A research project submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for a Master of Arts degree, by coursework and research report, for Organisational/Industrial Psychology in the Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, August 2017 / Organisations cannot function without communication, however, it is the effectiveness and appropriateness of the communication that is vital to organisational effectiveness. The undisputed need for the assessment of communication competence skills is evident in selection and recruitment, job profiling, performance evaluation, and the development of focused skill orientated training. However, no existing individual instrument adequately measures communicative competence in South African workplaces as a number of unique barriers to interpersonal communication within SA workplaces are unaccounted for in established conceptualisations of workplace communication competence, informing communication assessment approaches and methodologies. Thus, the overarching aim of the current research is to develop a workplace communication assessment scale of routine verbal task-related communication skills, which is contextually and representationally valid, and accommodates contextual social features of South African organisations, relevant in judgments of communication competence. In realising this aim the development of an alternative conceptualisation of SA workplace communicative competence was required. The future establishment of criterion referenced norms for specific jobs would be of practical utility to Human Resources (HR) in the customisation of organisational and job specific communication assessment tools and focused interventions. Method In Phase 1 a broad, inclusive representative item pool was reduced by frequency analysis and collapsing/deleting semantically similar items to 69 retained routine SA workplace communication behaviours. In Phase 2, the 69-item experimental scale was administered to a 303 SA working sample. Competing factor structures were evaluated according to exploratory factor analysis (EFA) model fit indices, pre and post item deletion, followed by confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to differentiate superior model fit. Lastly, the psychometric properties of the resultant scale, in terms of convergent and divergent validity with two existing measures (CCQ (Monge, Bachman, Dillard, & Eisenberg, 1982)) and the SRC (Cupach & Spitzberg, 1981)), as well as reliability, were evaluated. Results The 63-item eight factor model demonstrated the best fit in terms of an even distribution of primary factor loading across the factors, a single non-loading item, no theoretically incompatible item crossloadings, an even distribution of variance across factors, and the most conceptually interpretable pattern of factor loadings. Additionally, Phase 2 provided evidence of the scale's content, structural, convergent, and discriminant validity, and reliability. Discussion SA respondents differentiated eight subcategories as a basis for evaluating how they communicate at work. This suggests greater dimensionality relative to other workplace communication competence measures. The differentiation of the Higher Order Language subscale (i.e. the understanding of abstract and inferential language) suggests a broader conceptualisation of workplace communication skills as required by competent communicators in SA workplaces. Conclusion This research has offered an alternative conceptualisation of workplace communication competence, and developed a valid, reliable, communication assessment scale, from diverse disciplines and theoretical orientations, that measures all dimensions of routinely occurring interactional task-related communication skills within SA workplaces. This communication competence framework facilitates the efficient production of tailored job-specific criterion referenced norms for the immediate customisation of job-specific communication assessment tools and focused interventions. The utility of the new scale extends beyond Industrial/Organisation Psychology practice to inform return to work (RTW) rehabilitation in Speech Language Pathology. / XL2018

This study examines print advertising from Cookie, an up-scale American parenting magazine for affluent mothers. The ads include seven designer clothing brands: Rocawear, Baby Phat, Ralph Lauren, Diesel, Kenneth Cole, Sean John, and DKNY. When considered within the context of their adult equivalents, the ads for the children’s lines often created a prolepsis—or flash-forward—by depicting the child model as a nascent adult. This was accomplished in three ways. First, the children’s ads typically contained structural continuities such as logo, set design, and color scheme that helped reinforce their relationship with the adult brand. Second, most of the ads place the camera at eye-level—a framing that allows the child models to address their adult viewers as equals. Finally, almost half of the ads feature at least one child looking directly at the camera with a serious expression. This is significant because, in Western culture, the withholding of a smile is a sign of dominance typically reserved for adult males. When children mimic this familiar and powerful “look,” they convey a sense of adult-like confidence and self-awareness often associated with precocious sexuality.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / This study investigated teenage language and its functions. More specifically, after conducting a data analysis which revealed the most common features of “teen speak,” the features were dissected for their usage patterns and significance within the realm of adolescent life and development. The research was based on linguist Marcel Danesi’s model of teenage language, which provided a comparative basis for analysis and categorization.

<p>Political socialization has been of interest to political science and communication scholars for decades. Focusing primarily on parents, few studies have examined how peer relationships can affect the political socialization process. Additionally, much of the literature does not examine political socialization past the age of 18. Using social penetration theory, this study proposes that the unique features of the college context—independence, new relationships, political organizations—make it a particularly ripe context for political socialization to occur. The study utilized a survey-based to test this assumption and examine if/how college students between the ages of 18 and 24 are communicating with their peers and to what political socialization effect. The findings contribute to political socialization literature, social penetration theory, and our understanding of how young people talk about politics.</p>

This study investigates compliance-gaining rhetoric among Anglo and Mexican-American fourth graders in three schools in north Texas. The children were asked to respond to a scenario and to give a rationale for their persuasive strategies. An analysis of interviews with 52 children indicates that although the children used some similar strategies when attempting to gain compliance from an adult, there are also some significant differences between the two cultural groups.

The COVID-19 virus hit in 2020, affecting everyone worldwide. In America, between the time frame of April and July 2020, there was a lockdown initiated that resulted in people being forced to quarantine from others. This forced many geographically-close romantic relationships to become long-distance. This study focuses on how these romantic relationships were impacted due to the COVID-19 pandemic and its resulting quarantine. A survey was distributed asking 256 college students to assess their behaviors before and during the lockdown period. The communication technology used between the couples and its frequency of use was correlated with the satisfaction of the relationship. Both synchronous and asynchronous communication methods were compared and maintenance behaviors between the couples were analyzed. This study found that relationship satisfaction significantly correlated with the use of certain communication technologies, with synchronous proving more effective than asynchronous. In addition, the COVID-19 quarantine did play a role in ending relationships in some way as well as changing the maintenance behaviors couples utilized while being long-distance. This study offers a new way to look at how relationships can suffer or be maintained when couples are forced to be long-distance.

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