A study investigated the degree of association between supervisor and subordinate perceptions of the supervisor's leadership style, use of power, and conflict management style. Subjects were 87 supervisors and 432 subordinates from five service-oriented, publicly supported organizations. The supervisors completed measures of leadership style, use…

A study was conducted to investigate the relationship of fiction reading to adult development. Eighty students at an adult education center completed questionnaires that elicited information concerning their reading of fiction and their adult experiences, as well as demographic information. The results yielded a picture of a group of adult readers…

Based on the assumption that behavioral aspects of faculty productivity are often not considered in development efforts, it is proposed that data collection to support the enhancement of faculty productivity should account for the behavioral dimension. Research concerning faculty productivity is reviewed, and it is concluded that the entire work…

Perceptions of 160 institutionalized and 207 noninstitutionalized old people (mean age = 76.6 yrs.) were examined with respect to the quality of their family relations. Responses to six survey items measuring satisfaction with various aspects of family relations were cross-tabulated with gender, marital status, health status, age, and living…

The use of discourse analysis in examining the classroom language interactions between English teachers and their students builds on the basic concepts of language function and language sequence. The four language functions are eliciting, informing, directing, and boundary marking (marking the divisions of discourse units). The three language…

In a study to seek an alternative methodological approach to collective bargaining research, an interaction model based upon a systems approach to small group communication was used to observe, record, and quantify the communication behavior of teacher/school board negotiators. Specifically, the study sought to determine whether the interaction…

The relationships between feedback, its source, and the increases or decreases of the behavior associated with it were investigated to apply predictions of the credibility gap regarding the effects of feedback on the acquisition of an individual skill. Subjects (N=45) were randomly assigned to one of five treatment conditions and provided…

Using a specific teaching model as the criterion, three groups of elementary school teachers with differing levels of teaching experience were observed with a microcomputer recorder while teaching in their classroom settings. A step-wise discriminant analysis isolated specific motivational and instructional techniques from the model which produced…

The exploration of movement as it reveals the subconscious and subjective side of individuals is described to illustrate a method of psychological inquiry known as phenomenology. Spontaneous, improvised dance performed by two different couples was video-taped and analyzed. The couples, a man and woman in a courting relationship and two women in a…

Social categorization theory contains significant inferences for human communication research. The effect of common fate by subject inclusion in convergent or divergent experimental categories was ascertained by manipulation with Australian students who evaluated bogus Aboriginal art. Whereas previous research shows that social categorization…

After discussing the rhetorical nature of physician/patient interactions, this paper describes and analyzes six medical interviews to illustrate the evolution of interpersonal and role relationships between physicians and patients, the sorts of information that are shared, and the way problems are resolved. The interviews that are described…

An exploratory study was conducted of the ways people accommodate television in social interaction in contrast to the way they accommodate other individuals. Videotapes were made of five dyads--composed of members of a college speech course--who were told to wait in a small room before they were needed for a study. Each dyad was subjected to four…

A study of formal communication in 30 families each with a schizophrenic son and 28 families, each with a "normal" son was conducted in Germany. By means of factor analysis four types of formal speech behavior were identified using musical terminology: "staccato," a highly fragmented flow of conversation with high turnover rate; "solo" in which…

The reactions of participants to the presentation sessions of a staff development training program were assessed using participant questionnaires and non-verbal metabehavior estimates of participant attitudes. Fifty reading specialists and administrators participated in a two-session workshop dealing with reading material and methods. Each session…

Assuming that counseling is an interlocking system of mutual influence and that the effect of various counselor/client responses on the behavior of the other is probabilistic, then it becomes important to understand what categories of factors contribute to the probabilistic tendencies of counselor and client to respond in different ways. One…