Communication forms the foundation of social interaction. For older adults, however, there is known to be an increased risk of developing conditions that interfere with the ability to communicate. These conditions may occur for a variety of reasons, including age-related changes in physical or sensory functioning, injury, and disease. It is estimated that 55% of all Medicare beneficiaries have a communication impairment of some kind. Social contact is known to be vital for older adults' mental and physical health but, because communication impairments often co-occur with other types of disability, it is difficult to generalize about the relative impact of a communication impairment on the social relationships of older adults. Specific aims of the study were to examine whether the severity of a communication impairment is associated with social measures, whether there is an interaction between communication impairments and physical disability, and to examine the role of relationship-control strategies in maintaining access to a larger or more supportive social network. A mixed-methods study design was employed. Community-dwelling older adults were surveyed about the size and diversity of their social networks, frequency of social interactions, and physical and mental health (n = 240) and qualitative data were collected from a smaller subsample. Findings demonstrated that communication impairment was a significant independent predictor for key characteristics of social relationships, including the composition of the social network, certain types of social support, the frequency of social participation, and social self-efficacy. Communication impairment was a significant predictor for higher levels of loneliness and depression. In addition two distinct pathways between communication impairment and psychological well-being were identified, with social self-efficacy and reassurance of worth as mediators. Additional insights were provided by the qualitative results. These findings may guide future clinical practice and research by providing a better understanding of the role of communication in health, disability, and the risk of social isolation.

Orientador: Maria das Graças Conde Caldas / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Estudos da Linguagem / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-24T08:05:22Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Sanchez_FabioLucio_M.pdf: 4669844 bytes, checksum: 2e42c18b930924d60a534f0d5b86bb3f (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013 / Resumo: Busco com esse trabalho uma aproximação entre os campos da Comunicação (Jornalismo, na perspectiva do processo receptor) e da Psicanálise, com foco na formação do sujeito receptor da comunicação e da linguagem. A área de Comunicação tem convergido para o estudo do receptor desde a década de 70 do século passado, e nas de 80 e 90 surgiu, com autores como Martín-Barbero (1987), um foco latino-americano para este processo, e que ainda está aberto e inconcluso. A Psicanálise, por seu turno, tem sido instrumento crescente da Filosofia e da Comunicação para entender diversos processos modernos de consumo e comportamentos mediados pelos veículos de comunicação. O estudo do subjetivismo na Psicanálise tem uma história de mais de um século de investigação organizada e sistemática, foco esse que não ocorre no campo da Comunicação, que só recentemente vem se debruçando sobre essa perspectiva. Nesta pesquisa traço uma breve história dessas relações e proponho uma abordagem conjunta desses campos, incluindo a Comunicação na sua relação com a Filosofia e a Psicanálise, para compreender com mais precisão o sujeito receptor e suas reações à mídia. Por fim, vou a campo para investigar e testar a proposta num evento psicanalítico (um mal-estar crônico) e abundantemente abordado pelo Jornalismo (e também por alguns autores psicanalistas), no caso a aversão aos políticos. Avalio o caso do deputado federal Tiririca. Examino seu discurso, seus efeitos na representação midiática e no receptor, assim como a interação entre eles. O corpus da amostra é constituído de reportagens, artigos, blogs e cartas ou comentários em redes sociais ou internet de leitores entre o período de sua campanha eleitoral, em 2010, até o início de seu segundo ano de mandato, em 2012. Verifiquei na pesquisa que é plenamente possível analisar o receptor num ambiente que reúna os campos da Psicanálise e da Comunicação, e que ambos, nesse prisma do receptor, já possuem investigações muito semelhantes / Abstract: I look with this work for an approximation between the fields of the Communication (Journalism, in the perspective of the receiving process) and of the Psychoanalysis, with focus in the formation of the receiver subject of the communication and of the language. The Communication area has been converging for the study of the receiver from the decade of 70 of last century, and in of 80 and 90 it appeared, with authors like Martín-Barbero (1987), a Latin-American focus for this process, and still it is opened and unfinished. The Psychoanalysis, for its turn, has been a growing instrument of the Philosophy and of the Communication to understand several modern processes of consumption and behaviors mediated by the media. The study of the subjectivism in the Psychoanalysis has a history of more than a century of organized and systematic investigation, this focus that does not take place in the field of the Communication, which only recently comes leaning over on this perspective. In this job I draw a short history of these relations and propose a joint approach of these fields, including the Communication in its relation with the Philosophy and the Psychoanalysis, to understand with more precision the receiving process and his reactions to the media. Finelly, I investigate and test the proposal in a psychoanalytic event (a chronic malaise) and abundantly boarded by the Journalism (and also for some authors psychoanalysts), in the case to the politicians. I evaluate the case of the Tiririca federal deputy. I examine his speech, his effects in the media representation and in the receiving process, as well as the interaction between them. The corpus of the sample is made by reports, articles, blogs and letters or comments in social nets or readers' Internet between the period of his electoral campaign, in 2010, up to the beginning of his second year of mandate, in 2012. I verified in the research that is fully possible analyze receiving in an environment that joins the fields of the Psychoanalysis and the Communication, and what both, in that prism of the receiver, already own very alike investigations / Mestrado / Divulgação Científica e Cultural / Mestre em Divulgação Científica e Cultural

This paper presents seven conversations of men from a variety of backgrounds, in a variety of environments. I analyze the discussions to determine if they can be characterized as typical gossip, and to compare their interaction styles to the men and women of past studies on gossip.

The objectives of this research were to: (1) augment existing research regarding the impact of information retention resulting from the application of redundant color codes; and (2) determine whether the application of color in hard-copy documents has a positive influence in business reports by non-color deficient subjects. This research was an extension of work done by Lamberski and Dwyer (1983) and Moore and Dwyer (1991). Both studies were hard copy based and focused on the impact of information retention resulting from the application of redundant color codes.

On tend souvent à envisager la communication comme intervenant au-delà de la cognition. Par exemple, lorsque nous évoquons la personnalité d’un ami, nous nous contenterions d’exprimer des représentations déjà stockées en mémoire. Contrairement à cette idée reçue, ma thèse part du postulat que la communication à propos d’objets sociaux, loin de simplement exprimer des croyances déjà formées a priori, participe à la construction de ces représentations mentales. Pour soutenir cela, nous avons d’abord tracé l’histoire de l’évolution dans la façon de concevoir le rapport entre le langage et la pensée (voir Klein, Marchal, Van der Linden, Pierucci & Waroquier, 2011). Nous sommes partis du modèle du code (Shannon & Weaver, 1949) pour ensuite considérer des approches théoriques alternatives mettant l’accent sur comment les facteurs contextuels (par ex. la présence d’une audience donnée) influencent le processus de communication. Nous avons ainsi considéré comment le fait même de communiquer à propos d’un individu influence notre perception de cet individu. En cela, mon travail est largement influencé par le concept d’Audience tuning (Higgins 1992, 1999). Plus précisément, l’effet du « dire c’est croire » (Saying-is-Believing: Higgins & Rholes, 1978) se réfère à l’influence de l’audience sur la mémoire du locuteur même :les locuteurs, lorsqu’ils communiquent à une audience possédant une attitude connue vis-à-vis d’un certain sujet, adaptent leur messages en le rendant plus conforme à l’attitude de l’audience mais surtout, leur mémoire et leur impression tendent à s’accorder à la teneur du message transmis à l’audience. Cette influence de l’énonciation sur la cognition ayant déjà été mise en évidence à travers des nombreuses recherches (pour une revue, voir Echterhoff, Higgins, Kopietz & Groll, 2008), les processus responsables de cet effet restent incertains. L’explication la plus exhaustive de l’effet du « dire c’est croire » fait appel au besoin du locuteur de partager une réalité avec l’interlocuteur. C’est uniquement dans le cas où la communication serait motivée par des buts de « réalité partagée » qu’elle aurait un impact sur la mémoire du locuteur même (Echterhoff, Higgins & Levine, 2009). Le besoin de créer une réalité partagée avec l’audience remplirait des fonctions épistémiques (i.e. en communiquant à propos d’autrui, je parviens à mieux cerner sa personnalité que je ne le ferais si je me contentais d’une activité mentale « privée ») et relationnelles (i.e. en communiquant à propos d’autrui, je crée et développe une relation avec mon interlocuteur). Dans mon travail, j’explore les rôles respectifs de ces deux types de motivations sur l’effet du « dire c’est croire » et, de façon plus générale, dans le processus de construction d’une réalité partagée. <p>Dans ma démarche expérimentale, j’ai privilégié des études permettant d’explorer des situations concrètes dans lesquelles l’effet du « dire c’est croire » était susceptible d’apparaître. <p>\ / Doctorat en Sciences Psychologiques et de l'éducation / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

This study determined the relationships among English oral communication apprehension, social interest, and locus of control of Far Eastern students, and examined whether differences exist in these variables, compared to gender, age, academic classification, major field of study, employment status, and length of study in the United States. Four instruments, including a demographic questionnaire, the Adapted Personal Report of Communication Apprehension-24 (AFRCA-24), the Social Interest Scale (SIS), and the Rotter's Internal-External (I-E) Scale, were used to collect data from the sample of 240 Far Eastern students enrolled at North Texas State University in the fall semester of 1986.

How we share our good news with people can have a significant effect on our lives. Sharing good news on social media sites involves a process called capitalization. Capitalization has been shown to increase well-being when others provide appropriate responses in face-to-face interactions. To see if this effect on well-being extends to our online presence, this study utilized the social media site Facebook to observe if capitalization predicted well-being and relationship satisfaction. This study used data collected from 137 participants recruited from an undergraduate participant pool and from Amazon Mechanical Turk. Consistent with hypotheses, participants who reported receiving active and constructive responses after sharing a positive event on Facebook also reported greater personal well-being and relationship satisfaction. Although future experimental research is needed to establish causality, the current results suggest that the ways in which friends respond to social media posts are associated with personal and relationship well-being. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2016. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

The increasing transparence of the human genome has profound implications for how we understand health and illness and perceive our biological and social relatedness to others. Presymptomatic testing for adult onset conditions, in particular, creates the novel situation in which some individuals know in advance of impending illness while others learn that they have escaped such a fate. How families at risk for one adult onset condition — Huntington Disease (HD) — communicate about such information is the topic of this dissertation. HD is often described as a 'genetic time bomb'. It is an autosomal dominant neuropsychiatric disorder characterized by mid-life onset, involuntary movements, cognitive impairment, and depression. There is no effective prevention or cure but with the advent of predictive testing in 1987 it became possible for at risk individuals to learn if they had inherited the mutation associated with HL\ Empirical studies on predictive testing for HD focus primarily on the individual psychological impacts of the test; few studies consider how families understand and attempt to manage genetic information in their everyday lives. This dissertation begins to address these lacunae by examining the stories that test candidates and their families tell about hereditary risk and predictive testing. These stories derive from a prospectively designed study which includes 102 in-depth, at-home interviews conducted in the pre and post-results period with 16 test candidates and 33 family members. Focusing on three narrative 'moments', the dissertation explores how study participants storied their experiences of: 1) learning about the family history of HD, 2) deciding to request the predictive test and, 3) making sense of an informative result. Drawing upon a social constructionist approach, the analysis emphasizes the processual nature of predictive testing as well as the significance of interpersonal communication in producing and reproducing the social realities in which genetic information acquires a particular salience. Given the recent proliferation of genetic tests as well as the absence of an adequate popular discourse on embodied risk, the research underscores lay actors' abilities to reframe existing clinical schema in order to interpret and manage hereditary risk in an intersubjectively meaningful way.

D.Cur. / The purpose of this study was to generate an interpersonal communication skills approach for adolescents. Through this approach adolescents will be given an opportunity to formulate new stories on their interpersonal communication skills in the form of stories about constructive communication skills. This will enable adolescents to maintain their important interpersonal relationships. Adolescence is a period characterised by the occurance of many adjustments and changes. Continually higher demands are made from adolescents in terms of career choices, the choice of friends, release from parents and parental homes, development of autonomy and the successful completion of the adolescent developmental phase. The climate of reconciliation in the post apartheid South Africa pressurise adolescents even more. Sources of support is consequently of great importance to adolescents during this phase of change. Sources of support for example the families of adolescents, members of the community and especially the peer group plays a significant role. interpersonal relationships with the aforementioned groups of persons and individuals must be maintained in order to ensure continued support during and in order to successfully complete the developmental phase of adolesence. This requires constructive interpersonal communication skills. It is however evident that adolescents do not posess all of the required constructive communication skills which would enable them to maintain these important interpersonal relationships. The abovementioned lead to the following questions which were addressed in phase one, -two and -three of this research: Over which interpersonal communication skills do adolescents posess? Which specific interpersonal communication skills needs to be addressed in the interpersonal communication skills approach in order to maximise adolescent's ability to communicate interpersonally with a view to improve, maintain and restore their mental health? Which guidelines can be given for the operationalising of the interpersonal communication skills approach for adolescents? A qualitative, investigative, descriptive and contextual design was followed. The research was conducted in three phases with a pre-phase which preceeded phase one of the research. A topical scenario to be utilised in the course of the research was established in the pre-phase of the research through group interviews with adolescents. In phase one of the research role play was conducted and written dialogue was obtained based on the scenarios identified in the pre-phase. An interpersonal communication skills approach was generated in phase two of the research. In phase three of the research certain guidelines were described for the operationalising of the approach. The researcher concluded from the results obtained in phase one of the research that the interpersonal communication of adolescents included in this research were characterised by an entanglement within four repetative circular interpersonalcommunication patterns. These four repetative circular interpersonal communication patterns are initiated and maintained by certain feelings, thoughts and behaviour. The four repetative circular interpersonal communication patterns are the following: Recurrent circular interpersonal patterns of defocusing and externalizing the topic under discussion; Recurrent circular interpersonal patterns of struggling for power between the adolescent and the other conversationist; Recurrent circular interpersonal patterns of not listening to the other conversationist; and Recurrent circular interpersonal patterns of not focusing on feelings while conversating.

The increasing transparence of the human genome has profound implications for how we understand health and illness and perceive our biological and social relatedness to others. Presymptomatic testing for adult onset conditions, in particular, creates the novel situation in which some individuals know in advance of impending illness while others learn that they have escaped such a fate. How families at risk for one adult onset condition — Huntington Disease (HD) — communicate about such information is the topic of this dissertation. HD is often described as a 'genetic time bomb'. It is an autosomal dominant neuropsychiatric disorder characterized by mid-life onset, involuntary movements, cognitive impairment, and depression. There is no effective prevention or cure but with the advent of predictive testing in 1987 it became possible for at risk individuals to learn if they had inherited the mutation associated with HL\ Empirical studies on predictive testing for HD focus primarily on the individual psychological impacts of the test; few studies consider how families understand and attempt to manage genetic information in their everyday lives. This dissertation begins to address these lacunae by examining the stories that test candidates and their families tell about hereditary risk and predictive testing. These stories derive from a prospectively designed study which includes 102 in-depth, at-home interviews conducted in the pre and post-results period with 16 test candidates and 33 family members. Focusing on three narrative 'moments', the dissertation explores how study participants storied their experiences of: 1) learning about the family history of HD, 2) deciding to request the predictive test and, 3) making sense of an informative result. Drawing upon a social constructionist approach, the analysis emphasizes the processual nature of predictive testing as well as the significance of interpersonal communication in producing and reproducing the social realities in which genetic information acquires a particular salience. Given the recent proliferation of genetic tests as well as the absence of an adequate popular discourse on embodied risk, the research underscores lay actors' abilities to reframe existing clinical schema in order to interpret and manage hereditary risk in an intersubjectively meaningful way. / Arts, Faculty of / Anthropology, Department of / Graduate