A study gathered information to assist as guidance in planning gender communication awareness programs that were appropriate to the St. Olaf (Minnesota) college campus. Subjects, 92 female and 96 male faculty, 133 female and 136 male staff, and 100 students in the sophomore, junior, and senior classes filled out questionnaires designed to provide…

Perceived control has become an important construct for health care research. Since the processes and outcomes of health and illness are constantly mediated and affected by communication, the relationship between a person's belief in his/her personal control of events and health care interactions is an important component of the theory and…

A study investigated the use of small groups for speech evaluation in the fundamental speaking course. The use of a small group is seen as a method of reducing student fear of public criticism. Subjects were 97 male and female undergraduate students enrolled in Introduction to Speech courses at one of four different colleges in the Southern…

A study explored the relationship between body types and four attraction dimensions (physical, social, task, and communication) as perceived by older adults (mean age 68). Subjects, 35 males and 73 females in private residences and senior citizen centers, were shown three same-sex body silhouettes representing the older ectomorph, mesomorph, and…

To discover the kinds of conflict encountered by hospital nursing staff members, nurses from several hospitals were asked to report the types of conflict they anticipated meeting during a work week. The answers were categorized into eight loci of conflict topics: (1) physician-nurse conflict, (2) uncooperative working norms, (3)…

Three studies investigated the purposes of teasing and the reaction to it. The first study asked 26 college students to describe one instance when they were teased and one when they teased someone else. In addition, they were asked to explain why the teasing had occurred and why they categorized it as teasing. The second study, involving 24…

A study examined the impact of a working commitment to corporate communication and corporate communication education on perceptions of management and managerial style and the more general perceptions of the organization. Subjects, 15 male mid-level managers at a large southeastern chemical plant that had in place a continuing corporate…

A study examined the extent to which a 19-item short form of the Speech Evaluation Instrument (SEI) is a reliable instrument, what factor structure emerges from the analysis, and how that factor structure compares to that reported for the 30-item long form of the SEI. Subjects, 606 undergraduates enrolled in speech communications classes at two…

This paper explored the conceptual issues involving the application of "development communication" to the American context, examined people's needs for development information, the communication system that delivers such information, and the barriers that exist. The paper notes that people's needs for development information may occur in…

A survey of companies using telecommunications equipment investigated the distribution of channel selection and the use of external mail distribution systems. A total of 50 companies responded to the survey, which identified 12 telecommunications systems and seven external mail distribution systems. Results indicated that the four most popular…

Interest has recently focused on group polarization as a function of attitude processes. Several recent reviewers have challenged polarization researchers to integrate the explanations of polarization to existing theories of attitude change. This review suggests that there exists a clear similarity between the social comparison and persuasive…

Types of utterances used by mothers in two different situations with children 13- to 14.5 months old were compared. A set of toys was provided for free play. The toys were also represented in a picture book. Mothers' utterances were classified into five categories: description, attention focus, language elicitation, label, and behavior regulation.…

The use of messages as experimental stimuli brings with it problems regarding the interpretability and generalizability of findings. Some psychologists and communication researchers have argued that message stimuli must be treated as random effects. A review of the literature examined data regarding experimental designs used in recent…

To analyze the effects of nonverbal environment factors--specifically of plants--on the perceived attitudes of a visitor to a business, a survey examined the use of plants to project warmth and caring on the part of the office occupant. Subjects, 170 students in a basic communication course, completed a survey regarding feelings and opinions…

Because the quoting of anonymous sources in journalism has received a great deal of attention recently, a study was conducted to focus attention on the broadcast media by examining the quoting of anonymous sources on network television newscasts. Four research questions were formulated: (1) What percentage of television news stories contain…