This paper analyzes the responses of 50 practicing business managers who were asked to identify the most troublesome communication situations experienced by supervisors in their organizations. The authors put the responses in rank order according to two popular management systems, Management by Objectives (MBO) and Organizational Behavior…

A study was conducted during the 1980 presidential campaign to answer three questions about the nature of public opinion: (1) What is the effect of customary patterns of mass media use and interpersonal communication on perceptions of public opinion about election campaigns? (2) What effect does the magnitude of discrepancy between a person's own…

Professional discourse among educators often includes the use of "slogans" and "generalizations." Generalizations are usually more precise than slogans, which can be interpreted differently and to various degrees. During the implementation of open education curricula in several elementary schools, the evolution of teachers'…

A study was conducted to examine the evaluative criteria or schemata that voters use in making decisions about competing candidates. More specifically, the study sought to determine (1) whether the criteria that voters employ differ between the candidates, and (2) the relative importance of various candidate-specific criteria in the voting…

A questionnaire containing all 78 items from the three forms of Robert F. Bales' Interpersonal Rating Forms (IRF) was administered to 266 college students to test the reliability and validity of the IRF. The questions asked for self-perceptions about one's roles and behaviors in task groups. The results indicated that the scales are neither…

Research in person perception has shown that children's descriptions of themselves and others evolve from being concrete and superficial during childhood to being abstract and inferential during adolescence. Such research was extended by focusing on the constructs 6-14 years-olds (N=106) use to describe the identifications they have formed with…

Proxemic behavior in faculty offices was studied by observing the effects of teacher attitudes on desk placements. In addition, two variables of job demand--number of students taught and advising responsibilities--were also surveyed to ascertain their relationship to desk placement. During interviews with 89 randomly selected faculty, the subjects…

A language evaluation instrument was devised to assess the accuracy of program implementation by teachers of four Australian preschool programs. The Teacher Language Instrument (TLI) categorizes each verbal episode of a teaching interchange for both mode and function. Five general mode categories of teacher language behavior--statements,…

Initially, many children use language with enthusiasm and apparent ease, but this lively use of language is sharply curtailed shortly after they begin school. This can be attributed to teachers' monopolizing continued discourse. A study explored the idea that increased student oral participation by more students at a higher level of thinking would…

A study investigated listening and oral communication apprehension in high school and college students from the United States and Australia. The subjects were 355 students from the United States (133 high school females, 109 high school males, 65 college females, and 46 college males), and 339 students from Australia (73 high school females, 91…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 14 titles deal with the following topics: (1) the relationships between power, gender, and mode of conflict management in superior/subordinate relationships; (2) the interaction processes of groups with varying levels of…

A study investigated the relationship between social style and a number of dimensions of person perception and interpersonal attraction. Social style was defined as a two-dimensional construct of assertiveness and responsiveness, which combined to reflect four social styles. Five hypotheses predicted that differences in social style would result…

This study was designed to determine teachers' perceptions of their informal and formal communications with students and to determine if the biological sex and the psychological sex of teachers were salient variables to understand differences among groups on dependent measures. A four-page questionnaire consisting of Bem's Sex Role Inventory, an…

As part of a larger study of political socialization in adolescence, 782 adolescents and 718 parents were surveyed to test hypotheses about political information as a function of the early phase of a presidential campaign and the news exposure level of the respondent. Despite shortcomings in the sample design and in the precision of interview…

A study was devised to determine why family planning communication in a Washington state village has been successful despite the lack of planned programs or focused attempts at directed change. Three major social organizational principles affecting family planning communication were analyzed: the occupational split between public employees and…