Three stereotypes of male-female behavior as manifested in language were investigated. The stereotypes are: women are more verbose than men, women use more modifiers than men, and women are submissive to men. Eighty students were randomly assigned to one of two conflict resolution conditions--a business situation and an interpersonal…

A study was designed to describe the nonverbal behaviors of two male/female couples as they initiated, maintained, and terminated their relationships. Over a five-month period, couple one met seven times and couple two met six times in a laboratory setting. During the meetings, observers coded the couples' nonverbal behaviors as eye gaze, smiles,…

A study was conducted to develop and test the empirical validity of a middle-range theory designed to explain and predict the relationship between speech communication egocentrism and reading achievement. The theory predicts an inverse relationship between elementary school children's levels of speech communication egocentrism and reading…

Communication research long has noted how pretreatment strategies ("inoculations") induce resistance to persuasion, but a new model proposes that resistance is an integral part of the persuasion process. Using the inoculation framework, researchers showed the importance of threats to an individual's attitudes in developing resistance to…

Two variables that may affect speech criticism were studied: the sex of the speaker and the rater's attitude of sexism. An ancillary study concerning the effect of the sex of the teacher was also undertaken. The study included the development of an instrument to measure sexism, which revealed some of the effects of sex and sexism on the criticism…

Recent research studies suggest a relationship between an individual's level of competence in the use of language and of nonlinguistic communication and that person's ability to function competently in society. This document reviews the theories and definitions related to the concept of communicative competence, discusses the cognitive and…

Twenty-one criteria for assessing communication effectiveness in organizations provide the basis for discussion in this document. Grouped under the general heading of communication rules, the criteria are described according to five categories: structure, messages, media, communicator, and potpourri (factors that affect the decision making of…

Apprehension on the part of students who must engage in public speaking figures high on the list of student fears. Speech anxiety has been viewed as a trait--the overall propensity to fear giving speeches--and as a state--the condition of fearfulness on a particular occasion of speech making. Methodology in therapy research should abide by the…

Focusing on economic development in the People's Republic of China beginning at the eve of the communist takeover, this monograph analyzes the ways and patterns in which mass media and interpersonal communication were used to change economically relevant social structures in the interclass confrontation and the part these patterns played in the…

Previous research on communication apprehension has revealed a reduction in student apprehension over a semester-length course in speech communication. Further research indicates, however, that, while most students do experience a reduction, a sizable percentage actually report an increase. This study sought to determine the difference between…

This paper discusses the conceptualization of interpersonal power and offers a relational definition and measure of power. A distinction is made between "power attempts" (domineering message behavior) and "power" (transactional patterns of dominance). To test this distinction, 45 husband/wife dyads were randomly sampled from a…

This paper contains a theoretical analysis and empirical study that support the major premise of Robert Dubin's minimal-linkage construct-that restricting communication links increases organizational stability. The theoretical analysis shows that fewer communication links are associated with less uncertainty, more redundancy, and greater…

Historically, the study of health communication has been confined primarily to the field of medicine. Recently, however, it has increased in importance in other areas of human communication. Exploring a new approach to health communication is the purpose of this paper. Specifically, the thrust of this investigation is the use of dialogue as a mode…

The purpose of the conference reported on in this document was to bring insight into the broad area of communication. Contents include the conference program and papers presented at the conference, divided into four parts: research in the field of communication, communication in the organization, insights into the teaching of business…

Refutes McGuire's analogy to inoculation theory used to predict resistance to beliefs that have not been attacked. An experimental test of effectiveness of different defenses over three belief levels is discussed. (JMF)