Designed initially as a way of understanding the often anomalous rhetoric of movement leaders, the Requirements-Problems-Strategies (RPS) framework for analyzing the rhetoric of social movements has been applied in recent years to analyses of other collective rhetoric and leadership roles in collectivities. RPS has also been used in conjunction…

Details of a year-long sociolinguistic study of classroom discourse are presented in this final report, with focus on pupil perceptions of the units and features of classroom discourse. Pupils in second-, third-, and fourth-grade classrooms in a lower socioeconomic, multiethnic elementary school, viewed videotapes of language arts lessons given…

As part of a year-long sociolinguistic study of pupil and teacher perceptions of classroom discourse, this study examined the possible effects of pupil status variables on pupil attention patterns. Subjects were 164 children and their teachers in six second, third, and fourth grade classrooms in a lower socioeconomic, multiethnic elementary…

This special edition of "Communication" brings together the work of nine leading scholars of small group communication. The following topics are discussed: (1) small group communication research in the 1980s; (2) unanswered questions in research on communication in the small group; (3) emerging trends in small group research; (4)…

Both interactive (two-way) and traditional (one-way) television programs on new ideas about teaching were made available to teachers in a study of using cable television as a delivery system for diffusing new ideas in schools. Teachers of grades one through six in 41 schools were interviewed before and after a full year of using the interactive…

Two experiments were conducted to test the contention that the extent to which an individual maintains eye contact is differentially interpreted by different cultural groups. In the first experiment, 30 black and 30 white male subjects individually engaged in 15-minute conversations with a black male research confederate. In half of the…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 16 titles deal with the following topics: the use of mass distribution as a method of diffusing ideas on college campuses; compliance-gaining message selection; the rhetoric of Divorced Catholics Groups and the founding of a…

Home economics professionals were surveyed to determine the communication competencies necessary for the completion of their tasks. The most highly rated of the 13 competencies listed by the subjects were the abilities to converse in professional situations, to use other oral processes (argument, complaint, opinion, persuasion, questioning), and…

The articles in this journal, originally presented at the Speech Communication Association Convention in 1978, reflect the current trends and state of research in the field of speech communication. Based on information selected from publications, theses, dissertations, and convention programs, the 12 articles discuss research in the following…

In spring 1977, just as California was emerging from one of the worst droughts in its history, 215 Palo Alto homeowners were interviewed about their views on energy and water conservation, and about the extent to which they had adopted 11 energy-conserving practices (ECP) in the home. The objective was to discover variables both important to…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 15 titles deal with the following topics: factors affecting group decisions regarding attributions of responsibility; a model of message-attitude-behavior relations; effects of the communicative process on perceived source…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 11 titles deal with the following topics: curricula in biomedical communications; communication skill development in student teachers; the status of communication education in Ohio; students' perceived ability to communicate…

The purpose of this paper is to introduce a model of the psychological processes that take place when a persuader decides to use or not to use a given persuasive message. The assumption is made that if the perceived emotional impact of a message is more positive than an ethical threshold (which varies from person to person), the persuader will use…

An analysis of interpersonal communication research supports the existence of the notion "communicative style," the method or manner by which an individual interacts with others. Scholars concerned with interpersonal behavior acknowledge that individuals develop habitual styles of interactive behavior that tend to produce optimal…

About 80% of the 282 employees at a university-based educational research and development center completed questionnaires based on J.E. Grunig's theory of communication behavior in a study to define communication types, discover communication patterns, and make recommendations for improving the center's communication program. Grunig's theory…