The New Sexism: A Response to DeVoe

DeVoe's (1990) presentation of women as powerless and men as having power is an example of what Farrell (1986) called “the new sexism.” Rather than viewing power as a commodity, the concept of personal empowerment is recommended. DeVoe's recommendations are also challenged.     

MEASURING SOCIAL-COMMUNICATIVE ANXIETY: SOCIAL DESIRABILITY AND THE FAKABILITY OF SCALE RESPONSES

Three studies are reported that examine the social desirability and fakability (transparency) of a number of self-report measures of social-communicative anxiety. Results indicate that social desirability, assessed as a personality dimension, is generally unrelated to measures of social and communicative anxiety. However, virtually all measures of the anxiety were transparently fakable. When asked to portray themselves positively, subjects consistently responded as low-anxious; when asked to look undesirable, subjects completed the measures to suggest high anxiety.     

INTRA-AUDIENCE EFFECTS: A FIELD TEST

Audience feedback has been demonstrated to result in intra-audience effects in addition to having effects on message sources. This experiment was designed to demonstrate intra-audience effects in a naturalistic field setting. Sixty male and female undergraduates were required as part of a bogus class assignment to go to a bar on one of two nights and “observe communication behaviors in the field.” A group of about 30 confederates attended both nights, one night giving positive responses to the band and the other night giving negative responses. Subjects filled out a questionnaire in their classes on the day following participation. Results supported predictions that observable audience responses would affect subjects' evaluations of the band and the length of time spent at the bar.     

STUDIES OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN COMMUNICATION APPREHENSION AND SELF-ESTEEM

This paper reports research conducted as a part of a continuing program designed to provide empirical delineation of the communication apprehension construct. Five studies are reported which indicate a substantial correlation (r =?.52 to r =?.72) between oral communication apprehension and self-esteem. Results from two college student samples (N = 192 and N = 272), two samples of elementary and secondary teachers (N = 202, N = 384), and a sample of federal employees (N = 211) indicate highly consistent relationships across age groups and occupational types.     

SOME PRAGMATIC TENDENCIES IN THE THOUGHT OF WANG YANG-MING

One of the chief benefits to civilization stemming from comparative studies of different philosophical traditions is the possibility of discovering convergences of opinion which offer evidence of continuity in human experience across cultural boundaries and thus provide some measure of corroboration for these opinions. This, of course, is not to say that important divergences of opinion should either be ignored or politely passed over. On the contrary, the more clearly differences are apprehended, the more likely it is that they can be discussed for the purpose of determining whether they may be complementary rather than contradictory. The convergences, however, insofar as we can discover them, should be given the attention they deserve since they transcend boundaries and point in the direction of a deeper unity pertaining not only to this or that particular tradition but to the cause of humanity itself.