This document describes the process by which a consortium of media professionals was brought together to develop a graduate level, competency based, educational program for school media specialists. It is divided into four sections: (1) process description of program design, (2) competencies for the school media specialist, (3) an annotated…

After 24 triads of college students discussed hypothetical situations of serious and moderately serious acts of plagiarism by either high or low status individuals, they designated a punishment. The hypothesis was that the severity of the sanction would be a joint function of the severity of the act, the attribution of responsibility for the act,…

One hundred studies on small group communication that were published in speech communication journals from 1969 to 1978 are summarized and critiqued in this paper. The literature is classified into three new lines of research (critical variable, process, and tangential) and three continuing lines of research (leadership, discussion, and pedagogy).…

Interaction theory has not been applied to interpersonal communication because the Western scientific model requires that variables be consciously apparent. A simple model of sending and receiving is not adequate to explain the complex nature of human communication, however. The dyadic pattern of interrelationship may be expanded to reflect the…

This study examined the effects of high and low communication inhibition on small group interaction. Communication inhibition was identified in terms of a scale developed through the factor analysis of the Personal Report of Confidence as a Speaker--Short Form, the Personal Report of Communication Apprehension--College, and Unwillingness to…

This study is an attempt to apply ethological tools of observation and analysis to the social behavior of 25 communally-reared children, ages 6 months to 4 years. The focus of this analysis is aggression and dominance relations. Findings indicate that: (1) agonistic behavior reveals stable and linear dominance hierarchies for children from 6…

This paper examines two main questions: what indicators of staff readiness are useful in planning an organizational consultation with a school staff, and how evidence of those indicators can be effectively gathered. Based on experience in past consultations with various school staffs, it is concluded that a school is likely to benefit from…

One hundred and ten college students, placed in 22 problem solving discussion groups, interacted for three fifty minute periods each. Three trained observers systematically recorded the interaction. Group members were classified as being task or socio-emotionally oriented and the functional leader in each group was identified by role category.…

This paper explores the power of the group to influence the initiation, maintenance, and termination of a given episode of group drinking by alcoholics. The study was undertaken to establish the parameters, within a controlled laboratory setting, of the various effects of group decision making on the social, affective, and drinking behavior of the…

Designed to provide a comprehensive and broadly based introduction to the study of human communication, this book presents the concept of communication as interrelated constituent processes that operate at varying levels of complexity and acquire significance only in the context of larger intrapersonal, interpersonal, or socio-cultural systems of…

Four combinations of teacher verbal and nonverbal evaluative behavior were studied within a controlled microlesson. Two male and two female teachers presented each of the four combinations--(a) verbally and nonverbally positive; (b) verbally positive and nonverbally negative; (c) verbally negative and nonverbally positive; or (d) verbally and…

Used a lexical statistics program to analyze conflict and nonconflict discussions of two different groups of college students. Found preliminary evidence for a pattern of greater redundancy and less vocabulary diversity for the discussion groups in conflict. (PD)

This study recorded and analyzed 96 student discussion groups to identify successful dialogue strategies; to highlight difficulties deriving from group characteristics; and to examine how students behave, what they gain, and which students benefit most. A model of a successful discussion is outlined and study findings considered. (Author/SJL)

Three large, unstructured workshops (500-800 people) demonstrated how large groups of people can participate together and collectively choose ways of action aimed at satisfying all. Particular significance given to participants' shift away from looking for outside sources of answers, values and standards to discovery of strengths and answers…

Presents the results of an experiment that examined the extent to which a single provocative incident can exacerbate negative feelings toward a group as a whole. After hearing an audiotaped interview where a Latvian student criticized U.S. college students, the U.S. students responded differently to slides showing Latvians. (MJP)