This paper investigates the composition of women's mentoring relationships. The traditional male mentoring model is rejected in favor of an alternative model that more closely reflects female mentoring relationships. The paper proposes that women's friendships may serve as a closer match to their mentoring relationships than the traditional male…

Examines self-disclosure as both a personality trait and an interaction process. Finds little support for individual differences in self-disclosure--individuals were inconsistent in how much they self-disclosed to others and in how much self-disclosure they elicited from others. Finds no sex differences in self-disclosure. Finds qualified support…

Focuses on gendered modes of collaboration in a chemical engineering design course. Identifies three modes of collaboration (dialogic, asymmetrical, and hierarchical) and suggests that the first two are liberating, whereas the third is oppressive. Illustrates these modes by describing the collaborative interaction of two groups of students. (SR)

Discusses gender-difference and gender-sameness theory in workplace communication. Presents an integrated paradigm of gender as only one of many contextually-based factors that characterize an organization's patterns. Critiques the gender-difference and gender-integrated paradigms with five criteria for theory effectiveness and provides an example…

A study examined the means by which inferences and emotions combine to motivate conflict escalation in response to nonverbal displays of status. Subjects, 64 male and 105 female volunteers enrolled in communication courses at a university located in the northeastern part of the United States, completed a verbal aggressiveness scale and a personal…

Analyzes conflict talk among three-year-old friends playing in same-sex triads at their day care center. Interprets the gendered aspects of two disputes in terms of an anthropological linguistic model and a psychological framework. Demonstrates the gendered nature of children's peer talk at as young as three years of age. (RS)

Finds that lower attention to news about AIDS was predicted by negative attitudes toward homosexuality, conservative AIDS policy attitudes, lower perceived risk of getting AIDS, in addition to being male, older, white, and better educated. Finds that the model predicted media attention better for men than for women. (SR)

A study was conducted to test a "peak communication experience" (PCE) scale developed from Abraham Maslow's theory of PCE's, a model of one's highest interpersonal communication moments in terms of perceived mutual understanding, happiness, and personal fulfillment. Nineteen items, extrapolated from Maslow's model but rendered more…

In an exploratory study of peak communication experiences (PCEs), 36 male and 50 female undergraduates from a speech communication course were asked to describe their PCEs using 19 descriptors derived from A. Maslow's model of the generalized peak experience. Two-thirds or more of both sexes used 10 of these 19 descriptors to characterize their…

A study was conducted to test the hypothesis that "really communicating" would be identified as a positive experience for communicators, as represented by the use of the positive factor clusters of the Joel Davitz model of affective experience (i.e., moving toward others, enhancement, comfort), and that a greater proportion of females…

Reports the results of stage two of a three-stage project designed to develop, through field testing, a model for determining the norms of general adult communication behavior. Discusses implications of this study, including those for planners of communication instruction. (PD)

Deborah Tannen's framework for interpersonal communication between males and females (published in 1990) was used to explore how male and female distance education students meet their primary needs through communication. The study population consisted of the 19 female and 6 male students enrolled in a 13-week computer conferencing course at the…