To gain an in-depth understanding of the causes of the often implicit misunderstandings between Western supervisors and their Chinese doctoral students, we examined my lived experiences as a Chinese international doctoral student under the supervision of my Australian supervisors. Our data revealed how misunderstandings arose and evolved from…

Regretted messages provide speakers an opportunity to learn. Whether learning occurs should depend upon how the incident is processed. This study had two objectives: (a) to determine how the goal a message conflicts with and seriousness influence the emotion(s) evoked; and (b) to determine which variables predict adoption of learning-oriented,…

Conflict situations in high school were observed in an effort to determine how these situations were regarded by parents, teachers, and students. A striking lack of effective communication among all involved in these situations was observed. (JD)

A study analyzed the use of third-party credibility as a deliberate and systematic public relations strategy to regain credibility for an organization faced with public hostility. Four types of third-party usage are: citizen participation, outside investigation, adversarial advocacy, and employee dissemination. Third-party credibility as a public…

The potential for considerable marital dissatisfaction among wives is clearly present. Wives want less controlling behavior from their husbands than the husbands prefer to engage in. They want to move closer to their husbands and want their husbands to share more intimately with them. (Author)

Distressed couples were more critical of each other and less responsive to each other's influence efforts. Distressed and nondistressed couples were similar in their frequencies of inquiries and solution proposals. Criticism and responsiveness were important predictors of both satisfaction with outcomes and attainment of resolutions. (Author)

To determine if empirically derived dependent variables could differentiate typical conflict and accord discussions, couples engaged in conflict and accord discussions on topics rated prior to and following discussions. Discriminators were volume, criticism, disagreement and sarcasm. Variables which did not differentaite topics were swearing, rate…

Indicates that males were more likely than females to use (1) violence against a noncompliant male persuasive target in a noninterpersonal relational context, and (2) direct coercion against persistently noncompliant and noninterpersonal persuasive targets in relational contexts with short-term consequences. (JD)

Reports results of a survey of department chairs in many disciplines regarding communication problems they face. Finds that most department heads experience serious communication problems in conflict management, persuading/motivating others, public relations, and information management. (SR)

Compared communicational interactions of maritally distressed and nondistressed couples engaged in conflict resolution tasks. Distressed couples made significantly more negative cognitive and problem-solving acts. Distressed couples evidenced more reciprocity of negative communication as compared with nondistressed couples. Relationships of these…

The validity of an automated experimental system incorporating a computer mediator for resolving conflicting requests to speak among four-member problem-solving teams was assessed. Learning how to use problem-solving strategies was affected by this new method for facilitating participation in dialogue. Strategy learning among shy and assertive…

A study examined whether teacher efficacy affects the relationship between the teachers' perceptions of the school principal and the perceived communication conflict strategies teachers use when they disagree with the principal. To test this relationship, 830 questionnaires were distributed to public school teachers in six school districts across…

Identified are several sources of conflict between institutional researchers and decisionmakers and suggested are several means for reducing these sources of tension. Conditions that can lead to conflict include: differing organizational roles, value conflicts, status discrepancy and ambiguity, and communications breakdowns. Factors identified for…

Despite disagreement over how large a problem crime and violence actually is, there can be little question that violence affects school life. The concern here is to assess the probable causes of such actions and to offer possible remedies for them. No one really knows the exact degree to which violence stems from the child, the home, the…

Analyzes the five factors in combination that appear to account for the mind-set in which the decision to launch the Challenger was made: (1) perceived pressure, (2) rigid conformity to perceived role requirements, (3) questionable reasoning, (4) ambiguous use of language, and (5) failure to ask important relevant questions. (NKA)