African American and European American Perceptions of Problematic Issues in Interethnic Communication Effectiveness

African American and European American perceptions of interethnic communication effectiveness were compared. Interethnic communication was conceptualized as a problematic event (perceptually organized into communication issues). Hypotheses proposed that ethnic identity would predict conversational issues which, in turn, would predict satisfaction. Nine issues salient to communication were derived from previous research: powerlessness, stereotyping, acceptance, goal attainment, authenticity, understanding, expressiveness, shared worldview, relational solidarity, and relaxation. The hypotheses were tested for differences between African Americans and European Americans with additional tests far relationship closeness. Confirmatory factor analysis supported the factorial validity of the issues and indicated that identity had both political and social dimensions for African Americans but only a single dimension for European Americans. Path analysis did not support the causal ordering. However, when the causal link between identity and issues was eliminated and satisfaction was regressed on the entire set of predictor variables the multiple Rs were above .91 for both ethnic groups. Different issues were associated with satisfaction for each group and for close and distant relationships for each ethnic group.     

Indexes of Psychological Well-Being and Role Commitment Among Working Women

The purpose of this study was to compare level of work role commitment with indexes of psychological well-being among multiple-role working women.     

Do Time Press,Stimulus, and Creative Prompt Influence the Divergent Production of Undergraduate Students? Yes,Yes, and No,Not Very Much

This study examined the influence of time press, specific stimulus, and type of creativity prompt on fluency and flexibility scores of 75 undergraduates randomly assigned to condition. Three stimuli were administered, in three time allotments (2.5, 5.0, and 7.5 min), counterbalanced with three types of prompt intended to elicit higher fluency, flexibility, or originality scores. Dependent variables were fluency and flexibility scores. The results suggest that time press has a strong, and typically linear influence on both fluency and flexibility scores. When scores were adjusted by time allowed, a significant difference across stimuli was observed for flexibility, but not for fluency scores. Prompts had very small and nonsignificant effects. Performance did not differ for groups exposed to longer/shorter vs. shorter/longer time patterns on successive tasks.