A study examined stages and objectives of a systematic desensitization (SD) program and its effects on subject reported apprehension levels and perceived benefits and behavior changes toward public speaking. Subjects, 19 freshmen and sophomore university students, were administered the Personal Report of Communication Apprehension-24 (PRCA-24).…

To learn more about small group interactions, a study investigated the characteristics of women's conversation in its own right rather than compared to a male model of conversation. The researcher spent 10 months as a participant/observer in a women's weekly circle (WWC), a group of mothers of young children who met once a week. The researcher…

Thomas S. Kuhn's paradigm theory, which explains the growth of science, can be used to challenge three aspects of the received history of North American communications research: (1) the beginning point of the field and its periodization, (2) the development of mass media studies as an articulated subfield, and (3) the role of new technologies in…

A study examined the way argumentation in collective bargaining shapes outcomes. Specifically, it explored the types of claims and reasoning processes that characterize bargaining interaction on different subissues of a proposal and tracked the development of arguments through sequential sessions and caucus meetings by examining similarities and…

To supplement course materials for classes in communication theory and research methods, this paper compares philosophical assumptions underlying three approaches to communication research: scientific, which stresses quantitative methods of analysis; humanistic, which encompasses many conflicting techniques but has as a common element--the…

A study examined (1) whether organizations "order" the four organizational roles (communication manager, communication liason, media relations specialist, communication technician) that public relations practitioners play, and (2) whether, if roles are hierarchically ordered, practitioners internalize the hierarchy by aspiring to…

Supplementing a national survey of self-help group members, a study examined the functioning of an epilepsy self-help group in order to identify communication patterns establishing mutual aid. An examination of eight tape-recorded sessions was combined with an observer's field notes to develop a profile of the group. Analysis revealed a loosely…

A case study tested the premise that people cope with ambiguity in particular ways within an organizational context, negotiating for understanding and choice through the manipulation of power, ideology, and technology. The study focused on the implementation of a satellite communications network in local Catholic Church offices and on staff…

Research in audience analysis has generally lumped together members of ethnic groups under a broad category of "nonwhites" and has ignored different orientations of these minority groups toward television and mass media. Despite increasing research interests in minority audiences, specific oriental populations have largely been ignored in regard…

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…

Research efforts to model speech perception in terms of a processing system in which knowledge and processing are distributed over large numbers of highly interactive--but computationally primative--elements are described in this report. After discussing the properties of speech that demand a parallel interactive processing system, the report…

The argument has been advanced that in intimate self-disclosure sex differences occur with males being less intimately disclosive than females--especially to other males. The argument posits that males who have homophobia (a fear of sexual contact with members of the same sex) might view intimate self-disclosure as a homosexual act and thus avoid…

To gain insights into what makes student/teacher conversations about writing more and less successful, a sample of freshman composition teachers was asked to tape record all of their writing conferences. In addition, student writing samples were collected. In all, the tape recordings of 48 writing conferences were transcribed and prepared for…

In order to study signs of stress in speech directed to children at risk for abuse, sentences matched on content were collected from audio recordings of adult-child interactions. The children were audiotaped during an unstructured interaction with both their own mother and an unrelated mother. A total of 40 sibling pairs, each including one…

To explore the dimensions of credibility and physical attractiveness in a public relations setting, the impact of public relations (PR) spokesperson physical attractiveness--as operationalized as photographs of the spokesperson attached to a press release--on perceptions of both the writer's and the organization's credibility was examined.…