The study focuses on the relationship of life event stress and marital dysfunction. Couples in which one or both partners were receiving marital counseling had experienced a significantly greater amount of life stress events during the previous 12-month period than had couples who were not experiencing marital dysfunction. (Author)

Discusses a study designed to investigate the substructure of everyday social conversation which allows for judgments of competent communicative behavior or "communicative competence". Descriptions of perceived communicative competence characteristics are provided. (MH)

Selected personality variables, sex, age, interpersonal values, and educational level, were examined as antecedents to preferences for a nondirective (Carl Rogers) or directive (Albert Ellis) therapist. Individuals who preferred the Ellis presentation proved to more dogmatic and externalized than individuals preferring the Rogers presentation.…

Outlines research using a behavioral measure of self-disclosure in a natural small group setting and compares the results with those obtained in a laboratory dyadic exchange. (MH)

Examines the effects of the sex of the receiver, the status of the communicator, and the mode of communication on the exchange of positive, neutral, and negative evaluations. (Author)

Describes a study designed to test the circumplexical order hypothesis at the phenomenological level of conscious communication. (MH)

Investigates the effects of disclosure as perceived by the recipient with specific attention given to the recipient's level of self-esteem. (MH)

Investigates interaction effects of the variables of leadership style and groupings of people on productivity and member satisfaction. (MH)

Examines the effects of information distributed homogeneously or heterogeneously and the use of perspective-taking or egocentric presentation processes of information exchange on problem-solving dayds. (MH)

Thirty first-born infants were filmed in face-to-face interaction with their mothers and unfamiliar adults each month between 1 and 7 months of age. Adults interacted both playfully and unresponsively. Developmental trends, differential responsiveness to mothers and strangers, and social expectations in face-to-face interaction were explored.…

Investigated reliability and dimensionality of Bales's Interpersonal Rating Forms (IRF) using volunteer subjects (N=266) enrolled in undergraduate communications course. Results documented shortcomings of IRF as a measuring instrument finding the subscales neither reliable nor dimensionally structured; only 2 of 18 items in each subscale are…

Indicates a periodic structure in the distribution of between-turn silences in two-party conversation, a finding that is inconsistent with current stochastic or signaling models, which view social interaction as an exchange of stimuli and responses. Finds that social interaction is fundamentally a collaborative activity. (JD)

Presents S. Jackson's and S. Jacobs' theory of conversational argument and demonstrates flaws in the representational validity of their research from the perspective of face-to-face interaction. Describes characteristics of a "paradigm case" of interactional argument that extends Jackson's and Jacobs' ideas about argumentation in…

Study participants applied for vocational services at various agencies. Process summaries and interaction logs yielded themes including, among others (1) power and status implications in the helping interaction, (2) ritual role delineation, (3) the apathetic norm, and (4) options of the helper to supersede the focus of helping. (Author/CH)