Employed contextual analysis to examine the meaning of touches reported in daily interaction. Found 18 categories of meanings of touch such as support, appreciation, inclusion, greeting, departure, attention-getting, etc. Discusses results in terms of the nature of tactile communication, comparing results with past research. (PD)

Taped actual employment interviews at a university placement center to determine relationships between interviewer's questions, applicants' question-answer durations, and actual interview outcomes. Found--among other results--that interviewees who received second-interview offers tended to spend more total time talking in their interviews than…

Compares the compliance-gaining interactions of selected marital types determined by the Relational Dimensions Instrument. Concludes that the various marital types used are associated with different compliance-gaining communication patterns. (MS)

Interprets data collected from multi-modal sources (ethnographic interviewing and non-participant observation) using an analytic-inductive method to construct a new Layered Model of Problematic Intercultural Communication. Provides a holistic view of the ways the macro-context, individual (in)competencies, and dyadic communication behaviors…

Builds on previous research with this detailed analysis of multiple decision sequences in two sets of groups: students performing a ranking task and physicians performing a program planning task. Finds support for the Multiple Sequence Descriptive System and isolates types of conflict and idea development patterns. (PD)

Written transcripts of spouses' discussions were coded using two different systems. Findings indicate that the results obtained from one coding system cannot easily be compared with results obtained from the other system. Author calls for resolution of differences in coding procedures if relational communication research is to be usefully…

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)

Analyzes and compares the communication process within effective and ineffective decision-making groups to identify specific behaviors and patterns of communicative behaviors which consistently discriminate between them. Results suggest that effective decision-making groups spend more time interacting and agreeing upon procedural matters than do…

Assessed the relationship of conversational involvement and loneliness among college students. Found that lonely participants in this study had lower rates of talkativeness, interruptions, and attention than the nonlonely; they were also perceived as less involved and less interpersonally attractive. (PD)

Results of this study suggest that knowing the sex and level of dominance of the potential liar should help in detecting deceptions and provide guidelines as to where observers should look for cues. (PD)

Relationships--categorized as no growth, low growth, or high growth--were monitored over a two-week period with structured diaries kept by one party to the relationship. Overall differences were found between males and females, primarily on the four variables of satisfaction, importance, effectiveness, and personalness. (PD)

Supports the hypothesis that interaction processes connected with the Valence Distribution Model mediated the effect of decision schemes on group decisions. Substantiates the assumptions that interaction is a crucial factor in group decision making. Although input conditions may also have an impact on decision outcomes, they are mediated by…

Presents a model of meanings in coherent conversation taking the form of a hierarchy of levels of cognitive interpolations between the stream of behavior and archetypal patterns in conversations. A study of indirect responses in conversation is reported which supports the hierarchical structure of the model. (JMF)

Examines and explains relational control interaction patterns in two decision-making groups and two women's consciousness-raising groups. Analyzes the interaction data using a Markov model and tracking the control dimension of relationships over time. (JMF)

Analyses in this study revealed trends that bear some similarity to other coorientation research on the variables of agreement, accuracy, and congruency between individual members and their group, but the small amount of variance accounted for by time spent communicating suggests a need for measurement revisions in further research. (PD)