A study examined whether teacher efficacy affects the relationship between the teachers' perceptions of the school principal and the perceived communication conflict strategies teachers use when they disagree with the principal. To test this relationship, 830 questionnaires were distributed to public school teachers in six school districts across…

Fiscal Impact Budgeting Systems (FIBS) are sophisticated computer based modeling procedures used in local government organizations, whose results, however, are often overlooked or ignored by decision makers. A study attempted to discover the reasons for this situation by focusing on four factors: potential usefulness, faith in computers,…

This summary, the last of a four-part study of social networks in Pontiac, Michigan, presents highlights from the three previous volumes and advocates the use of network research for understanding the dissemination process in educational innovation. Based on the conclusion that social networks provide a metaphor for understanding complex social…

Relationships between children's trust of a teacher and achievement, attitude toward school, and pupil-teacher interaction patterns were studied in fouth-grade classrooms. Trust was found to be positively correlated with arithmetic achievement and liking of school--but only for the girls. No positive relationships existed between trust and the…

This paper reviews the research undertaken by trainees in counseling supervision who were students in a class on studies in supervision. One study which is discussed focuses on the relationship of supervisor behavior and supervisor didactic or experiential expectations. Another study is presented which explores the behavioral correlates of…

A study investigated whether older persons as a group are generally more persuaded by high authority figures than are younger persons. The study employed a design that allowed for extensive comparisons among subjects of different ages in terms of their willingness to be persuaded by physicians in interpersonal situations. One hundred-twenty…

A model of conversational distance violations that claims that these violations mediate communication outcomes such as source credibility, source attraction, and learning was examined in a study involving 136 undergraduate students. The students were tested in small group settings using eight confederates, four rated highly and four lowly in…

Recent research on the role of personal space has demonstrated the effects of violating or not violating a spatial norm on the perceived persuasiveness, credibility, and attractiveness of the message source. The persuasive impact of personal space violations has been difficult to interpret because of the failure to effectively manipulate source…

The proposed study will examine some critical therapist characteristics (skin color, speech rhythm, expertise levels, and counseling approach) possessed by present Chicano mental health personnel. One hundred and sixty lower division Mexican American college students will be asked to rate the therapist on expertness, attractiveness,…

In every advanced culture, there exists some kind of understanding between a profession and the people it serves. In the case of mass communication, such an understanding is for the most part an informal compact whose terms are understood more or less tacitly. As the terms of this agreement are renegotiated from time to time--disagreements…

This article reviews research conducted on the interpersonal influence process in counseling, specifically those studies relating to counselor expertise, attractiveness, and trustworthiness. The review is organized and analyzed in terms of variables affecting the client's perception of critical counselor characteristics and effects of the…

This report of the investigation into East European newspaper treatment of the accident at Pennsylvania's Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in the spring of 1979 focuses on the Czech and Slovak media, particularly on the Slovak Communist Party's daily newspaper, "Pravda." The response of the media of other East European countries to…

Drawing on personal observations and on a study of patient reactions, this paper considers the problem of doctor/patient communication failure in the inner city clinic. It first discusses the role of dialect variation in communication failure, causes of communication failure in the medical interview, factors contributing to doctor/patient…

This research aimed to identify the school district characteristics that seem to explain the way districts adapt to pressures for change. The author hypothesized that all school districts can be characterized by one of three states: maintenance (they change practices and technologies but are stable in beliefs and structures that truly affect…

The nonverbal components of dramatic art, namely costuming, setting, atmosphere, lighting, and blocking, can work as rhetorical determinants in the conversion process of the Unification Church in that they alter the frame of reference (the body of settled convictions, attitudes, and values) of certain individuals. The clean-cut costuming of church…