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…

Outlines conceptual and operational definitions that distinguish between the control movements and control patterns of domineeringness and dominance. The evidence suggests that (1) domineeringness and dominance are, in actuality, different phenomena and (2) different patterns of role strain, system satisfaction, and interaction styles are…

Outlines some problems that emerged when speech act theory was applied to the analysis of natural discourse, traces these problems to basic flaws or misconceptions in J. R. Searle's theory, and proposes an alternative view of speech acts within the complex organization of discourse processes. (FL)

Conversational analysis was used to evaluate conversation between an adult with autism and a researcher. Analysis identified differences in conversational style based on such features as topic movement, topic maintenance, repairs, interference from earlier structures, common collocations, overlaps, latching, and pauses. Findings suggest the…

The emergence of human communication systems is typically investigated via 2 approaches with complementary strengths and weaknesses: naturalistic studies and computer simulations. This study was conducted with a method that combines these approaches. Pairs of participants played video games requiring communication. Members of a pair were…

Systematic observation methods were used to investigate the nature of communication in a cross-sectional study of 80 dating and engaged couples that were grouped into dating stages of various degrees of commitment. Results indicate more communication of the critical kind was in evidence at later stages of dating. (Author/EJT)

This study was concerned with student perceptions of teacher warmth through verbal, nonverbal, and combined channels of communication, and with the identification of nonverbal cues that contributed to students' perceptions of teacher warmth. The study is based on the assumption that teaching is a communicative process that is facilitated by the…

Research in crisis intervention has prescribed how trained but non-professional individuals should and do act in a crisis situation. The present study, however, focused on the types of responses untrained helpers use to respond to the crisis of another individual. Results indicate that types of responses vary significantly, with probing and…

A study explored the relationship between the functional communication patterns occurring in conflict and post conflict impressions of relational concern. The first part of the study involved the development and testing of an instrument to measure perceived relational concern, while the second part investigated whether varying styles of functional…

Power modes in marital interactions were investigated in a laboratory observation study at the University of New Hampshire in 1975. Married couples (N=78) were the subjects in this study, whose focus was on the power modes (types of power assertion) used by the partners, shifting attention from the much-considered distribution of power in marriage…

Research on how communicating human beings produce and understand language has focused mostly on what language is, less on how language is processed, and little on who produces and understands language. However, the interaction between what, who, and how is very significant. The importance of who does languaging is related both to the cognitive…

THE ETHICS OF STUDENT-COMPUTER INTERACTIVE SYSTEMS IN GUIDANCE AND COUNSELING WERE INVESTIGATED. MAJOR TERMS EMPLOYED IN THE DISCUSSION ARE OPERATIONALLY DEFINED. THE ADVANTAGES OF THE COMPUTER-HUMAN RELATIONSHIP AS COMPARED TO THE HUMAN-HUMAN RELATIONSHIP ARE--(1) THE HIGH SPEED COMPUTER IS CAPABLE OF MORE RAPID AND EFFICIENT SEARCHING AND…

IN VARIOUS STUDIES, BRIEFLY DESCRIBED IN THIS PAPER, SOUND FILMS WERE MADE OF PEOPLE ENGAGED IN VERBAL COMMUNICATION. THE FILMS WERE ANALYZED TO NOTE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN PHYSICAL MOVEMENT AND THE ACTUAL CONTENT OF THE CONVERSATION. THE FRAMES OF THE FILM WERE SEQUENTIALLY NUMBERED TO CORRELATE THEM TO THE NEAREST FRAME WITH THE SOUND RECORDING.…

The theory of the coordinated management of meaning (CMM) describes the structural relationship between a conversation as it appears in a verbatim transcript and as it appears in the meaning-system of the participants. The five essential features of CMM theory are: a set of four propositions about the nature of communication and human behavior, a…

The entries in this extensive bibliography note films and other audiovisual materials that are suitable for use in courses in speech communication. The film entries are arranged according to the following headings: communication theory, encoding and decoding, group communication, intercultural communication, interpersonal communication,…