Traditionally the unit of analysis in marital research has been the individual spouse. More recently the marital relationship has often been defined as a process of interaction and dynamic exchanges such that spouses have autonomous needs as well as corporate needs for interdependence. Thus modern systems theory heightens the importance of both…

Intended primarily for researchers and prevention program personnel, this booklet provides current background information on the continuing problem of smoking among children and adolescents. In the first brief section, research findings concerning American youth's current smoking patterns and beliefs are described. The second section considers…

There has recently been a tremendous increase in the quantity of research published in gerontology. While the increase in the quantity of research has been regarded positively by gerontologists, there has been little discussion or evaluation of the quality of the research. Two articles that appeared in 1975 were both very critical of…

A study by Malcolm R. Parks reported in "Communication Monographs" called into question the cross-situational validity of the Personal Report of Communication Apprehension (PRCA). Park's study, however, is flawed in many ways. He does not provide an adequate definition of "situation." Both the type of factor analysis he chose…

Traditional sex difference research ignores the impact of social forces on the research process. It characteristically interprets sex differences as female deficiencies, also emphasizing the view of sex differences as determined by personal characteristics rather than situational contexts. Since research is a social process with a potentially…

One popular method of generating large quantities of social science research data is telephone research. The interviewer's communication skill is a critical factor in determining the reliability and validity of such research. The interviewer should have a clear, pleasant, and understandable voice; be able to read through the questions fluently;…

Methodological problems associated with the research cited by the Baker DeKanter Review of Bilingual Education (1981) are reported. The review concluded that there is little evidence supporting the need for bilingual instruction for language minority children. Given the widespread legal, fiscal, policy, and media implications of this conclusion,…

Meta-analysis has become an important supplement to traditional methods of research reviewing, although many problems must be addressed by the reviewer who carries out a meta-analysis. These problems include identifying and obtaining appropriate studies, extracting estimates of effect size from the studies, coding or classifying studies, analyzing…

Because research in speech communication is predominantly the study of human behavior, a major goal of researchers in the field is to provide sound communication propositions about people in general or specific groups of people. A review of recent speech communication research reported in journals reveals that researchers in the social and…

In exploring the role and status of the ethics that govern communication research, the two parts of this paper examine the practices of researchers and the role of deception in their methodology and conclusions, and the role of communication research as a whole to the society that it is supposed to benefit. At the end of both discussions are…

Media historians have been criticized for their inability to ask substantive questions, for ignoring underlying conditions in media's past, and for their failure to relate the narration of technological developments to existing social and cultural tensions. One problem media historians confront is the scope of their research--many media histories…

The observations gleaned from the experiences of two editors of speech communication journals served as the basis for the identification of the limitations inherent in research studies employing qualitative methods. Among their observations are the following: (1) qualitative research remains a relatively ill defined descriptor which embodies a…

In October of 1983, Austin Independent School District secondary students (n=1275) completed a Youth Needs Survey (YNS) representing a 16 percent return of the original sample. Because the countywide Social Policy Advisory Committee was using the YNS results for planning, it was decided to use a high school student questionnaire (Questions for…

Researchers in attribution theory have used two styles in wording attributional questions. The informational style asks subjects the extent to which they possess ability, effort and luck relative to a task, and task difficulty. The causal style asks subjects the extent to which various factors influenced or caused the outcome. A study was…

Two experiments investigated the differential effects of praise and correctness reinforcers on the task performance of black children from lower and middle socioeconomic classes, also examining the influence of sex differences, experimenter race, and the interactions between these variables. (EH)