A study tested a delivery skills method of instruction for reducing public speaking anxiety. Subjects were 59 male and 71 female undergraduates (ranging in age from 17-49) enrolled in a basic public speaking course at a midwestern university during the 1986-87 academic year. The Personal Report of Public Speaking Apprehension (PRPSA) which…

Defining inquiry as a discussion, a conversation that tries to make sense of what is happening, this paper argues in favor of replacing the traditional metaphor for news--news as science--with an alternative metaphor--news as drama--in order to provide a useful vocabulary for making sense of news. Traditional metaphors that have organized research…

A study examined relationships among communication apprehension in elementary students, teacher perception of student communication apprehension, intelligence, and reading achievement. Subjects, 244 public elementary school students aged 7-12 in grades 2-6, completed a battery of tests measuring communication apprehension, teacher perception of…

A study examined procedures used to test the oral communication skills of students between the ages of 15 and 18 in the United Kingdom, with special attention given to strategies which might be of value to adopt in the United States. Subjects were 4 pairs of students tested from a randomly selected sample of 112 schools. Twenty-two assessors were…

Since the telephone interview is often used as a method in survey research, a study was conducted to determine whether use of random digit dialing and sampling by surnames resulted in selection of two different samples from the same ethnic population. A random digit dialing technique was used to conduct interviews with 1,076 Texas residents over…

Intended for a largely European audience, this paper offers an overview of current definitions and goals of instructional communication and communication education teaching and research in the United States. The first major section of the paper looks at recent advances in instructional communication studies, concentrating on field research,…

Defining interpersonal orientations as the characteristic and consistent ways in which individuals interact with others, this paper examines various conceptualizations and theories regarding such orientations in order to discover how they affect interpersonal communication. In particular, the paper (1) reviews work concerning psychological types;…

Because a review of literature revealed that no valid instrument for measuring a person's willingness to communicate existed, a willingness to communicate (WTC) instrument was developed. The basis of this construct is the assumption that willingness to communicate is a personality-based, trait-like predisposition which is fairly consistent across…

The psychological effects of perceived lack of control have been extensively investigated. This study was conducted to examine a compensatory control strategy called boundary expansion. Boundary expansion is exhibited in social interactions where control needs are directed toward influencing others' views on a particular subject. Boundary…

Developmental studies have primarily focused on what takes place within the confines of a given interpersonal system (first order development). What has been neglected is second order development, the interpersonal communication that alters the system itself. From this particular developmental perspective, a model can be used that illustrates and…

Two studies were conducted to test the situational theory of communication while at the same time using the theory to determine the nature of different environmental publics, the cognitive strategies they use to resolve environmental issues, and their demographic characteristics. One study identified and examined urban environmental publics, while…

A great deal of research has been done in the area of "compliance-message" tactics and strategies, but this research has not produced a coherent framework for studying this interpersonal communication process. Based on six axioms concerning the nature of communication behavior in general and on one postulate and five theorems defining…

A study examined the influence of the color of an individual's clothing and hair on the feelings and attitudes of others. Subjects, 246 college students, were shown 20 slides, one at a time, and asked to answer 15 questions for each slide. The slides were of four magazine models, two male, two female, with one blonde and one brunette of each sex.…

To obtain a comprehensive understanding of the nature of deception and how it functions in interpersonal relationships, this paper explores deception as a valid and essential part of human interaction processes. The paper includes an in-depth review of social science literature on deception, specifically, R. E. Turner, C. Edgley, and G. Olmstead's…

A study tested two hypotheses concerning credibility (an auditor's attitude toward a source) and arousal (attention level of an auditor): (1) the effect on learning of credibility will interact with the effect of the vigilance level of auditors, and (2) under conditions of low arousal, auditors will learn significantly more from a message if it is…