Youth in pain often show self-defeating and destructive patterns of behavior which should be seen as calls for help and positive support. Instead, deep-seated brain programs and cultural beliefs about discipline can trigger angry or avoidant behavior by adults who deal with these young people. This brief introduction to the Conflict Cycle…

Infants intentionally communicate with others from before their 1st birthday. But there is some question about how they understand the communicative process. Do they understand that for their request to work the recipient must both understand the request and be cooperatively disposed to fulfill it? On the basis of the study by Shwe and Markman…

Interruptions are common in joint activities like conversations. Typically, interrupted participants suspend the activity, address the interruption, and then reinstate the activity. In conversation, people jointly commit to interact and to talk about a topic, establishing these commitments sequentially. When a commitment is suspended, face is…

Four studies explored the communicative behaviors of people who outperform others in a relevant or irrelevant field and the impression formed of these outperformers by the outperformed people. In line with the premises of the self-evaluation maintenance model (A. Tesser, 1988) and the STTUC framework (J. J. Exline & M. Lobel, 1999), Studies 1 and…

Identifies individuals' patterns of change in behavioral approach for a single conflict along three orthogonal dimensions: attention to own-view, attention to other-view, and relational disruptiveness. Identifies general patterns of changes in individuals' conflict behaviors. (SR)

Examines how strategic communication is linked to specific relational features. Finds that integrative strategies were positively linked to competence, whereas distributive and avoidant strategies were negatively linked to competence. Supports the view that competence perceptions mediate the link between conflict messages and relational outcomes.…

Employs time series analysis to model individual and discursive influences on the response latencies of deceivers and truthtellers. Shows that a decay impulse model provides a good description of the data. Finds that message veracity and self-monitoring combined to affect the fit of the decay impulse model. (SR)

Presents a model of social confrontation (communication episodes initiated when one participant signals that the other's behavior violates a rule or expectation for appropriate conduct). Describes issues arising during social confrontation. Concludes that negotiating expectations or relational rules within a problematic situation is the crux of…

Defining interpersonal orientations as the characteristic and consistent ways in which individuals interact with others, this paper examines various conceptualizations and theories regarding such orientations in order to discover how they affect interpersonal communication. In particular, the paper (1) reviews work concerning psychological types;…

Critiques recent research on the social evaluation of assertive speech. Proposes an alternative theoretical framework, based on speech act theory. Assertiveness is viewed as a style of conversation occurring in complex interpersonal contexts. (Author/BJV)

Tests the inferential approach to the study of competence evaluation and a series of complicating factors relevant to it by having participants with known implicit theories judge an observed communicator on a set of competence-relevant characteristics and on overall competence. Finds inferential models predicted these judgments well. (MS)

This document proposes the adoption of a rules-based theoretical perspective for the study of family interaction. In the first section, Logical and Empirical Requirements, concepts and basic assumptions pertinent to rules theory are considered. The concepts of coordination and determinacy, as used in a rules framework, are explained, and logical…

K. Burke's (1945) pentad identifies five contributing factors in any communication event: agent, purpose, act, scene, and agency. Using the pentad as an organizational schema, this paper summarizes problems in methods used by behavioral researchers to study the deceptive communication event. The paper argues that fragmenting the communication act…

Presents a model of relational influence attempts (RIAs) in dating and marital couples' conversations. Provides insight into the role that tacit relational knowledge plays in shaping conversation. Links conversation analysis with relationship analysis. Supports the claim that knowledge of relational pragmatics is required to effectively evaluate…

Recognizing the lack of research delineating what personality traits might predispose a person to poor listening, this paper contrasts two lines of research assessing how the cognitive and affective characteristics of speakers impact on their recall of conversation. The first section of the paper considers the theoretical perspective arguing that…