This book, the fifteenth volume of an annual publication, contains 373 abstracts of 52 doctoral and 321 master's theses from 50 colleges and universities. The abstracts are arranged alphabetically by author, with the doctoral dissertations appearing first. These cover such topics as advertising, audience analysis, content analysis of news issues…

Each of the three sections of this book highlights a basic concept in communication research that needs more attention, and includes individual articles that review or apply new methods for the study of social communication. The first part deals with organizational analysis and field studies, and reminds its readers that mass communication is not…

Based on the results of a research project and on the conviction that functional speech communication behaviors must be developed in children, this paper proposes several directions for the effective development of speech communication instruction in schools. The research project consisted of three phases: input, synthesis, and implementation. The…

A case study of the communications of a 79-year-old woman was conducted to test an ecological model of communication. The ecological model is concerned with the conditions to which the aged person adapts by using communication, what that communication entails, and the criteria by which the success of the adaptive communication process may be…

A program was designed to reduce communication apprehension by using systematic desensitization, rhetoritherapy, and selected instructional strategies. Rhetoritherapy refers to the development of appropriate communication behaviors through a goal-setting procedure in which students learn to establish reasonable goals, ascertain behavior indicative…

Selected studies that examine social interaction variables which affect the language young children use in social play are reviewed. Interaction variables discussed in major sections of the paper are (1) the nature of social play; (2) egocentrism and its impact on verbal communication; (3) language as a functional behavior; (4) adaptation of…

A serious problem in the area of attitude research is the low relationship between verbal attitude and supposedly related overt behavior. A study tested a model derived from M. Deutsch's proposition on persuasive communication stating that for communication to be effective in a conflict situation, it must convey to the information receiver the…

Two experiments involving 49 male and 49 female college students were conducted to determine the effects of physician physical attractiveness on the patients' disclosures of personal information (symptoms). In the first experiment, subjects rated pictures of physicians for physical attractiveness and reported their willingness to disclose and…

Networks have emerged as a major topic of interest in the behavioral sciences, and network concepts have recently been extended by community psychologists to higher education. To examine the effectiveness of peer networks within an introductory psychology class, networks of four students each met weekly in place of a lecture to review material and…

Research reports on the nature of speech, instrumentation for the investigation of speech, and practical applications of speech research are included in this status report for the April 1-June 30, 1981, period. The 14 reports deal with the following topics: (1) electromyography as a technique for laryngeal investigation, (2) the phonatory…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 14 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: (1) metaphor as argument in editorial cartoons, (2) conversational arguments, (3) message retention under threat of speech performance, (4) dominance and hostility…

The entries in this extensive bibliography represent books, educational journals, dissertations, popular magazines, and research studies that deal with the topic of nonverbal communication. Divided into time periods (1975 to present, 1973 to 1975, and before 1973), the titles span a variety of topics, including the following: sensory perception,…

Television's role within the familial setting is the subject of a research program being conducted at the Universities of Hartford, Texas, and Utah, proceeding on the premise that television functions within a variety of environmental influences, all of which act in varying combinations to produce a wide range of effects within viewers. The…

Twenty-four college students served as tutors in an examination of the use of paralanguage and nonverbal behavior in presenting a lesson intended for an adult of the tutor's age and for a child. Each subject was tape recorded twice while reading verbatim a lesson from a grade school textbook. Before each taping, the subject was told that the…

Recent studies have investigated the transition of relationships from a more intimate to a less intimate state--the depenetration process. Various phases of interpersonal conflict in the dissolution of marital dyads have been described, and factors indicating that a marriage might be "in trouble" have been identified. Processes that are…