Diligence and Academic Performance

The research literature in education is devoting increasing attention to the role of student effort in academic performance. This study posits a construct, diligence, which expresses or reflects an individual's effort toward achieving physical, mental, social, and spiritual ideals. A Diligence Inventory (DI) was developed using factor analysis and construct validation procedures. Although no statistical relation was found between diligence and ability, the two variables combined to predict 37% of the variance in the academic performance of 237 high-school students. Implications for educational practice include a greater need to affirm the efforts of youth in their quest for balanced educational development.     

ROLE ENACTMENT AS A SOCIALLY RELEVANT EXPLANATION OF SELF-PERSUASION

This paper reports four tests of Berger's role enactment model of persuasion. The model is addressed to generalizing counter attitudinal communication to social situations when persons find themselves encoding belief-discrepant messages. This encoding takes the form of role enactments which lead to attitude change. Crucial to predicting from the model are variables identifying the communicator's self-perceived role enactment competence (SPREC), post performance evaluation (PPE), information, and role involvement. Studies 1 and 2 found no support for predictions concerning the predictive utility of information but did point to the importance of SPREC and PPE in assessing post enactment attitude. Study 3 tested a re-conceptualization of Berger's model and confirmed a multivariate relationship among SPREC, PPE, message intensity, and attitude change. In Study 4 ego involvement was conceptually linked to role involvement, and results confirmed the SPREC, PPE, involvement, message intensity, and attitude change relationship.     

The Evaluative Use of Citation Analysis for Communication Journals

This study investigated the impact of the omission of scholarly communication journals from Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) and Arts and Humanities Citation Index (AHCI) on citation-based appraisals of communication literature. Citation data were collected from reference lists in articles appearing in 27 communication journals published during 1990, including 14 not indexed by SSCI or AHCI. The 14 journals not included in SSCI or AHCI contributed 1,953, or 26%, of the 7,640 citations to authors during 1990, and 1,156, or 25%, of the 4,587 citations to journals in 1990. Twenty-seven of the 50 most frequently cited authors received 25% or more of their citations from journals omitted by SSCI and AHCI. This study found that an accurate evaluation of a scholar's articles based on citations received will not be possible until SSCI and/or AHCI choose to include the omitted journals, and that computer applications could be used to provide a convenient and inexpensive on-line citation index for communication literature. The Journal Impact Rating, a measure for use in comparing journals’impact on the basis of citations received, was introduced.     

EXPLORATORY ANALYSIS OF A DEVELOPMENTAL MODEL FOR TASK-ORIENTED SMALL GROUPS

The purpose of this study was to describe and perform an exploratory analysis of a conceptual model for task-oriented small group development. The four phases of the model were defined as: latency, adaptation, integration, and goal-attainment. To test assumptions of phasic development, data from minute-byminute observations made on 30 groups of undergraduate women were collapsed into quarters and submitted to a one-way multivariate analysis of variance for the purpose of making a priori nonorthogonal comparisons. Results from the initial a priori comparisons and subsequent data-snooping techniques did not confirm the existence of four sequential phases in group development. Results did disclose a pattern of development that began with an extended adaptation phase covering most of the first half of group interaction. Groups characteristically shifted into a partially defined integration phase where affectivity and neutrality themes appeared to follow each other. Goal-attainment themes were most prominent during the final quarter of interaction.