This study seeks to explore the impact that admissions viewbooks have on students’ expectancies of an institution as well as their academic and social engagement. Because few studies exist on admissions viewbooks, the literature review seeks to establish a base for the importance of viewbooks in students’ college choice and their development of expectancies of their chosen institution, as well as the subsequent impacts of violated expectations on engagement and retention. Using both qualitative and quantitative methods, this study examines (1) the promises made by institutions in their viewbooks as found via textual analysis and (2) the impact of violated expectancies on academic and social engagement. Specifically, this study seeks information about the expectancies students have developed of the University of Kentucky, the degree to which those expectancies have been violated, and the impact of those violations on students’ academic and social engagement on UK’s campus. Findings suggest that UK is positively violating students’ expectancies, which in turn impacts engagement as related to several themes (i.e., faculty-to-student ratio, once-in-a-lifetime opportunities). Implications for instructors, the University of Kentucky, and marketing professionals are included, such as UK should continue its dedication toward developing an excellent and engaging first-year experience.

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Current U.S. college graduates are part of the millennial generation, which is the largest and most well-educated generation of all time (PEW, 2014; Twenge, 2006) and are the future of the workforce. Moreover, recent college graduates have unique job searching and career expectations, which underlie the communication strategies used to search for jobs. While the process of job searching is inherently communicative in nature, job searching is an under studied context within communication research. Although previous research outlines the career related expectations of young job seekers, it fails to examine how recent college graduates search for jobs and communicatively respond to violated job searching expectations. This goal of this study was to determine the communicative strategies recent college graduates use to search for jobs and the role communication plays in responding to job searching expectation violations. Expectancy violations theory (Burgoon, 1978), a communicative framework, is applied in this study to understand how recent college graduates respond to violated job searching expectations. Six research questions guided this study to determine the job searching communication strategies, job searching expectations, career expectations, and expectancy violations that occurred throughout the job search. To answer these questions, I conducted interviews with 20 participants, twice over a three-month period, to qualitatively understand and analyze the job searching processes of recent college graduates. The findings from this study demonstrate that recent college graduates use a combination of traditional job searching strategies and online social networking strategies to find, research, and apply for jobs. While participants expected the job search to be difficult, they were surprised at the amount of intensity and effort job searching required. Interpreting the results through the lens of EVT helped note that the participants with the most realistic job searching and career related expectations had greater success job searching over a three-month period and at the time of the follow up interview, several participants had accepted full-time, post graduate jobs. Expectancy violations theory was essential in interpreting how participants network with interpersonal contacts by offering insight for why participants strategically communicate with contacts based upon their potential reward value. The reciprocation and compensation mechanisms of expectancy violations theory also provided an explanation as to why some participants increased their job searching activity in response to violated expectations and others did not. An especially interesting finding illustrates that participants preferred to receive bad news over no news at all, and even evaluated bad news as a positive expectancy violation because it reduced their uncertainty. Collectively, expectancy violations theory (Burgoon, 1978) and anticipatory socialization research (Dubinsky, Howell, Ingram, & Bellenger, 1986) highlight how recent college graduates form their job searching and career expectations. The findings from this study also contribute to existing job searching research by examining the job searching strategies and behaviors of recent college graduates to better understand how they job search and what they expect from their future employers. Lastly, the findings from this study provide several practical application suggestions for organizations to implement in order to recruit and retain the best young job seekers in light of their current expectations and job searching strategies.

Massage therapy is often used to treat musculoskeletal symptoms and to promote wellness. While evidence regarding its effectiveness is increasing, research related to actual practice and studies seeking to understand the mechanisms of massage therapy are needed. The purpose of this research was to describe the characteristics of massage therapists and their clients and to understand the role of communication in massage therapy outcomes. The first study examined the outcome expectations, expectancies, and behaviors of a random sample of massage therapists in Iowa (n=151) using a cross-sectional survey. The second study used a practice-based research design incorporating two samples of massage therapy clients (n=320 and n=321) to develop and validate a measure of client expectations of massage, the Client Expectations of Massage Scale (CEMS). The third study examined the influence of client expectations and massage therapists' interpersonal attractiveness on pain and satisfaction following massage. Social Cognitive Theory and Expectancy Violation Theory were used as frameworks to demonstrate how health behavior and communication theories can provide insight to massage therapy research. Results indicated that massage therapists had high expectations regarding the benefits of massage therapy and engaged in a variety of behaviors that reflect the clinical, educational, and interpersonal nature of massage therapy. In addition to using a variety of manual therapies, the massage therapists educated their clients in areas such as diet, stress management, and exercise to improve client health. Similarly, clients had positive expectations as measured by the outcome, clinical, educational, and interpersonal subscales of the CEMS. Positive outcome expectations predicted significant improvements in pain and serenity. High interpersonal expectations were related to negative changes in serenity. The third study revealed that high satisfaction was influenced by positive interpersonal attractiveness but more research is needed to understand the influence of client expectations being met on satisfaction. Initially high educational expectations, exceeded educational expectations, violated interpersonal expectations, and positive interpersonal attractiveness were related to less pain following massage. In conclusion, this research demonstrated that client expectations and massage therapist interpersonal attractiveness are important constructs to consider when evaluating the effects of massage therapy.

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Esta tesis surge de una reflexión sobre el panorama político español, la corrupción y la cuestión de género. En una sociedad en la que aún pesa el machismo y los estereotipos de género cabe preguntarse si de algún modo se exige a la mujer ser “menos corrupta” en los cargos políticos que ocupa. Por ello surgen interrogantes sobre si esos estereotipos benefician o perjudican a las mujeres para el acceso a la política, si son castigadas en mayor medida cuando no cumplen dichas expectativas, o si quizás la polarización política afectiva en España supera una potencial polarización por género en la valoración de los políticos. Con esta tesis se pretender aunar esfuerzos con otros investigadores para aportar una perspectiva de género al análisis de la percepción de la corrupción política, de manera que pueda detectarse si existe o no una mayor tolerancia de determinados comportamientos según el sexo del actor político, así como crear un instrumento de medida que sirva para el estudio de esta perspectiva en el análisis de la corrupción política. Por ello se ha planteado realizar una investigación ex post facto, transversal, descriptiva y relacional con el uso de técnicas cuantitativas, a través de una encuesta aplicada a un panel online, y con el objetivo de analizar la percepción de la población respecto a los hombres y mujeres con cargos políticos que presentan un comportamiento reprobable y/o corrupto, para determinar si existen estereotipos de género sobre la corrupción que generen mayores preferencias por las mujeres, y que a su vez supondrían un mayor nivel de exigencia en su comportamiento y un mayor nivel de castigo ante cualquier desviación del estereotipo. Se ha diseñado un cuestionario adaptado y/o inspirado en fuentes secundarias relevantes, cuya validez de contenido ha sido validado mediante un juicio de expertos, y cuya fiabilidad y validez de constructo se ha comprobado tras la realización de dos pretests. Dicho instrumento ha sido aplicado a una muestra de 400 casos, con un nivel de error del 5% (95% NC y p=q=0.5 en m.a.s.), con un muestreo por cuotas de edad y sexo proporcional a la población nacional. Los principales resultados muestran que en una parte de la ciudadanía aún persisten los estereotipos de género hacia las mujeres en la política, y que en función de ellos presentan una clara preferencia por ellas como candidatas al gobierno del país, fundamentado en valores y creencias asignadas a las mujeres como mayor capacidad de organización, empatía, escucha y eficacia, capacidad de negociación y pragmatismo, así como también que son menos corruptas y más honestas. No obstante, no se ha podido demostrar que la sociedad castiga en mayor medida a las mujeres cuando estas no cumplen las expectativas de los estereotipos indicados, y presentan comportamientos poco éticos o corruptos. Por el contrario, sí se ha podido demostrar que la alta polarización política afectiva en España, y en función de ello la variable independiente de posicionamiento ideológico, es lo que afecta en mayor medida a la valoración de los comportamientos reprobables de los políticos sin tener en cuenta su género, de manera que se ha observado como el castigo hacia dichos comportamientos se realizaba en función de filias y fobias ideológicas, superando una posible polarización por género.

This study seeks to explore an understudied population, Middle Eastern students, in the area of instructional communication. Of particular interest, the study seeks to understand how Middle Eastern students’ view their Western instructors’ verbal and nonverbal immediacy. The literature review establishes a conceptualization for verbal and nonverbal immediacy and the relationship between immediacy and gender, and immediacy and culture. Expectancy violations theory is used to understand the phenomena from an expectancy violations perspective and Hofstede’s dimensions will be used in an instructional context to understand how Middle Eastern students’ culture may influence students’ expectations. This study uses a mixed method approach to create a holistic views of Middle Eastern students’ expectations and expectancy violations. The survey method seeks to understand Middle Eastern students’ expectation for instructor verbal and nonverbal immediacy, and email responses seeks to understand expectancy violations and cultural influence on student expectancies. The results of the study show that Middle Eastern students view verbal and nonverbal immediacy as important factors in the student-teacher relationship and cultural factors play a role in students’ expectations.

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