In recent years, scholarly and applied inquiry has addressed the importance of interpersonal communication patterns and problems in maximum security institutions for males. As a result of this research, the number of programs designed to improve the interpersonal effectiveness of prison inmates has increased dramatically. Research suggests that…

A study used M. Cuffe and J. F. Cragan's three-dimensional model for understanding corporate culture within an organization to describe the managerial styles of chairpersons at Illinois State University. Case studies were completed for 18 chairpersons, who then sorted 60 statements on leadership style on a forced choice continuum from most…

Part of the Communications Design Center's (CDC) on-going research on communication and document design, this report emphasizes the importance of a multi-level computer help system that goes beyond simple command descriptions to include assistance with goals and strategies within the application domain--in this case, automated authoring. The help…

Discussions of audience, such as those by Russell Long, Carol Berkenkotter, David Park, Lisa Ede, and Andrea Lunsford, most often do not utilize the research by speech rhetoricians to whom the question of audience has always been central. Chaim Perelman's conception of the "universal audience" and traditional, speech-oriented rhetoric…

The result of 6 months' observation of an American Taoist commune, this paper examines and interprets two episodes of confrontation, involving the persistently antagonistic Chinese director of the commune and one or more members, as a way of making sense of commune culture. The paper first examines the assumptions and values with which the…

The analysis presented in this paper is based on the premise that study of public relations from the perspective of a rhetorical theory yields useful insights about public relations. The first part of the paper develops a rationale for the study of the rhetoric of organizations, especially the rhetoric of corporations, and concludes by juxtaposing…

A study investigated ways in which masculine, feminine, androgynous, and undifferentiated individuals differed with respect to the importance placed upon receiver and sender characteristics as prerequisite conditions for self-disclosure. Subjects, 492 college students, completed a personal attributes questionnaire, which identifies individuals as…

The originator of the communication apprehension (CA) construct has consistently maintained that communication apprehensive people should not be expected to exhibit anxious behaviors. On the other hand, inept and incompetent communicative actions constitute the reticence syndrome, clearly a construct defined through behaviors. Noting that it is…

Building communication theory in terms of three-variable relationships is a promising route to developing better theory, because three-variable relationships stand midway between sometimes overly simplistic two-variable relationships, and the more complex path analysis. The analysis of three-variable relationships has been done in many previous…

A study investigated the effectiveness of subliminal techniques (such as tape recorded programs) for improving public speaking ability. It was hypothesized that students who used subliminal tapes to improve public speaking ability would perform no differently from classmates who listened to identical-sounding placebo tape programs containing no…

A study examined the amount of minority student participation in college debate teams and the Cross Examination Debate Association (CEDA) tournaments and minority success rates. Ten forensic tournaments from around the United States were selected and observed, and minorities were identified from tournament populations. Final result sheets and…

In order to evaluate the effectiveness of problem-solving groups, a study developed a model of group problem-solving behavior, and applied the resulting conceptual framework to 16 actual evaluations of quality circle programs (defined as a group of 3-15 persons from the same work area who meet for problem-solving). The model divides each of the…

To address the lack of research focusing on naturally occurring groups within an organizational context, a study examined the selection process and criteria that individuals use when allowed to self-select members for task groups. Subjects, 248 students enrolled in a basic communication course at a midwestern university, self-selected themselves…

Over the past two decades, theorists and researchers in cognitive structural developmental psychology have begun to investigate the social processes that impact upon individual cognitive growth. Studies have focused on how interactional processes lead to cognitive development but not on how the interactional processes are formed. This paper…

To determine which variables best predict academic achievement, a study explored relationships among teacher perception of student communication apprehension (CA), intelligence, academic achievement, and self-reported CA in 203 public elementary school students, ages 8 to 12 years in grades 3-6. The Personal Report of Communication Fear (a 14-item…