A review of the literature on reciprocal self-disclosure indicates that scholars have limited their investigations to one aspect of disclosure--intimacy--while recent research suggests that disclosure is a multidimensional phenomenon. A study was conducted to assess the possibility of reciprocation of intimacy, amount, and valence (positive or…

Findings indicate that lapses in conversation occur when one of the participants uses responses which fail to advance the topic. Analysis of the postlapse data indicates that subsequent to a lapse, the most probable strategy is for one of the participants to pose a question which the partner is obligated to answer. (PD)

Presents a conceptual and operational definition of one cognitive dimension of communicative competence--interaction involvement--based on Goffman's model of face-to-face society. Reports two studies to support the validity of the definition. Outlines the implications for future research on communicative competence as well as instructional…

Drawing from data generated in more than 100 hours of interaction within 15 leaderless groups, a study investigated the interaction characteristics of emergent leadership--leadership that is earned through face-to-face encounters in a group. Each group was instructed to reach consensus decisions on two tasks, both of which provided the possibility…

Data collected from 161 married couples were analyzed for communication patterns indicative of "domineeringness" and "transactional redundancy" (the degree of randomness contained within a couple's communicative behavior). From this data came the following observations: There is a negative correlation between domineeringness, particularly by the…

Presents S. Jackson's and S. Jacobs' theory of conversational argument and demonstrates flaws in the representational validity of their research from the perspective of face-to-face interaction. Describes characteristics of a "paradigm case" of interactional argument that extends Jackson's and Jacobs' ideas about argumentation in…

Thirty male and twenty female students were used to investigate the strategies of topic management. In pairs, they were told that the male (or female) would like to become friends with the female (or male), and were assigned a dialogue which created a positive or a negative context. Then the subject assigned as the initiator was given one of three…

A study explored the relationship between the functional communication patterns occurring in conflict and post conflict impressions of relational concern. The first part of the study involved the development and testing of an instrument to measure perceived relational concern, while the second part investigated whether varying styles of functional…

Assessed the relationship of conversational involvement and loneliness among college students. Found that lonely participants in this study had lower rates of talkativeness, interruptions, and attention than the nonlonely; they were also perceived as less involved and less interpersonally attractive. (PD)

Suggests conditions or "cues" that provoke the process of second- guessing, and describes an experimental study confirming that interactants do second-guess when confronted with those cues. (MS)

Forty-nine college students participated in a study designed to determine the relationships among self-monitoring, relational competence, and relational intimacy. Each student was asked to find a willing conversational partner, to decide upon a conversation they had recently, and--without consulting with each other--to complete a questionnaire…

In everyday conversation, people sometimes laugh as they speak. A study was conducted to determine whether the content of statements occurring with laughter differed systematically from that of statements occurring without laughter. Tape recordings of 20 utterances taken from a conversation among a small group of college students were categorized…

A study was conducted to examine self-disclosure as a relational control strategy in speech communication. Conversations of seven married couples were coded using L. E. Rogers-Millar's Relational Communication Control Coding Scheme and a self-disclosure coding system developed for the study. A message-by-message comparison of the codes from the…

Taking the viewpoint of the receiver, this paper explores some differences between interpersonal transactions people have with each other and with the mass media. After addressing an orientation held by many communication scholars that the process of mass communication and interpersonal communication differ only in degree, the paper focuses on a…

Provides evidence that high and low self-monitors are distinguishable not only by their initial interactions but also by their cognitive summaries of these sequences. Found that students who are high self-monitors appear to be more linguistically competent, in part because their scripted understanding of appropriate conversation is more extensive.…