The Effects of Vocalics and Nonverbal Sensitivity on Compliance A Speech Accommodation Theory Explanation

A speech accommodation theory explanation for the interaction between a receiver's decoding ability and a speaker's voice tone on compliance with requests for help was tested. It was predicted that good decoders would speak faster than poor decoders. Speech accommodation theory predicts that given this speech style difference, good decoders would make more favorable interpretations of a fast request that converged toward their faster speech rate; whereas poor decoders would make more favorable interpretations of a slow request that converged toward their slower speech rate. Requests receiving more favorable evaluations should result in greater compliance, because compliance with requests for help was predicted to follow an identification process. An experiment involving 168 participants confirmed this explanation. Good decoders spoke faster than poor decoders. Moreover, good decoders rated the fast request as more intimate and immediate, while poor decoders rated the slow request as more intimate and immediate. Good decoders, in turn, complied more with the fast request, which they rated more intimate and immediate, whereas poor decoders complied more with the slow request, which they rated more intimate and immediate.     

THE USES AND MISUSES OF USES AND GRATIFICATIONS1

Four conceptual problems require resolution if the uses and gratifications approach to mass communication studies is to be maximally productive: a vague conceptual framework; lack of precision in major concepts; a confused explanatory apparatus; and failure to view perception as an active process. Consideration of the current state of the uses and gratifications approach suggests the need for conceptual analysis if the approach is to unambiguously inform the research enterprise.     

Theoretical Frameworks for the Study of Structuring Processes in Group Decision Support Systems

Most theoretical perspectives used to explain the use and effects of communication and decision support technologies assume some form of technological determinism. Inconsistencies in the research findings have prompted theorists to reject the assumptions of technological determinism in favor of an emergent perspective. To date, only adaptive Structuration theory (AST) offers the promise of satisfying two requirements for explanation based on an emergent perspective: recursivity and unique effects. The current article reviews the application of AST to the study of a relatively recent technology in the work place—group decision support systems (GDSS). Next it discusses AST's challenge to capture, dynamically and precisely, GDSS processes and outcomes. In response to these concerns, self-organizing systems theory (SOST) is reviewed and applied to problematic areas in GDSS research with the aim of advancing AST.     

Display Rule Development in Romantic Relationships Emotion Management and Perceived Appropriateness of Emotions Across Relationship Stages

A laboratory study of early dating and married/cohabiting couples showed that perceived appropriateness of emotion expression was lowest for early daters' negative emotions. Partners in more developed relationships managed positive emotions less than negative emotions and less than early daters managed either negative or positive emotions. Biological sex moderated the effect of valence and relationship level on discrepancy scores, the greatest differences between stages being for males’positive emotions and females’negative emotions. A second study using partners across all stages of relationship development found evidence of a curvilinear pattern for relationship length on discrepancy scores. More management of negative emotions was reported by partners in early and later stages of relationship development. Perceived appropriateness of emotion expression was found to increase with relationship development. Females expressions of emotion were considered least appropriate in early-stage relationships. Together the results provide evidence of display rule evolution as relationships develop.     

COMMUNICATION RESEARCH AND THE ATTITUDE-VERBAL REPORT-OVERT BEHAVIOR RELATIONSHIP: A CRITIQUE AND THEORETIC REFORMULATION1

Although communication theory provides a significant rationale for the relationship of messages to both attitudes and behaviors, relatively few researchers have examined systematically the effects of communication on attitude statements and related behaviors. Those studies which have assessed communication effects on both classes of behavior have yielded conflicting findings concerning verbal report-overt behavior correspondence, as well as the role of communication and mediating variables in underlying attitude-verbal report-overt act relationships. It is argued that inconclusive results have been the product of: (1) inadequate theoretical formulation of the relationship of attitudes to behaviors, and of communication to both attitudes and behaviors; (2) inadequate conceptual and operational definitions of these and other relevant variables; (3) inadequate control of factors influencing the relationships. Theoretical reformulations are suggested in each of these areas, hypotheses are offered concerning conditions for verbal report-overt behavior compliance correspondence, and a path analytic model is proposed for empirical test.     

ASSESSING PETER OCHS THROUGH PEIRCE, PRAGMATISM AND THE LOGIC OF SCRIPTURE

This article provides an interpretive, critical overview of Peter Ochs' Peirce, Pragmatism and the Logic of Scripture , and raises four thematic criticisms. The first considers Ochs turn to language, and its implications for pragmatism and understanding Peirce. The second interrogates the tension between Ochs' particularism and Peirce's universalism. The third concerns the relation between science and religion implied by Ochs, and its adequacy in relation to Peirce, pragmatism and modernity. The final question regards the scope of the community of inquirers Ochs seems to have in view, in light of pragmatism's seemingly more general concern with an inclusive democracy.