Objective: The authors quantitatively examined differences in psychiatric residents' and attending physicians' communication profiles and voice tones. Methods: Audiotaped recordings of 49 resident-patient and 35 attending-patient medication-management appointments at four ambulatory sites were analyzed with the Roter Interaction Analysis System…

A study investigated whether the interaction patterns of high consensus groups differed significantly from the patterns of low consensus groups in the final stage of a decision-making task. Eighty-four college students placed into 19 groups were told to select a social problem, investigate it, and develop a solution. At the end of the three-week…

Results indicated that observers familiar with a communicator's truthful behavior were more accurate in detecting deception than those who were not familiar, and that accuracy increased as self-monitoring increased. (High self-monitors are individuals particularly sensitive to the expression and self-presentation of others in social situations.)…

Examines whether the use of a particular unit of interaction behavior enhances reliability in interaction analysis research. (Author)

Communication scholars have addressed a number of theoretical issues concerning the basis of knowledge and reality. They have not, however, accompanied their theories with parallel empirical studies. Given the important implications such work might have for the interpretation and generalizability of observer accounts, two studies were conducted…

Hans-Georg Gadamer's development of the hermeneutic question points to the need for a hermeneutic consciousness in the United States appropriate for human communication research. Communication studies in the United States have taken a route very different from hermeneutics. They are based on attempts to understand the subjective intentions of a…

Compares the Group Valence Model (GVM) to several derived versions of the Valence Distribution Model (VDM), as they relate to the group problem-solving process. Suggests that, not withstanding predictive accuracy, the VDM seems generally inferior to the GVM, which consistently accounts for more of the decision-making phenomenon. Discusses…

Three group processes--regular face-to-face interacting groups, the nominal group technique (NGT), and Delphi procedures--were compared in terms of their ability to facilitate the quantitative and qualitative productivity of a decision making group. The results unequivocally supported the superiority of the Delphi procedures. Findings also tended…

A study analyzed the verbal interactions of married couples in high, moderate, and low marital satisfaction groups to determine whether (1) the interaction processes within the three satisfaction groups differed and (2) there were different communication patterns that characterized the interaction processes of the groups. Subjects were 34 young…

A study was designed to compare the verbal responses of trained and untrained helpers confronted with the same crisis situation. The subjects were 24 trained graduate helpers, 24 untrained graduate helpers, and 24 untrained undergraduate helpers. Each subject was paired with an actor in one of the following conditions: male actor with male…

Sixty half-hour family discussions generated by the "revealed differences technique" were analyzed to determine the emotional intensity and quality (friendliness/attacking) of messages between individuals in families with schizophrenic and "normal" sons. Thirty families in each situation (schizophrenic/normal) were matched for comparison. Both…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 21 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: (1) comparison of receiver profiles in Clark County, Nevada, for various school-community relations communications channels; (2) effects of profit knowledge, size…

A study of 25 male college students (14 Native Americans, 11 Anglo Americans) assessed the role of culturally-differing communications behavior in the dropout rate of Native American students (while the students want an education, they also wish to retain their cultural identity, and equate class participation with assimilation into non-Indian…

The techniques, procedures, and principal findings of 15 different experiments in a research program on interactive communication are summarized in this paper. Among the principal findings reported are that: problems are solved faster in communication modes that have a voice channel than in those that do not have a voice channel, modes of…