Examines relationships of idiomatic communication (including words, phrases, or nonverbal signs) to the interpersonal sentiments of 100 romantically involved heterosexual couples. Finds that loving, commitment, and closeness correlated with the number of idioms expressing affection and referring to sexual matters. Notes that males invented idioms…

Investigates how conflict strategies and communicator gender affect two properties of communicative competence, appropriateness and effectiveness, and how these properties are associated with interpersonal attraction. (SR)

Examines the impact of communication apprehension (CA) and interaction structure on participants' perceptions and behavior during initial interactions. Finds that high and low CA males perceived their female interaction partners differently, while females reported less satisfying interactions in the structured versus unstructured condition. (SR)

Attempts to demonstrate that the discourse strategies of high-involved and low-involved communicators exhibit the same systematic pattern in managing pragmatic resources in conversation as previously demonstrated for the management of textual resources in conversation. (MS)

Examines hemispheric differences in cortical arousal as a function of positive and negative emotional television scenes. Finds that (1) the processing of emotional content is hemispherically asymmetric; and (2) negative material produced greater cortical arousal in the right hemisphere and positive material greater arousal in the left. (MS)

Compares two contrasting perspectives of social contagion processes (structural equivalence and cohesion) associated with the organizational outcome variables of commitment and role ambiguity in organizations. Finds that structural equivalence was more associated with role ambiguity and that commitment was more associated with cohesion. (MS)

Reports on a survey of college students, indicating that the experience of intense, enduring fright after media exposure is common. Finds that individuals who experience this fright are likely to receive high scores on Mehrabian's Stimulus Screening Scale and Miller's Behavioral Style Scale. (MS)

Identifies and explains the nature of syntactic and pragmatic codes on prime-time television which distinguish characters on the basis of gender and social class. Finds that middle-class television characters employed a syntactic code by using linguistic elaboration and structural complexity. (SR)

Examines Biblical apocalyptic theory and secular apocalyptic literature. Proposes a new theory of apocalypticism in secular public discourse derived from those two major theories. Provides examples of apocalypticism in secular public discourse. (MM)

Examines whether the influence of applicants' interviewing skills on recruiters' recommendations depends upon the relevancy of effective oral communication to the position in question. Finds that recruiters for communication-irrelevant positions place more emphasis on candidates' applications, although recruiters tended to recommend effective over…

Uses a rhetorical analysis of a storytelling process presently ongoing about artificial intelligence to reveal the communication patterns which are used to maintain and shift ideologies. Suggests an extension of Fisher's narrative paradigm of the processes of continuity and change underlying storytelling, via Brown's conception of ideology as…

Outlines a cognitive model of the self-system, detailing the structural representation of self-relevant information in memory and the processes involved in retrieving and utilizing this information. Reports five experiments supporting the model. (MS)

Investigates how language usage differs in same-sex and mixed-sex dyads. Finds partial support for the Gender-Linked Language Effect in same-sex dyads and for the attenuation of that effect in mixed-sex dyads. (MS)

Finds that workers in a large organization identified more strongly with their self-managing team than with their company and that long-term workers reported more identification with both their team and company than did short-term workers. Suggests that a concertive (or team-based) system of control is more powerful but less obtrusive than its…

Reports on a three-part investigation examining stigmatization toward gays and persons with AIDS by undergraduate students as more a symbolic than instrumental process, through the expression of attraction (task, social, and physical) and desire for future interaction, and through nonverbal expressions of involvement. (SR)