Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2007. / Title from first page of PDF file. Includes bibliographical references (p. 131-142).

The purpose of this project was to design a package to train ninth-grade students in basic interpersonal communication awareness and skills.

To better understand representational gestures used in everyday talk, this study explores the ways participants talk about their own mental imagery and gestural awareness, and how their comments affect analysis. Literature pertaining to representational gestures, mental imagery, gestural awareness, and self-report data provide the theoretical framework for the study's design and implementation. Data is drawn from observations of two video recorded dyads engaged in everyday conversation, and four audio recorded interviews with each participant individually as they viewed and commented on selected video segments in which they had produced a representational gesture. Findings indicate that participants talked about mental imagery and gestural awareness in ways that were descriptive, explanatory, and self-reflective. They described their mental imagery in i) visual and motor terms, ii) as mental simulations, iii) as textural sensations, and iv) in linguistic metaphors. Participants talked about gestural awareness in terms of i) spontaneity, ii) intentionality, and iii) affective states. Taken altogether, participant comments suggest embodied cognition as a useful framework for analyzing and understanding representational gestures. Further, findings indicate that participant comments served to i) confirm, ii) clarify, and/or iii) expand my analysis, suggesting that participant comments can enhance understanding of mental imagery and gestural awareness in ways that could not be achieved by a researcher's observations and analysis alone.

Previous studies have explored the effects of crowding on non-human animals, human communities, human behavior, and differential effects on men and women. This area of research demands greater attention. Much of the existing work was performed in the 1970s and 80s. Further, it seeks to operationalize crowding only in terms of density. This study is premised on the idea set forth by Freedman that crowding is not merely the number of individuals per unit of space, but rather a subjective feeling. This thesis looks beyond density to find the effects of crowding on juror attitudes and decision-making. Participants were placed in a mock jury scenario. They read a description of a hypothetical court case, and, as individuals, came to a determination of the guilt or innocence of the defendant, as well as severity of punishment. Participants also engaged in a group deliberation and completed a questionnaire dealing with their attitudes regarding the defendant, their fellow group members, and their environment. Individuals in the crowded condition found the defendant to be guiltier than did those in the uncrowded condition. Crowded participants rated the room they were in as more uncomfortable.

The present study investigates the questions of how children, aged 5 to 12, develop nonverbal communication skills. It was expected that cognitive role-taking ability would be positively related to both nonverbal encoding and decoding skills, after statistically removing the effects of age. The results of the study supported the hypothesized relationships for females only. There were no significant relationships between role-taking ability and nonverbal communication skills for the male sample of subjects

There is a separation between interpersonal political communication research and traditional interpersonal communication theory. The current study bridges this divide by introducing social support theory to political communication. Social support has been shown to aid coping, build self-efficacy, and enhance psychological well-being. It is argued that politics can be a source of stress and individuals exchange political social support (PSS) when facing challenges in their political environments. The current study defines the concept of PSS and its applications in political communication through an initial survey-based proof of concept study and an experiment. The first study, a nationwide cross-sectional survey (N = 2004), was conducted through a Qualtrics panel in September 2018 to assess the internal structure of providing and receiving PSS in citizen-to-citizen relationships. A little more than a quarter of the sample (n = 563, 28.1%) reported having received some type of PSS in the past 18 months, and an even larger percentage (n = 728, 36.3%) reported providing PSS during the same time period. Results from a cross-sectional survey reveal a solid percentage of U.S. adults exchanging PSS across many channels (e.g., face-to-face, social media) with a wide range of political phenomena sparking these communicative activities. Building on the survey’s gender and political-specific communicative dynamics, the second study, an online experiment, was conducted in October 2021. In the online experiment, a 2 (politician’s gender: male vs. female) x 2 (politician’s party identification: Democrat vs. Republican) x 4 (message levels) x 2 (citizen’s gender: Male vs. female) x 2 (citizen’s party identification: Democrat vs. Republican) between-subject design, provides a theoretical rationale on how the gender and the political identification in citizen-to-politician relationships are associated with the level of perceived social support. Results from the experiment reveal that the level of social support messages that include different numbers of social support components does not have an effect on the level of perceived PSS. However, the characteristics of politicians and the gender of politicians and citizens were significant in predicting the higher PSS. Theoretical and practical implications for the theory advancement and future research are explored. / Media & Communication

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