TALK AND SILENCE SEQUENCES IN INFORMAL CONVERSATIONS III: INTERSPEAKER INFLUENCE

Literature on the structure of two-person conversations has consistently found that partners become more similar in mean duration of pauses and switching pauses over the course of interaction. Evidence on influence in vocalization duration is primarily negative. No direct evidence of interspeaker influence on a moment-to-moment basis is available. In this study 12 dyadic conversations are analyzed for interspeaker influence, with the use of time series regression procedures. Two versions of the data are presented: a probability summary including the probability of breaking mutual silences, continuing simultaneous talk, and continuing talking alone and a turn summary including vocalization, pause, and switching pause duration. Results show that (1) moment-to-moment influences are present in both versions of the data, (2) these influences differ from dyad to dyad, (3) the influences are both positive (matching) and negative (compensating), and (4) the magnitude of interspeaker influence on a temporal basis is small but detectable. In addition, there are overall tendencies to match in switching pause, probability of continued simultaneous speech, and probability of breaking mutual silences. Dyads show both compensation and matching on vocalization duration and pause-related variables. Implications of these data for past and future explanation of social interaction are explored.     

TIME MATTERS IN TEAM PERFORMANCE: EFFECTS OF MEMBER FAMILIARITY, ENTRAINMENT, AND TASK DISCONTINUITY ON SPEED AND QUALITY

We compared the speed and quality of performance for familiar , initially unfamiliar but continuing , and one-shot (single session) teams. We also proposed and observed entrainment effects for task time limits. Over the course of weekly sessions with changing tasks, continuing teams reached speed levels of the initially familiar teams, but the one-shot teams were consistently slower. Continuing teams also tended to have higher-quality output than the one-shot teams. There were no differences in how quickly each type of group entrained to time limits on the tasks. Entrainment was not robust to task discontinuity (Task A, then B). However, entrainment on repeated trials of a task persisted even when a different type of task "interrupted" those repeated trials (Task A, then B, then A again). Results compel a richer incorporation of time as a medium for complex task sequences, and time-based constructs as a feature of team membership in the study of group effectiveness.     

ATYPICAL DISCOURSES

This essay outlines novel ways of communicating with patients by altering semantics, syntax, word use, or sounds. Language is viewed as a tool for coping with problems rather than a medium with which to mirror external reality or internal human nature. This view of language emerges from a pragmatic critique of truth. The broader goal of this essay is to weave together the philosophy of pragmatism, especially as it has been articulated by Richard Rorty, with the theory and practice of psychoanalysis. Clinical case examples are discussed.     

RETHINKING THE ROLE OF SMALL‐GROUP COLLABORATORS AND ADVERSARIES IN THE LONDON KLEINIAN DEVELOPMENT (1914–1968)

The authors historically situate the London Kleinian development in terms of the small‐group collaborations and adversaries that arose during the course of Melanie Klein's career. Some collaborations later became personally adversarial (e.g., those Klein had with Glover and Schmideberg); other adversarial relationships forever remained that way (with A. Freud); while still other long‐term collaborations became theoretically contentious (such as with Winnicott and Heimann). After the Controversial Discussions in 1944, Klein marginalized one group of supporters (Heimann, Winnicott, and Riviere) in favor of another group (Rosenfeld, Segal, and Bion). After Klein's death in 1960, Bion maintained loyalty to Klein's ideas while quietly distancing his work from the London Klein group, immigrating to the United States in 1968.     

Severity of initiation revisited: Does severity of initiation increase attractiveness in real groups?

In the Netherlands, two longitudinal fieldstudies (N=202 and N=46) were conducted on the relationship between severity of initiation and group attractiveness. Study 1 represents a severe initiation, Study 2 a more mild one. In these two different field ‘conditions’ we aimed to test the dissonance interpretation of the effects of a severe initiation (Aronson & Mills, 1959) and a positive correlation between severity of treatment of the initiated novices and group attractiveness was expected (hypothesis 1). Further, we expected that feelings of frustration and anger would mediate this relationship (hypothesis 2). On the other hand, our affiliation–attraction hypothesis either predicted a positive correlation between companionship (Rook, 1987) and group attractiveness, irrespective of severity (hypothesis 3), or that companionship would mediate the severity–attraction relationship (hypothesis 4). In both studies, LISREL path analyses only supported hypothesis 3. Contrary to hypothesis 1, severity experienced during the early stages of the initiation correlated with feelings of frustration and loneliness (Study 1), or depressive mood (Study 2). These feelings lasted throughout the initiation and lowered the liking for the group. Results are discussed in terms of newcomers' decisions to leave or to join the group, determined by (i) the exchange and fate control relationship between the leadership and the newcomers; (ii) the severe treatment of newcomers as a selection device and (iii) companionate exchanges among the initiated newcomers as a basis for ingroup formation. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Semantical Anthropology1

The association between the smell and the bacon is ".natural"., that is to say it is not the result of any human behavhior. But the association between the word ".breakfast". and breakfast is a social matter, which exists only for English speaking people.—B. Russell, ".An Inquiry into Meaning and Truth".