This study was conducted to determine what effect structured interpersonal communication and writing exercises have on student achievement of the principles of business communication. Results indicated there was a significant increase in student achievement of the principles of business communication when structured interpersonal communication and…

Analyzed two initial interviews by Carl Rogers in their entirety using the Carkhuff scales, Hill's category system, and a brief grammatical analysis to establish the level and consistency with which Rogers provides facilitative conditions. Results indicated his behavior as counselor was stable and consistent within and across interviews. (Author)

Former spouses (N=129) in mother-custody postdivorce families participated in an in-depth, semistructured interview. Findings supported the basic General Systems Theory paradigm as applied to postdivorce families. The former spousal relationship emerged as a vital component of the organized, postdivorce family system. (Author/RC)

Using data on 682 couples from a national probability sample, demonstrated that a wife's perception of her husband's attitude toward her employment is moderately inconsistent with the husband's actual attitude. Found several couple characteristics significantly affect the level of inconsistency, indicating degree of couple communication. (Author)

Assessed the effects of a relationship enhancement program on the relationship adjustment; trust and intimacy; empathy, warmth and genuineness; and communication of premarital couples (N=25). Results showed that following training the experimental group, relative to the control group, made significant increases on all dependent variables. (Author)

Examined impacts of brief group psychotherapy on the marital and sex roles of five volunteer couples. Results show interactional correlates of traditional marital and sex role variations are attenuated, that communication between spouses is improved, and that the therapeutic quality of verbal behavior is enhanced over the course of therapy.…

In an analysis of exemplary protocols in a revised manual for the paragraph completion method, relations between conceptual level and linguistic measures yielded by the computer assisted language analysis system were examined. Frequency of usage and structural complexity accounted for much of the variance in conceptual level scores. (Author)

Findings indicated that expert therapists were similar in their communication of empathy, the basis for their therapeutic relationships. Theoretical orientation, however, differentially influenced use of direct guidance and facilitative techniques, interview content, therapist self-disclosure, therapist initiative, and supportive therapy climate.…

Examined effect of counselor verbal responses on clients' verbal behavior and on their perceptions of counselors. Affect responses were most desirable from both the counselors' and clients' perspectives. Closed questions were least desirable. Content responses and open questions were also highly effective in eliciting desirable client behavior.…

A disqualification is a message that says something "without really saying it"--one that is evasive, indirect, or effectively ambiguous in some other way. This article describes the rationale for, and development of, an objective method for measuring the degree of disqualification in brief written messages. (PD)

Used the Interpersonal Conflict Coding Scheme to examine the conflict expression episode and the conflict resolution episode and to evaluate utterances of six problem-solving groups. Developed interaction profiles of conflict expression and conflict resolution episodes and initial, middle, and final group stages. (RC)

Subject pairs (N=18) participated in an alternating question-and-answer session at one of two interactional distances utilizing questions which increased in their intimacy content. Results indicated topic intimacy, but not distance, affected the embarrassment potential of the situation. Increases in embarrassment caused changes in nonverbal and…

Suggests the relative importance of the mediating and rhetorical roles of verbal language whch may be associated with nonverbal information in multimedia instructional materials, and looks to an interactional model such as Burke's pentad for an explanation of the hortatory nature of interactional communication. Thirteen references are listed.…

Describes attempt to give English-as-a-second-language students the opportunity to practice their English in a relaxed but productive way. Gives example of a conversational leaflet developed to guide conversation. (Author/BK)

Eighty-four undergraduate students were randomly placed into one of three treatment groups to test the effects of high, medium, and low teacher clarity (vagueness terms and mazes) on student achievement and student perception. Results indicate that clarity significantly effects achievement and perception with the medium clarity groups displaying…