nondistressed couples, 15 clinic couples, and 22 divorcing couples. Compared with nondistressed couples, both distressed groups had less mutual constructive communication, more avoidance of communication, more demand/withdraw communication, and more conflict over…

Hypothesizes that the ability to create an attitude which would be resistant to later persuasive attack depends largely on whether the attitude is initially induced through direct persuasion or self-persuasion. Reviews a study designed to determine which technique produces greater resistance to subsequent persuasive attacks. (MH)

To assess mother-child interaction, 23 mother-child pairs from the West Harlem ghetto (half lower class and half middle class Negroes) and from Washington Square (white middle class) were observed. Children were 3-year-old boys. Each pair spent 30 minutes in a laboratory playroom and were observed and tape-recorded. Children's nonverbal…

The six studies reported on here sought to determine if patterns of behaviors could be determined in the verbal and nonverbal communications of teachers toward pupils, and if there were differences in these patterns when such variables as sex, race, ability, age, and socioeconomic status were considered. Videotapes of over 100,000 teacher/pupil…

A study was conducted to compare the validity of two theories of interpersonal communication: (1) uncertainty reduction theory, based on the assumption that communication consists of attempts to reach a cognitive state of balance, and (2) coordinated management of meaning theory (CMM), based on the assumption that persons attempt to create a…

Examined differences in family function of high- versus low-identity achievement youth for 411 18- to 24-year-old males, and variables to account for differing identity levels. High-identity subjects belong to balanced families and experience more openness and less problems communicating with parents. Discusses implications for counseling and…

The Communicator Style Measure (CSM) was administered to 731 students in Japanese universities and 520 American students at the University of Hawaii to discover if members of certain ethnic or national groups possessed a style of speaking that distinguished them from members of other groups. The CSM contains 51 randomly ordered items that inquire…

R. J. Sternberg and others found that the types of behaviors reported by laypersons as characterizing different types of intelligence varied across the different groups tested, and that a person's concept of intelligence affects the manner in which he or she evaluates the intelligence of others. Two experiments by Sternberg et al. were replicated.…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 12 titles deal with the following topics: (1) the relational nature of humor, (2) pragmatism and transaction, (3) within-channel redundancy versus between-channel redundancy in instructional material and its association with…