Interpersonal and Small Group Communication Commons^™

Editor's Page, Brandi N. Frisby

Basic Communication Course Annual

No abstract provided.

Front Cover, Title Page, Contents, Editorial Board

Basic Communication Course Annual

No abstract provided.

Revealing Challenges Of Teaching Secrecy, Jack Z. Bratich, Craig R. Scott

Secrecy and Society

All teaching has something to do with transmission of hidden knowledge, secrecy, and revelation. But the teaching of secrecy itself faces particular challenges. Drawing on the authors’ experiences teaching secrecy-themed seminars to first-year university students, this paper pinpoints four such challenges: how to determine the range of phenomena to cover in a short course, how to prevent excessive interpretation of secrets, how to encourage students to take a fun topic with seriousness, and how to engage students in their own practices of secrecy. In laying out these challenges, we aim to contribute to a secrecy literacy: a needed competency so …

“It's Like A Phantom Limb. It Feels Like It’S There. It's Supposed To Be There, But It's Not.”: Birthmothers’ Metaphors Of Ambiguous Loss, Melodee Lynn Sova

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Birthmothers are a population with unique experiences and challenges. Among those challenges is the difficulty understanding and managing a loss for which they do not have a readily available coping strategy. As a birthmother, the author of this dissertation was uniquely situated to connecting with, and understanding the ways in which, birthmothers expressed their narratives. The purpose of this dissertation is to explore the ways in which birthmothers make sense of their experiences with ambiguous loss by examining the metaphors they employ when narrating their adoption story. The use of metaphor in the birthmother narrative was especially important because metaphor …

Conflict Management Video Training For Retail Associates, Tisch Cistrunk-Parmelee

Regis University Student Publications (comprehensive collection)

Retail associates are encountering customer conflict at an ever-increasing rate. Mistreatment by customers includes insults, name-calling, threats, and violence. Job satisfaction for associates is on the decline as a result. This Capstone project proposes retail associates are not trained in managing customer conflict. Forty-six retail associates completed a 22-question survey and watched five embedded video microlessons (lessons between one and three minutes). The video showed retail associates how to recognize, assess, and manage customer conflict through self-awareness and mindful engagement. Through grounded theory and qualitative research methods, this study confirms that retail associates’ job satisfaction can improve with conflict management …

Com 260: Small Group Communication Syllabus (Hybrid Format), Christopher Moss

Open Educational Resources

No abstract provided.

Unveiling Race And Japanese Identity Through Kokusai Kekkon, Manami Matsuoka

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Kokusai kekkon, marriage among Japanese and non-Japanese nationals, are common, yet sometimes it comes with difficulties. The study aims to uncover Japanese people’s hidden perceptions of gaikokujins, foreigners, and Japanese identity shaped in relation to gaikokujins based on race and ethnicity within cross-national marriage. 18 Japanese spouses of U.S. Americans were interviewed for the study. The study employed thematic analysis to disclose Japanese beliefs and worldviews through interpreting Japanese interviewees’ experiences and their families’ discourses regarding marriage with U.S. Americans. The study found that whiteness and the sense of inferiority to the West and superiority toward the East influence Japanese …

Relationship Between Participation And Social Inclusion, Louis Nwachi

Articles

Studies show that within most countries, there are generally many different socio-cultural, ethnic and religious groups and this diversity inevitably creates a level of inter-group tension, with income disparities, cultural differences, and intergroup segregation leading in turn to social exclusion. This paper sets out to develop a conceptual framework to examine the relationship between that participation and the social inclusion outcomes in the plan-making process. It addresses how social inclusion can relate to the plan-making process culturally, politically and institutionally, economically and socially with high level participation. In doing this, it adopts a case study approach using the Metropolitan Area …

An Analysis Of Soccer Referee Demographics And Motivational Factors In The Western Kentucky Soccer Officials Association, Daniel Hasko

Murray State Theses and Dissertations

Through a lens of the Knowledge Gap Theory of Mass Communication and the consideration of Media Framing Theory, this research examined the demographics of soccer referees in the Western Kentucky Soccer Officials Association, in addition to the leading motivations for beginning, continuing, and leaving their officiating vocation. With the knowledge of the aforementioned, this paper aimed to lay the groundwork for a strategic communication plan in the officiating community that addresses the alarming trend that is a lack of certified referees in youth athletics. The data was collected through online surveys that were distributed to active referees in the Western …

Activating Hope: How Functional Support Can Improve Hope In Unemployed Individuals, Rylee P. Walter

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Hope is an adaptive mindset that enables one to work toward their goals and thwart obstacles they encounter in doing so. However, the stress associated with some situations, such as unemployment, can block hopeful thinking, causing one to become stuck in unmotivated and inflexible thinking patterns and therefore potentially trapped in the distressing situation. Through an online survey, this study explored whether functional support would predict reportedly low hope states in unemployed individuals (N = 235). More specifically, we predicted that functional support would encourage reappraisal of (and thus buffer against) distressing unemployment-related emotions, with that reappraisal altering the …

“It’S The Only Thing We Have”: Whisper Networks Among Women Theatre Actors, Richard Edward Carter

Theses and Dissertations--Communication

Women who secretly warn one another via informal communications about men in their environment who may engage in some kind of misconduct are participating in a whisper network. This dissertation employs the narrative paradigm to understand how these networks function in the context of professional actors. Interviews conducted with actors who have worked in a variety of communities were analyzed in order to better understand how whisper networks function as warning systems that must be created because conventional means of protection may not exist or be trusted in their industry.

A Multiple Goals Perspective On Burnout Disclosure And Support Among Attending Physicians, Alison N. Buckley

Theses and Dissertations--Communication

Burnout is a common experience among physicians and has been identified as a precursor to substance abuse and suicide ideation. When not addressed, burnout can have many negative personal, relational and professional consequences. Research about the burnout experience is limited due to the taboo nature of the topic. The present study used a multiple goals theoretical perspective to examine how physicians disclose burnout in order to access social support. Attending physicians from various specialties (N = 30) participated in one-on-one interviews and were asked to discuss their burnout experience, conversational goals during burnout disclosure, catalysts and barriers for disclosure, and …

The Consent Of Man: An Examination Of Privacy Awareness, Surveillance, And Privacy Policy (Mis)Use, Will Reilley Silberman

Theses and Dissertations--Communication

The problem of privacy is nuanced, pervasive, and requires an elevated approach. Given the lack of consistency with regard to privacy’s conceptualization and operationalization, research is needed that examines variables related to privacy to better understand how privacy operates in the present day. This dissertation aims to better understand nuances of privacy by gauging knowledge of online privacy, technological affordances related to privacy, and knowledge of surveillance. In this study, human subjects from a large southern University were presented with an opportunity to use a privacy-invasive smartphone application. After doing so, they viewed one of three privacy policies. Finally, they …

An Examination Of Communication Sequencing In Enacted Support Interactions For People With Major Depressive Disorder, Madison Adams

Theses and Dissertations--Communication

Social support is integral to helping one manage Major Depressive Disorder [MDD], but enacted social support, or the supportive behavior itself, is not always beneficial. Using a normative theoretical perspective on social support and theory related to sequencing as guiding frameworks, in this thesis I examined common sequential patterns of enacted support between support providers and individuals with MDD. Moreover, I investigated how individuals with MDD evaluated the helpfulness of each of the different sequential patterns. To examine the sequential patterns and how individuals with MDD evaluated their helpfulness, I interviewed 20 participants who had been diagnosed with MDD. The …

A Qualitative Examination Of The Agency Of Women In Their 30s And 40s Who Use Dating Applications, Tera Buerkle

Theses and Dissertations--Family Sciences

The use of dating applications (apps) to find romantic and sexual partners is widespread across age groups, however, there is a paucity of research on dating apps with those in middle adulthood. Sexual script theory suggests that women’s agency (i.e. the ability to act in one’s own best interest) may be impacted by expectations from an inherently sexualized context, such as dating apps. Feminist theory contends that women’s agency is complicated by gender socialization due to the imbalance of power in society that greatly favors men. In this study seventeen women aged 30 to 49 completed in-depth semi-structured interviews, and …

Leadership Style And Communication Style Of Airline Pilots: Perceived Associations With Crew Members’ Satisfaction And Effort, Carlos Rouco, Maria Eduarda Soares, Eliana Mendes, Soraia Jamal

International Journal of Aviation, Aeronautics, and Aerospace

Leadership and communication have been identified as paramount factors for flight safety and efficiency but research on the effects of these factors is scarce. This study analyzes which leadership styles and which communication styles are perceived by airline pilots to be associated with their teams’ satisfaction and extra effort. A survey was conducted with a total of 105 airline pilots, and a research model was tested with structural equation modeling. Results indicated that participative leadership is the only leadership style retained by the model explaining satisfaction and extra effort of crew members. Participative leadership is positively related to assertive communication …

Is Care In The Air?: A Crisis Ethics Case Study Of American Airlines’ Communication During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Lily V. Hicks

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This research proposes a qualitative case study of American Airlines’ communication during the first month of the COVID-19 global pandemic. Data from the airline’s press releases along with its tweets and a sample of organizational responses to those tweets are offered for proposed analysis using the lenses of Situational Crisis Communication Theory, the Applied Model of Care Considerations, and the body of crisis literature on audience coping and emotions during crises. This in-depth look at a unique communication phenomenon will be a fundamental step in examining how airline communication exhibits ethics or lack thereof and is related to people’s emotions …

Language Choice On Psychological Reactance In Instructor/Student Email Exchanges, Christiana Robey

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This thesis investigated undergraduate students’ perceptions and interpretations of language cues used within instructor email requests. Guided by Psychological Reactance Theory (PRT; Brehm, 1966; Brehm & Brehm, 1981), this thesis examined whether instructor email requests, containing different levels of powerful language and verbal immediacy cues, would impact students’ willingness to follow through with instructor requests. Two hundred thirty-four undergraduate students participated in the four-condition experiment which consisted of the email manipulation conditions containing varying levels of an instructors’ powerful language (e.g. “must;” Miller et al., 2007) and verbal immediacy (e.g., “our class;” Witt & Wheeless, 2001) cues. After reading an …

Telehealth During Covid-19: A Look At Healthcare Providers’ Experiences, Sabrina Webb

Honors Program Theses

Healthcare providers were placed under considerable strain during the COVID-19 pandemic. To exacerbate matters more, a sudden shift to telehealth became necessary to provide safe provider-patient visits. The increased strain created by the sudden need to implement a telehealth protocol is believed to have decreased workplace satisfaction. This study aims to investigate how the rapid shift to telehealth during the COVID-19 pandemic affected healthcare providers’ workplace satisfaction, how virtual visits created challenges and opportunities for provider-patient communication, and how the use of telemedicine during the COVID-19 pandemic affected healthcare providers’ capacity to engage in patient-centered communication. For this study, 15 …

Guided Toolkit For Virtual Programming, Sienna Mcarthur

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The Coronavirus pandemic that has occurred over the last year was a major detriment to the entire world. COVID-19 caused businesses to shut down, people to shelter in place, and restricted in-person gatherings. Specifically, in the event coordinating profession, planners had to pivot their thought process and change how they saw their careers. Virtual events became a reality for most, but some were unsure of where to start the transition.

This research focuses on the importance of continued programming, even virtually, in order to keep positive relationships alive and encourage participants to be engaged from their homes. It also creates …