Several sets of evidence are offered to support the hypothesis that cognitive and social development are intimately interrelated, and that mother-infant interaction influences both. A mother's prompt responsiveness to her baby's signals tends to foster the development of varied and clear modes of communication and thus the development of one facet…

Fifty-six sailors individually participated in a lengthy interaction session, ostensibly with another sailor (an experimenter confederate). They were subjected to one of four reward/cost expectancies (Continuous Positive, Later Positive, Continuous Negative, and Later Negative). Social penetration processes studied were average time talked,…

Examines the hypothesis that attractive individuals should be more successful with opposite-sex peers but less successful with same-sex peers than unattractive individuals. Also investigates the influence strategies employed by persons differing in attractiveness since nothing is currently known about the actual behavior exhibited by attractive…

Describes transactional analysis (TA) and how extension agents can use it to work more effectively with their clients. (EM)

This study evaluated an intensive interpersonal communication training method for nonspecifically trained vocational rehabilitation counselors who were enrolled in a work-study program. The results indicate that the intensive interpersonal communication training method is an effective way to increase the participants' communication functioning…

A review of research on teaching social skills to severely handicapped persons discusses training procedures, domain, generalization, maintenance, cost efficiency, reliability, social interaction partners, social validation, research design, and simulation. Evaluation of nine studies affirms that severely handicapped persons can learn to interact…

Describes and evaluates a conversational skills program designed to teach apprehensive communicators how to develop comfortable and effective social behavior in a variety of interpersonal contexts. (PD)

Discusses methods by which teachers can understand student perceptions and attitudes. Investigates personal academic achievements, relationship of the students to the teachers, and interaction norms of the students with each other. (Author/DB)

Describes microcounseling and interaction analysis, provides a reationale for the "marriage" of these two successful innovations, and demonstrates how the combination can provide an objective and systematic technology for the development of effective interpersonal communication skills.

One of the recurrent problems associated with interpersonal, group, organizations, and intercultural training in communication is the assessment of outcomes. An approach is suggested for the evaluation of training and selection of programs utilizing behavioral assessment of participants' communication competence. (Author)

Illustrates how children handle conflict and adjust to one another when their goals are incompatible. Found clear developmental trends: with increasing age, children used more compliance-gaining strategies; their compliance-gaining strategies became more adaptive; and their conflict episodes became more complex. (PD)

Attempts to clarify the epistemological basis of interaction analysis by exploring the modes of observation researchers adopt when using interaction coding schemes and outlining the validation requirements these options entail. Modes of observation include the viewpoint of the experiencer, the process of experiencing, and what is experienced. (JAC)

This study investigated effects of social interactive strategies (such as, contingent imitation, natural reinforcement contingency, and time delay) in promoting early social-communicative skills of a preschool child with developmental disabilities during daily classroom activities. Results indicated that the child's eye contact, joint attention,…

The conversational interactions of 25 mothers and their 4.5-year-old children, who had been born preterm, were evaluated during a social problem-solving task. The subject mothers tended to approach the task as a vocabulary lesson, whereas comparison mothers tended to focus on the social negotiation aspect of the task. Possible explanations for…

Six students with developmental delays and low levels of social interaction in preschool settings were followed during kindergarten to assess one-year maintenance effects of a peer-mediated social skills intervention program. Results indicated students continued to interact with peers at higher than baseline levels and were rated as within the…